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Zenoss Core Administration

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Part Number: 02-102013-4.2-v

Zenoss Core Administration

Zenoss Core Administration

Zenoss Core Administration

Zenoss Core Administration

Chapter 1. About Zenoss Core

Zenoss Core is today's premier, open source IT management solution. Through a single, Web-based console, it enables you to manage the status and health of your infrastructure.

The power of Zenoss Core starts with its in-depth Inventory and IT Configuration Database. It creates this database by discovering managed resources -- servers, networks, and other devices -- in your IT environment. The resulting configuration model provides a complete inventory of your servers, network devices, and software applications, down to the level of resource components (interfaces, services and processes, and installed software).

Once Zenoss Core discovers the IT infrastructure, it automatically begins monitoring the performance of each device. It also provides events and fault management features that tie into the configuration database. These features help drive operational efficiency and productivity by automating many of the notification, alerts, escalation, and remediation tasks you perform each day.

1.1. High-Level View

Using agent-less technology, Zenoss Core monitors your entire IT infrastructure stack, including network, servers, HVAC and power, and even applications. At its highest level, the system comprises these major areas:

• Discovery and configuration
• Performance and availability
• Fault and event management
• Alerting and remediation
• Reporting

Zenoss Core unifies these areas into a single system with a fully featured, interactive Web user interface.

About Zenoss Core

Figure 1.1. High-Level View

1.1.1. Key Tenets

Zenoss Core was designed with these important ideas at its core:

• Modeling

The system's model enables it to understand the environment in which it operates. Through sophisticated and detailed analysis, Zenoss Core determines how to monitor and manage complex IT environments. The core of the standard model describes basic information about each device's operating system and hardware. The model is object-based, and is easily extended through object inheritance.

• Discovery

With a sophisticated model, manual input and maintenance of data is challenging. To address this challenge, Zenoss Core uses discovery to populate the model. During discovery, the system accesses each monitored device in your infrastructure and interrogates it in detail, acquiring information about its components, network integration, and dependencies.

• Normalization

Because Zenoss Core collects information from different platforms and through different protocols, the amount and format of available information varies. For example, file system information gathered from a Linux server differs from similar information gathered from a Windows server. Zenoss Core standardizes the data gathered so that you can perform valid comparisons of metrics gathered by different methods and for different systems.

• Agentless Data Collection

To gather information, Zenoss Core relies on agent-less data collection. By communicating with a device through one of several protocols (including SNMP, SSH, Telnet, and WMI), it minimizes the impact on monitored systems.

• Full IT Infrastructure

About Zenoss Core

• Collection layer

1.2.1. User Layer

Built around the Zope Web application environment, the user layer is manifested as a Web portal. It uses several JavaScript libraries, Mochi Kit, YUI, and extJS to provide a rich application experience.

Through the user interface, you access and manage key components and features. From here, you can:

• Watch the status of your enterprise, using the Dashboard
• Work with devices, networks, and systems
• Monitor and respond to events
• Manage users
• Create and run reports

The user layer Interacts with the data layer and translates the information for display in the user interface.

1.2.2. Data Layer

Configuration and collection information is stored in the data layer, in three separate databases:

• ZenRRD - Utilizing RRDtool, stores time-series performance data. Because RRD files are stored locally to each collector, no bottlenecks result from writing to a single database as new collectors are added.
• ZenModel - Serves as the core configuration model, which comprises devices, their components, groups, and loca- tions. ZODB persists this data in a MySQL database.
• ZenEvents - Stores event data in a MySQL database.

1.2.3. Process Layer

The process layer manages communications between the collection and data layers. It also runs back-end, periodic jobs, as well as jobs initiated by the user (ZenActions and ZenJobs).The process layer utilizes Twisted PB (a bi-directional RPC system) for communications.

1.2.4. Collection Layer

The collection layer comprises services that collect and feed data to the data layer. These services are provided by numerous daemons that perform modeling, monitoring, and event management functions.

The modeling system uses SNMP, SSH, and WMI to collect information from remote machines. The raw information is fed into a plugin system ( modeling plugins ) that normalizes the data into a format that matches the core model.

Monitoring daemons track the availability and performance of the IT infrastructure. Using multiple protocols, they store performance information locally in RRD files, thus allowing the collectors to be spread out among many collec- tor machines. Status and availability information, such as ping failures and threshold breaches, are returned through ZenHub to the event system.

For more information about system daemons, see the appendix titled "Daemon Commands and Options."

About Zenoss Core

1.3. Monitoring Approach

Zenoss Core uses a model-driven approach to monitoring, combining discovery and the model to enable automatic monitoring. This strategy reduces system maintenance overhead and ensures that new devices and applications are monitored as they come online.

Figure 1.3. Workflow: Model-Driven Monitoring

As shown in the illustration, model-driven monitoring begins with discovery, which populates the model. It continues as the configuration defined in the model is automatically applied and monitoring begins. As the system runs, the configuration is further fine-tuned.

The model-driven monitoring approach is demonstrated by the following file system monitoring scenario.

1.3.1. File System Monitoring

By default, the system is configured with a file system threshold of 90% utilization. Each time it discovers a file system, this threshold is automatically applied to the file system, and monitoring begins.

Figure 1.4. Monitored File System (Threshold Exceeded)

This illustration shows the result of a system being monitored, using the default configuration. The graph shows that the threshold of 90% has been exceeded numerous times. Because the data in the model is normalized, thresholds will apply regardless of the collection mechanism (SNMP, SSH, and WMI).

The chapter titled "Properties and Templates" provides more information about modifying the monitoring configura- tion.

About Zenoss Core

trigger Determines how and when notifications are sent. Specifies a rule comprising a series of one or more conditions.

Chapter 2. Using Zenoss Core

Read the following sections to learn more about working in the interface, and how to:

• Customize the dashboard
• Search for devices, events, and system objects
• Navigate the event console
• Run commands
• Work with triggers and notifications
• Make advanced UI configuration selections

2.1. Interface and Navigation

After you install Zenoss Core and navigate to the interface from your Web browser, the Dashboard appears. The Dashboard provides at-a-glance information about the status of your IT infrastructure. It is the primary window into devices and events that the system enables you to monitor.

Figure 2.1. Dashboard

The Dashboard can show:

• System information resources and Web pages
• Important error-level device events
• Geographical high-level view
• "Troubled" devices

Key Dashboard and interface areas include:

• Navigation menu
• User information area
• Portlets
• System Network Map

Using Zenoss Core

• Google Maps (device locations) - Shows configured locations and configured network connections.

Figure 2.4. Google Maps Portlet

• Daemon Processes Down - Contains system self-monitoring information.
• Production States - Shows devices assigned to a particular production state.
• Site Window - Initially provides links to resources such as product guides, forums, and training events.

The URL for the default content is http://www2.zenoss.com/in-app-welcome-sd?v= ProductVersion. You can cus- tomize this portlet to display content from any URL.

• Top Level (Root) Organizers - Lists status for each grouping in your defined system hierarchy.

Figure 2.5. Top Level Organizers Portlet

• Messages - Displays system messages.
• Object Watch List - Allows the display of high-level status device classes, groups, systems, event classes, and locations that you select.

2.1.3.1. Customizing Portlets

You can customize each portlet that appears on the Dashboard. Customization options vary depending on the portlet type.

Click , which appears at the top right corner of a portlet, to view and customize display options. Click Save Settings to save your selections and then return to main portlet content.

The following table lists information you can customize for each Zenoss Core portlet.

For this portlet type.. ...you can customize: Welcome Title, Refresh Rate, Destination URL Device Issues Title, Refresh Rate

Using Zenoss Core

For this portlet type.. ...you can customize: Google Maps Title, Refresh Rate, Base Location Zenoss Core Issues Title, Refresh Rate Production States Title, Refresh Rate, Production States (to appear on the Dashboard) Top Level (Root Organizers) Title, Refresh Rate, Root Organizer (to appear on the Dashboard)

2.1.3.2. Adding and Duplicating Portlets

To add a portlet, select Add portlet (located below the User Information area at the top right of the Dashboard). From the Add Portlet dialog, you can add a portlet or restore portlets to the default view.

Your Dashboard can display more than one of the same portlet type. You might want to display duplicate portlets, for example, to get at-a-glance information about more than one device location that appears in the Google Maps portlet.

2.1.4. Network Map

The Network Map represents your network's Layer 3 topology. From the map, you can quickly determine the status of each device by its highlighted color.

To access the network map, select Infrastructure, and then select Network Map.

Figure 2.6. Network Map

2.1.4.1. Choosing the Network to Display

The network displayed is configured for each user. From user preferences, modify Network Map Start Object to indicate a network, and then click Save.

2.1.4.2. Viewing Device and Network Details

Double-click a device or network icon in the map to focus on it. Focusing on a node: