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Evan
Asked: 2013-07-16 08:27:41 +0800 CST

How do I monitor "system status" for an application that spans multiple components/servers in Zabbix?

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Assume I have an application with the following setup:

  • 5 webservers running Apache
  • 2 databases configured for failover

In Zabbix (or even another monitoring suite, for that matter), is it possible and how would I monitor "application status" and only alert when the following conditions are met:

  • If 1 webserver stops responding, send an "info" alert
  • If 3 webservers stop responding, send a warning
  • If all webservers stop responding, send a critical
  • If one DB is offline, send a warning
  • If both DBs are offline, send a disaster

I know this looks like 5 questions, but the root question is: how do you create an alert that's abstracted away from a specific host? In every monitoring suite I've used, monitored items/alerts are bound to hosts, which leads to ugly workarounds like "check the database to see if all the servers checked in in the past 10 minutes," and if one hasn't, you get an alert email along the lines of "Host: database01.company.com - webserver05 hasn't checked in in 10 minutes". The email leads you to believe there's a problem with the database (since the check is tied to the database) but the problem is actually with the webserver. Ideally the alert would be tied to an abstract thing like "Corporate Application 1". Can this be done?

linux

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    In zabbix you can use triggers, which can have an specific severity bound to them. Every time a trigger changes its status, it generates an event. You can define actions to take place if some event occurs. Also, zabbix has the capability to monitor user-defined web monitoring scenarios.

    The way to associate events taking place in different servers in zabbix is to define and configure an IT service. This can be very fine-grained tuned, and addresses the five different possibilities you propose.

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