Chapter 1, Deploying Zabbix, focuses on choosing the optimal hardware and software configuration for the Zabbix server and database in relation to the current IT infrastructure, monitoring goals, and possible evolution. This chapter also includes a section that covers an interesting database-sizing digression, which is useful in calculating the final database size using a standard environment as the baseline. Correct environment sizing and a brief discussion about metrics and measurements that can also be used for capacity planning will be covered here. The chapter contains practical examples and calculations framed in a theoretical approach to give the reader the skills required to adapt the information to real-world deployments.

Chapter 2, Distributed Monitoring, explores various Zabbix components both on the server side and the agent side. Different distributed solutions will be given to the same example networks to highlight the advantages and possible drawbacks of each. In addition to the deployment and configuration of agents, the chapter takes proxies, maintenance, and change management into account too. This section will cover all the possible architectural implementations of Zabbix and add the pros and cons considerations.

Chapter 3, High Availability and Failover, covers the subjects of high availability and failover. For each of the three main Zabbix tiers, you will learn to choose among different HA options. The discussion will build on the information provided in the previous two chapters in order to end the first part of the book with a few complete deployment scenarios that will include high-availability servers and databases hierarchically organized in tiered, distributed architectures geared toward monitoring thousands of objects scattered in different geographical locations. This chapter will include a real-world, practical example and certain possible scenarios that have been implemented.

Chapter 4, Collecting Data, moves beyond simple agent items and SNMP queries to tackle a few complex data sources. The chapter will explore powerful Zabbix built-in functionalities, how to use them, and how to choose the best metrics to ensure thorough monitoring without overloading the system. There will also be special considerations about aggregated values and their use in monitoring complex environments with clusters or the more complex grid architectures.

Chapter 5, Visualizing Data, focuses on getting the most out of the data visualization features of Zabbix. This is quite a useful chapter, especially if you need to explain or chase a hardware expansion/improvement to the business unit. You will learn how to leverage live monitoring data to make dynamic maps and how to organize a collection of graphs for big-screen visualization in control centers and implement a general qualitative view. This chapter will cover the data center quality view slide show completely, which is really useful in highlighting problems and warning the first-level support in a proactive approach. The chapter will also explore some best practices concerning the IT services and SLA-reporting features of Zabbix.

Chapter 6, Managing Alerts, gives examples of complex triggers and trigger conditions as well as advice on choosing the right amount of trigger and alerting actions. The purpose is to help you walk the fine line between being blind to possible problems and being overwhelmed by false positives. You will also learn how to use actions to automatically fix simple problems, raise actions without the need for human intervention to correlate different triggers and events, and tie escalations to your operations management workflow. This section will make you aware of what can be automated, reducing your administrative workload and optimizing the administration process in a proactive way.

Chapter 7, Managing Templates, offers guidelines for effective template management: building complex template schemes out of simple components, understanding and managing the effects of template modification, maintaining existing monitored objects, and assigning templates to discovered hosts. This will conclude the second part of the book that is dedicated to the different Zabbix monitoring and data management options. The third and final part will discuss Zabbix's interaction with external products and all its powerful extensibility features.

Chapter 8, Handling External Scripts, helps you learn how to write scripts to monitor objects that are not covered by the core Zabbix features. The relative advantages and disadvantages of keeping the scripts on the server side or agent side, how to launch or schedule them, and a detailed analysis of the Zabbix agent protocol will also be covered. This chapter will make you aware of all the possible side effects, delays, and load caused by scripts; you will be able to implement all the needed external checks, as you will be well aware of all that is connected with them and the relative observer effect. The chapter will include different implementations of working with Bash, Java, and Python so that you can easily write your own scripts to extend and enhance Zabbix's monitoring possibilities.

Chapter 9, Extending Zabbix, delves into the Zabbix API and how to use it to build specialized frontends and complex extensions. It also covers how to harvest monitoring data for further elaboration and reporting. It will include simple example implementations written in Python that will illustrate how to export and further manipulate data, how to perform massive and complex operations on monitored objects, and finally, how to automate different management aspects such as user creation and configuration, trigger activation, and the like.

Chapter 10, Integrating Zabbix, wraps things up by discussing how to make other systems know about Zabbix and the other way around. This is key to the successful management of any large and complex environment. You will learn how to use built-in Zabbix features, API calls, or direct database queries to communicate with different upstream and downstream systems and applications. There will be concrete examples of possible interaction with inventory applications, trouble ticket systems, and data warehouse systems.