Tutorial Using Zabbix to monitor all your IP devices on Armbian server

[sgjava]

I've used Zabbix professionally and at home to monitor servers, IoT, and IP devices. I've built scripts for the server and client to automate the install process including moving the MySQL database, so you can locate it to a NFS mount instead of serving the database from the slower SD card. The deb packages do not work for ARM, so you have to build it from source using my scripts.

 

Install Zabbix

[PatM]

Hi that is interesting. I have looked at Zabbix and it is primarily a network manager.

Have you looked at Cockpit? That is an exciting App. Zabbix is low level C and PHP

for the most part. But Cockpit is Angular / Node and that is a very important point.
It would be nice to see device stuff available in Cockpit.

Right now the Device info isnt available for ARM but AMD has it.

I am interested in writing Cockpit extensions. (or encouraging new extension be written LOL)

I am new to Cockpit and Zabbix and may be wrong about this.

But I did look at part of Cockpit code and I think it is written in Angular / Node

and if so that is the most promising new platform for System Management.

It is interesting to see the Storage interface update reactively to putting USB devices in.

a webapp! that is IoT in a sense or moving into grpc type functionality.

 

 

 

[Tido]

3 hours ago, sgjava said:

I've used Zabbix professionally and at home to monitor servers,

Thank u for sharing ur scripts and ideas, but what license is this product based on?

 

// sent from mobile phone //

[Werner]

1 hour ago, Tido said:

Thank u for sharing ur scripts and ideas, but what license is this product based on?

 

// sent from mobile phone //

 

https://www.zabbix.com/rn/rn5.0.1

 

Quote

Zabbix is released under the GPL, thus it is free of charge for both commercial and non-commercial use.

 

[sgjava]

13 hours ago, PatM said:

Hi that is interesting. I have looked at Zabbix and it is primarily a network manager.

Actually Zabbix is monitoring software that collects telemetry and allows actions such as emailing, texting, restarting services or servers based on conditions and escalations. I've totally automated network admin type roles with it and things at home like monitoring the power state of my beer refrigerator in the garage. It's super flexible and easy to add stuff to the agent for client specific needs. It can also scale to millions of devices or just a handful at home. Also, the agent is now golang, not C.

Cockpit looks more like Webmin on steroids. It's also Linux only from what I can tell. Zabbix is cross platform if you ever have to manage a mixed environment with Linux and Windows servers.

[PatM]

Yes. Zabbix is MySQL/PHP. I have run it. But it was early days and in transition.

It is a great replacement for SNMP HP OpenView type systems. I havent been in corporate world in  a long time.

I suspect these two platforms, Cockpit and Zabbix will overlap.

It was early days when I looked at Zabbix. It was a hard to reach russian site.

It had just adopted grafana.  I wonder how it is doing now with grafana. it didt work when I peeked,

This is an interesting topic.

Cockpit is the first thing I install on an armbian server

.Here is what Cockpit has going for it:

it is a modern web app.

But it seems Microsoft is adopting a Node/Angular approach to cross desktop applications.

PHP/C are well known topics. I am just saying that long term Node/Angular looks like it is going to be *the* cross desktop  standard.

not Apache/C/PHP well ... I dunno hey. ok throwing opinions and see what sticks!

WebMin on steroids is a good thing. Now Cockpit is expanding rapidly and getting powerful extensions.

It seems important to integrate Zabbix into Cockpit.

I admit I  love big IT architecture but dont invest in corporate career. I doubt Cockpit will want to do "Network Nagging"

but it could. But in Cloud / IoT really Node/JavaScript/Angular/GRPC are more the topic at hand. I mean

Google/Microsoft/Ubuntu/RedHat/IBM are sort of important in IoT LOL

Does Zabbix really grok GRPC/IoT.

 

both Zabbix and Cockpit are wonderful.

Zabbix is high quality C and moving on interesting GUIs...

IBM/RedHat are behind Cockpit. I have seen IBM push Zabbix

but I would be skeptical and expect Cockpit to nudge Zabbix out at IBM

 

Peace.

 

[sgjava]

3 hours ago, PatM said:

Yes. Zabbix is MySQL/PHP. I have run it. But it was early days and in transition.

I'm really not looking at Zabbix as a development platform. It's a tool and that's what I use it for, so the underlying stack is not that interesting to me. Also, Zabbix can be served up with nginx or use PostgreSQL if that matters. Cockpit is more of an admin tool with limited monitoring (compared to Zabbix) from what I can tell and it's only for Linux. Zabbix has cross platform agents and can monitor diverse things like DBs, web endpoints, switches (or my refrigerator). Plus I'll let Zabbix fix issues for me automatically without any intervention. They are fundamentally different tools.

 

https://www.zabbix.com/features

https://www.redhat.com/sysadmin/intro-cockpit

[PatM]

OK. Zabbix has grown tremendously in just a couple years.

Yes I follow development platforms. But comeon Zabbix is gigantic platform.

It is fundamentally an outgrowth of SNMP HP OpenView architecture.

I did read a link while researching this topic (I am learning)

about replacements for SNMP hehehe...it's a current topic out there.

people refer to gRPC and gNMI....so I am not entirely off topic

But I am  off topic so I apologize.  Cockpit and Zabbix will probably

compete in the future. Best to your efforts.

[sgjava]

22 hours ago, PatM said:

OK. Zabbix has grown tremendously in just a couple years.

Yes I follow development platforms. But comeon Zabbix is gigantic platform.

It's funny you mention Node.js as the question of event loop vs. threads was answered back in the 70s. This paper explains it and even it is 17 years old. https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~brewer/papers/threads-hotos-2003.pdf Any ways, newer isn't always better.

[PatM]

OK. Yes I am going to read that. I would like to experience some clarity on that topic eventually.

hahha events and threads are duals. what a world. I am just trying to see into what is going on in platforms.

It seems Microsoft and Google have agreed to some turf. Microsoft is taking Chrome

and JavaScript into this universal platform world. so universal app platform based on

TypeScript/JavaScript/Node/Angular. This is what Cockpit is written in.

both are recent discoveries as I get back into this stuff because Linux 5.4 and ARM are getting

very interesting indeed. amazing even.

 

anyway by Events I sort of just mean I unplug my microSD card and Cockpit updates its storage display.

I assume this is according to gRPC node universal app event system or other.

and so I am reacting to new coronations and proclamations that  I should be learning

microsoft VS code which is typescript / yabayaba

 

very important to keep seeking clarity on this thread / event / signal stuff.

wouldnt it be fun to understand it....LOL duals so they are opposites /

reciprical determinations of the Hegelian kind

[PatM]

thanks for being so insightful with that reference

and how does the topic of coroutines fit into events and threads?

now that is a tutorial I would pay money for LOL

I know Python 3.8 is now standard on ubuntu.

ah man. it is time to learn Promise / Futures world isnt it.

maybe a coroutine is both  a thread and an event.

there it is transcendental bliss

 

will node/typescript/javascript/python all

have the same designs ...

[PatM]

A coroutine is both an event and a thread?

Even C++ has concepts now. A concept is a unity of a duality.

if thread and events are dualities what is their unity?

indeed a coroutine...

[sgjava]

11 hours ago, PatM said:

A coroutine is both an event and a thread?

Even C++ has concepts now. A concept is a unity of a duality.

if thread and events are dualities what is their unity?

indeed a coroutine...

So basically the topic drifted from Zabbix (omni monitoring tool) to Cockpit (admin tool) and you mentioning Node.js which is based on an event loop. My point was the thread vs. event loop argument was solved decades ago, but people keep reinventing event loops as more scalable. They probably didn't read the seminal research already out there. There are interesting structures like ring buffers that can scale massively and replace queues.  https://lmax-exchange.github.io/disruptor. Any ways, I'm not falling into the JS/TS/Node.js trap. I'll stick with Java/Python/C/C++ as most of my work doesn't involve UI.

 

Also, check out my https://github.com/sgjava/java-periphery library if you want to leverage userspace IO on Armbian. It uses code generation to wrap C code into a nifty Java API. Enough drifting off topic for now before Igor stops by

[PatM]

Wow. Do you work for Oracle? I just watched a video of a 1024 Java cluster

running raspberrypi running Oracle Linux. I bet you know about that!

I am going massively off topic here and so I will take liberties and close

and mention it is great to meet such talents out here in Armbian land.

Does Oracle Linux ARM a realitiy? hmmm. very interesting. not really.

I love Debian and Ubuntu. Now IBM/RedHat interests me more and more

and that is a new direction I will not likely follow.  But there is a RK3399

device and it runs Fedora. Uh Oh. Armbian needs to move on RK3399 Pro NOW!

anyway Oracle ARM....I happen to love MySQL and Workbench and I think

Oracle Java on ARM is something to ponder. A true advancement for Linux.

I am runing Ubuntu Gnome 3 and I say a big thank you to MIGUEL from bonoville.

This Armbian Ubuntu is the greatest desktop ever. ANd running Cockpit

I can manage Docker and Cockpit-Machines....stunning.

please to meet you and yes cloud/iot are many topics..

.OpenStack!? I am heading that way it seems

 

[sgjava]

8 minutes ago, PatM said:

Wow. Do you work for Oracle? I just watched a video of a 1024 Java cluster

Ha, no, I don't work for Oracle. In fact, I use Zulu Open JDK https://www.azul.com/products/zulu-enterprise/jdk-comparison-matrix since it's easier to download and doesn't require an account like Oracle JDKs. I actually develop Java Periphery on a x86-64 platform and test on ARM 32/64. Zulu is a great OpenJDK implementation. I've used XenServer a lot, but OpenStack is very interesting. The main issue with RedHat is not to fall into the "Enterprise" trap which is their paid for software and services. RedHat is famous for wrapping Open Source in their GUIs and selling that to Enterprise customers. Also, since IBM took over I suspect they will continue that trend.

[PatM]

Its an amazing time for ARM. OK why isnt Oracle building their own ARM chips?

hmmm I bet they are. anyway. There is a company called Nuvia building ARM neoverse

virtual systems. I think they will be bought out by Oracle before Google...ok sorry.

stick to the offpoint. Libvirt.JS is one interesting library. I have been waiting to explore

KVM and see new stuff going into mainline that are very ARM rich. So OpenStack

and kubernetes. Clearly Cockpit is going to manage that platform for IBM.

IBM could change. Look at Microsoft. They could turn Fedora into something real.

But I agree with you and will stick with Debian/Ubuntu for OpenStack guidance.

But Armbian makes Ubuntu ARM approachable for me. It is great stuff.

I love my little NanoPCs embedded in my desktop.

I could have my own neoverse board oneday.

Cockpit-Machines...Java Periphery. Well the Libvirt.JS could be

your UserLevel Interface for building virtual java clusters

with arbitrary IO capabilities in the cloud