Zabbix OverviewUNIXBusinessApplication

Zabbix is the #1 ranked solution in top Server Monitoring tools, #2 ranked solution in best Network Monitoring Tools, #2 ranked solution in Infrastructure Monitoring tools, and #2 ranked solution in top Cloud Monitoring Software. PeerSpot users give Zabbix an average rating of 8.4 out of 10. Zabbix is most commonly compared to Nagios XI: Zabbix vs Nagios XI. Zabbix is popular among the large enterprise segment, accounting for 51% of users researching this solution on PeerSpot. The top industry researching this solution are professionals from a educational organization, accounting for 19% of all views.
Zabbix Buyer's Guide

Download the Zabbix Buyer's Guide including reviews and more. Updated: May 2023

What is Zabbix?

Zabbix is a free software tool traditionally used for monitoring your organization’s IT infrastructure, including networks, servers, virtual machines, and cloud services. Zabbix makes it possible for you to maintain control of your infrastructure by collecting any metric from any source. The solution also offers agentless monitoring, synthetic monitoring, custom collection methods, and data transformation.

Zabbix offers:

  • Network monitoring
  • Server monitoring
  • Cloud monitoring
  • Application monitoring
  • Service monitoring

Zabbix Features

Zabbix has many valuable key features, including:

Action Log, Anomaly Detection, Auditing, Automated Actions, Availability Reports, Capacity Planning, Custom Scripts, Custom Templates, Data Retrieval, Drill-Down Reports, Encryption, Event Correlation, History Data Analysis, Metric Collection, Multiple Authentication Methods, Multiple Severity Levels, Native WMI Support for Windows Agent, Network Discovery, Notifications, Root Cause Analysis, Trend Prediction, WMI Support, Web Services Widget-based Dashboards, Zero-Maintenance

Zabbix Benefits

There are several benefits to implementing Zabbix. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

  • Flexible deployment options: Zabbix can be deployed on-premises or in the cloud to help you stay fully in control of your data.

  • Unlimited scalability: Zabbix is scalable to any infrastructure. It can easily scale for your personal home, or can scale for a large enterprise environment.

  • Ready-to-use templates: Zabbix comes with ready-to-use templates which makes it easy to integrate with systems you already use.

  • External vault: Zabbix enables you to keep your data secure and safe by providing an external vault storage option.

  • High availability: By using Zabbix’s high availability solution, you can negate the risk of data loss and gain 24/7 uptime.

  • Partner and vendor-backed: The solution is backed by 250+ global partners and multiple external vendors, giving you confidence in the solution.

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by Zabbix users.

PeerSpot user Shibu B., Regional Manager/ Service Delivery at ASPL Info Services, says, "The solution is quite mature and very stable. The monitoring capabilities of the product are excellent.” He also adds, “The solution is very easy to scale and the product is open-source, meaning there aren't any licensing costs associated with it.”

Julian L., Senior Specialist Critical Infrastructure at an educational organization, comments that the solution is “A complete solution that doesn't cost anything, does what I need it to do, and has easy-to-use templates and very good scalability.” He also mentions “The agents are pretty cool. They're easy to roll out. The standard out-of-the-box templates are also pretty easy to use. The integration with other learning products is also good.”

Faycal N., CEO/Founder at Zen Networks, praises the product, mentioning, “Its overall flexibility is most valuable. When our customers have some custom applications that are not necessarily covered by the community or a standard monitoring tool, we use Zabbix to build our own modules with our own templates. This feature has been useful in using Zabbix for infrastructure and IT monitoring. It has also been useful for industrial equipment monitoring. Zabbix is very lightweight. It is efficient in terms of performance because it doesn't use a lot of resources."

Zabbix Customers

Bodybuilding.com, LLC., ITtelligent Consulting Services,Eltele AS, Total Server Solutions, LLC., ChinaNetCloud

Zabbix Video

Archived Zabbix Reviews (more than two years old)

Filter by:
Filter Reviews
Industry
Loading...
Filter Unavailable
Company Size
Loading...
Filter Unavailable
Job Level
Loading...
Filter Unavailable
Rating
Loading...
Filter Unavailable
Considered
Loading...
Filter Unavailable
Order by:
Loading...
  • Date
  • Highest Rating
  • Lowest Rating
  • Review Length
Search:
Showingreviews based on the current filters. Reset all filters
CEO/Founder at Zen Networks
Real User
Top 10
Flexible, lightweight, and enables us to do capacity planning and be proactive in avoiding downtime
Pros and Cons
  • "Its overall flexibility is most valuable. When our customers have some custom applications that are not necessarily covered by the community or a standard monitoring tool, we use Zabbix to build our own modules with our own templates. This feature has been useful in using Zabbix for infrastructure and IT monitoring. It has also been useful for industrial equipment monitoring. Zabbix is very lightweight. It is efficient in terms of performance because it doesn't use a lot of resources."
  • "Its UI should be improved. They did some improvements in version 5, but it could benefit from some more work. Its integrations should also be improved. They've been active for one year, and they seem to have noticed that. It has new integrations, but it could benefit from more integrations. As far as I know, there is no model to push statistics, metrics, or events towards Zabbix. This type of API isn't yet there, whereas some other tools provide an API for this."

What is our primary use case?

Generally, it is used for infrastructure and network monitoring. We've been using it for monitoring systems and application infrastructure. It goes through the whole stack, and that's what we like about it. It can also be extended, but I wouldn't consider that as the primary use case. 

It can be deployed on-premise as well as on the cloud. It is meant to be on-premise, but some providers like us can use Zabbix on the cloud and provide it as a SaaS model. It is predominantly deployed on-premise. We mainly use versions 4.x and 5.x.

How has it helped my organization?

Just like any monitoring tool, the major benefits would be being proactive about and avoiding downtime and being able to do capacity planning of the infrastructure. It is about having more knowledge about what you own in terms of infrastructure. Once you do that, you're able to make educated decisions. They are not guesswork.

What is most valuable?

Its overall flexibility is most valuable. When our customers have some custom applications that are not necessarily covered by the community or a standard monitoring tool, we use Zabbix to build our own modules with our own templates. This feature has been useful in using Zabbix for infrastructure and IT monitoring. It has also been useful for industrial equipment monitoring.

Zabbix is very lightweight. It is efficient in terms of performance because it doesn't use a lot of resources. 

What needs improvement?

Its UI should be improved. They did some improvements in version 5, but it could benefit from some more work. 

Its integrations should also be improved. They've been active for one year, and they seem to have noticed that. It has new integrations, but it could benefit from more integrations. 

As far as I know, there is no model to push statistics, metrics, or events towards Zabbix. This type of API isn't yet there, whereas some other tools provide an API for this.

Buyer's Guide
Zabbix
May 2023
Learn what your peers think about Zabbix. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2023.
708,461 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using this solution for around five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is very stable. We've had it in our customer environments for four years, and the only thing we had to do was to tune the database because we have more metrics. It never went down. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

One of our customers is monitoring a few hundred devices. It can be used for a few thousand devices without much complexity, but beyond that, it is difficult to scale. We don't use Zabbix beyond that, and we try to avoid it for larger deployments. You can create a distributed setup that helps with scalability. They have a distributed collector and a proxy that can be used for that.

It doesn't consume a lot of resources and is efficient in terms of performance. You can put it on a Raspberry Pi and monitor a few devices. If you push performance to the limit and have too many devices, I'm not sure how good it is then.

How are customer service and support?

Our customers have subscribed to technical support, but they never really used their technical support. Zabbix has never failed. Our guarantee had expired, and we started our own maintenance on top of Zabbix with some government clients, but we never had to use Zabbix support.

How was the initial setup?

Its initial setup is very straightforward. You need prior knowledge of Linux, but you don't need specific knowledge of Zabbix to deploy it. It is really straightforward and lightweight. Its deployment could take as little as one hour per person.

You simply download the packages. For a small deployment, you install them in the same box. There are three main components that you have to put in the same place, and that's it. It is not really complex to set up. Zabbix isn't really geared like some of the other solutions where there are different modules for each part. Zabbix is monolithic. You have a core system that can do everything, and it is extended with the plugins that provide additional integration and monitoring, but the framework and the UI are in one package or software.

You definitely need someone to administer the platform after it is deployed. Otherwise, it is a bad deal. The number of people required for maintenance depends on the site. It can start with someone part-time, and it can end with two full-time persons developing scripts and plugins. Post-deployment maintenance also depends on the monitoring requirements. You can't have a monitoring solution that is central to your network and sees everything but doesn't change as your network changes. If your network changes, your solution has to adapt to it, which is normal for all monitoring solutions. Similarly, if you have too many metrics, you would require some database tuning as the solution gets bigger. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It is open source. If you want to have a subscription or official support, you can pay for it. They have different plans, which are not that expensive. The plans are based on per monitoring server, not per monitored equipment. So, it is not at all expensive, and you can also live without the support if you want a cheaper option.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated different solutions in 2012 and  2017. We favor open-source solutions or open-core solutions that support open-source models. These open-core solutions are not open source, but they have an open model. They come with plugins. Such solutions are the best because they offer flexibility, and you can add your own monitoring on top of them. You can add your own plugins and extend a solution beyond its original capabilities. A proprietary solution such as SolarWinds is not that flexible because it is closed. You have to find a suitable plugin or module, but you can't really develop something on top of it. There is an SDK, but it is really hard to use. I've never rarely seen it used.

Zabbix is a solution we offer to answer some of the main customer monitoring requirements . The solution that we go for depends on the environment in which it will be used. We select one of these depending on a customer's environment and prerequisites. We see whether a customer's environment is really rich, and how many customized and standard applications a customer has. Zabbix also has more integrations with on-prem infrastructure and cloud solutions.

In comparison with Nagios and alike solutions, Zabbix is less fragmented providing better integrated components. They also invested in the last years quite a lot of development efforts to build new custom integrations.

What other advice do I have?

I would advise others to know scripting and Linux administration. These are the prerequisites. If you don't know these, you either have to get better at them or get an expert to help you. After this solution is deployed, you should have someone to administer the platform. Do not leave the platform as it is. It should evolve with the network. Otherwise, it becomes irrelevant.

I would rate Zabbix a nine out of ten. It is a very good product, and it is for a good reason that we have chosen Zabbix as part of our monitoring portfolio.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We are official partners of Zabbix which is used in our monitoring services portfolio.
PeerSpot user
Founder at Art World Web Solutions
Real User
A great product with good alerts and fair price, but it needs more features and better development model, UI, and scalability
Pros and Cons
  • "It is a great product. The SNMP protocol tracking feature is good. I really like how it tracks SNMP. The alerts are also great."
  • "Its UI needs to be improved a little bit more so that an end-user is also able to handle it. I can handle it, but others should also be able to handle it in a better way. It becomes complex when we are growing and need to add proxies. We need more scalability features and documentation for different use cases. A lot of articles are available, but they need to be in proper documentation. For example, when you have thousands of servers that have to be monitored in different regions of the world, there should be some kind of documentation to describe how you can create proxies and add them. Sometimes, when you are using the database, it can get overloaded. When the network is growing, the number of transactions becomes very high, and the database gets overloaded. There should be information about how to reduce the load on the MySQL database, which is what Zabbix is using. The market is growing a lot, and it should be enhanced for a lot more things. We are currently bringing enhancements at our end for different use cases. For example, when dockerization is going on, how can we check the logs inside the Dockers. We should also be able to monitor and check the number of logins and add features such as SSO login and two-factor authentication as a protocol. These are the security features and concerns that we have to deal with. Currently, we are developing modules to add features to Zabbix, but they should also work on these features."

What is our primary use case?

We are using Zabbix in our project for demo purposes. One of our clients is also using Zabbix. They have a data center, and they use it for internal monitoring. They are on a cloud system.

What is most valuable?

It is a great product. The SNMP protocol tracking feature is good. I really like how it tracks SNMP. The alerts are also great. 

What needs improvement?

Its UI needs to be improved a little bit more so that an end-user is also able to handle it. I can handle it, but others should also be able to handle it in a better way.

It becomes complex when we are growing and need to add proxies. We need more scalability features and documentation for different use cases. A lot of articles are available, but they need to be in proper documentation. For example, when you have thousands of servers that have to be monitored in different regions of the world, there should be some kind of documentation to describe how you can create proxies and add them. Sometimes, when you are using the database, it can get overloaded. When the network is growing, the number of transactions becomes very high, and the database gets overloaded. There should be information about how to reduce the load on the MySQL database, which is what Zabbix is using. 

The market is growing a lot, and it should be enhanced for a lot more things. We are currently bringing enhancements at our end for different use cases. For example, when dockerization is going on, how can we check the logs inside the Dockers. We should also be able to monitor and check the number of logins and add features such as SSO login and two-factor authentication as a protocol. These are the security features and concerns that we have to deal with. Currently, we are developing modules to add features to Zabbix, but they should also work on these features.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for three to four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is stable up to a level. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

When you are growing and need to add proxies and other things, it becomes complex. To deal with this kind of complexity, more scalability features and documentation for different use cases are required.

How are customer service and technical support?

I did not connect with Zabbix support, but the client's team connected with them. I worked with the client initially, and after that, I gave them access and everything else. They directly sync up with Zabbix's support team.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is great. However, later on, when you are scaling it, it becomes complex.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Its licensing is fair. It seems to be much cheaper than others.

What other advice do I have?

Zabbix is a good product. It just requires a better development model, better UI, and better scalability. It also needs more features.

I would rate Zabbix a seven out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Zabbix
May 2023
Learn what your peers think about Zabbix. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2023.
708,461 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Tchidat Linda - PeerSpot reviewer
Engineer of Telecommunication at Gold Telecom
Real User
Top 5
Improved design, easy to learn, and open-sourced
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution's design has recently changed and it is visually pleasing with more color, for example, there is blue, black, and white."
  • "When using this solution in enterprise monitoring, you are able to see that there are some issues with equipment that could be causing a problem. Sometimes you want to make a root command that you do not want to be executed automatically. What we have tried to do is open an SSH session directly from the solution's interface but it is not possible."

What is our primary use case?

I use the solution for network monitoring. When I was in engineering school I used this solution and I found it really good. I wanted to bring the functionality of this solution to my community to show the engineers in my enterprise. There is not a lot of understanding of network monitoring and I am hoping to bring to them my knowledge. 

What is most valuable?

The solution's design has recently changed and it is visually pleasing with more color, for example, there is blue, black, and white. If you are a new user it is very simple, you do not need to be highly technical to use it. You can rapidly learn how to use this solution.

What needs improvement?

When using this solution in enterprise monitoring, you are able to see that there are some issues with equipment that could be causing a problem. Sometimes you want to make a root command that you do not want to be executed automatically. What we have tried to do is open an SSH session directly from the solution's interface but it is not possible. I have heard from others that there are scripts that can manage this task easily but I have not figured it out. In the area of the solution where you write the command, it is not very user-friendly and could be improved. We want the ability to write commands and execute them manually.

Additionally, I would like the ability to be able to have network mapping for this solution. I use network mapping to monitor networks and there are not very many tools that are able to do it or if there is a tool, it is not easy.

The color scheme of the interface could improve by allowing more variations or user customization.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have approximately 10 people using the solution in my company.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

In my community, we were previously using Nagios and Cacti.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution is free. However, many open-sourced tools start out free but eventually start charging, I hope this solution stays free. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate Zabbix an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Infrastructure Manager and Security at ITG
Real User
Lets us be proactive in eliminating problems with resource consumption
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features in Zabbix are those that help us overcome bottlenecks in CPU usage, as well as reduce memory delay. I know that we have only reached the tip of the iceberg of what Zabbix's features can do for us, and we have not used all of them yet."
  • "I think the reporting part of Zabbix can be improved in terms of more user-friendly graphics to display the collected data. Many simple users who don't know how to use Zabbix properly might get confused by the reporting, although at the same time it is very versatile for my company."

What is our primary use case?

We use Zabbix on-premises for monitoring our servers and calculating consumption of CPU, memory, and storage space. It's an important part of monitoring our environments and it shows us a lot of information about the health of our systems. And, in terms of performance, we also use it for actively getting rid of bottlenecks.

There are four IT staff members who use Zabbix regularly, including system administrators and the director of IT.

How has it helped my organization?

With Zabbix, we can be proactive in eliminating problems with over-consumption of resources, such as with memory, for example.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features in Zabbix are those that help us overcome bottlenecks in CPU usage, as well as reduce memory delay. I know that we have only reached the tip of the iceberg of what Zabbix's features can do for us, and we have not used all of them yet.

What needs improvement?

I think the reporting part of Zabbix can be improved in terms of more user-friendly graphics to display the collected data. Many simple users who don't know how to use Zabbix properly might get confused by the reporting, although at the same time it is very versatile for my company.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Zabbix for three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There have been no issues with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We don't have much need to scale Zabbix, virtually or otherwise, or increase its usage beyond current levels, but I think it is simple to do.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We were previously using Nagios, but with Nagios the reporting features are very poor. If you want to improve on the reporting with Nagios, you have to construct other features and software on top of it, whereas Zabbix is more to the point and straightforward.

Zabbix's reporting isn't very good, either, in my opinion, but it's better compared to Nagios.

How was the initial setup?

The setup was easy.

What about the implementation team?

Regarding the installation of Zabbix, we did it by ourselves and it was easy enough. Our branch's environment is pretty simple and we don't have many complex requirements.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We were searching for an open source solution and Zabbix fit the bill because it is free and open source under the GPL license. 

What other advice do I have?

My advice is that the person who is responsible for implementing Zabbix in their environment should be familiar with Linux because then the process is more simple, efficient, and takes less time.

I would rate Zabbix an eight out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Senior Director at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Straightforward interface and no issues with stability, but the discovery process is not fully automated
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is service assurance."
  • "Zabbix claims that there is an auto-discovery process but my team member was facing difficulty and was told that it's not really automatic, and there are some manual steps."

What is our primary use case?

We are using Zabbix as our network monitoring solution. We are now trying to understand how to use the service assurance functionality, as we would like to leverage Zabbix for this task.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is service assurance.

The interface is pretty straightforward. As long as the agent is running on another instance and Zabbix is able to connect to the agent, we haven't seen any issues.

What needs improvement?

Zabbix claims that there is an auto-discovery process but my team member was facing difficulty and was told that it's not really automatic, and there are some manual steps. 

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been working with Zabbix for the past month. We are conducting a proof of concept with it.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We are not yet using Zabbix very much. We have spawned the Zabbix server and only a couple of AWS instances are running, which it is monitoring. This is to make sure there are no billing problems in AWS. At the end of the day, we stop the Zabbix monitoring. The next day when we come in, we start it again.

At this point, with our limited usage, we have not seen any issues with stability. Perhaps, once it has been running full-time for a week or longer, we may hit those types of issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

During our PoC, we only have two technical people working with it.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

This is the first monitoring product that we have worked with. Prior to this, we were dealing with NMS and CMS products.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was pretty straightforward. We did not face any issues and it was up and running within a day.

What about the implementation team?

Our in-house technician completed the deployment.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

This is an open-source solution that can be used free of charge.

What other advice do I have?

At this point, it is too early for me to recommend Zabbix one way or the other, as we have just scratched the surface of its capabilities.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Chief Revenue Officer at paramaah it services
Real User
Stable, open-source solution; can be challenging to secure client trust
Pros and Cons
  • "Zabbix is quite stable once it is set up. We haven't had any post-setup issues."
  • "Implementation is always tailored to the customer and the kind of information we need from the client to carry it out can make them very uncomfortable. Sometimes the clients are not ready to share it."

What is our primary use case?

We are implementing this solution for our clients. 

What is most valuable?

What we find the most valuable about Zabbix is that it is open source and there are no licensing costs.

What needs improvement?

While there are a number of benefits to Zabbix being open source, getting that trust from the customer is a little bit on the challenging side. Implementation is always tailored to the customer and the kind of information we need from the client to carry it out can make them very uncomfortable. Sometimes the clients are not ready to share it.

It can also be difficult for us to formulate a price for clients that need a solution for which there is no template. If we can implement a solution with the help of a template, we know how much time and effort it will take so it is easy to estimate a price for the customer. Without templates, estimation is a little bit challenging. 

In addition to the above, although there are templates available for Cisco switches, they do not work for all families of Cisco switches.

These are the challenges we are facing at our company. Overall, setting up Zabbix is a challenge. However once it is setup, managing it is comparatively easy.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Zabbix for a year, I suppose. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Zabbix is quite stable once it is set up. We haven't had any post-setup issues. 

How are customer service and technical support?

We are regularly in touch with Zabbix's technical support. Generally, there is little bit of challenge because of the time zones. Nonetheless, their tech support is not bad. It's good.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did not previously use a different solution. Zabbix was the first solution we worked on. However, right now we are in the process of exploring other solutions.

We are evaluating Motadata. This is a solution based out of India. We are in touch with them, but we are in the very initial stages. We also don't know how it will work out.

How was the initial setup?

Whether or not setup is straightforward or not will depend on the client's use case. From our end, the issue is estimating the effort it will take for us to implement the solution for our clients. We run into issues when it comes to giving the clients a quote for our work ahead of time. 

What other advice do I have?

Because Zabbix is an open source solution, a lot of customization is required. In turn, a lot of information has to be provided by the client about exactly what they want, which parameters they want to monitor, and what the thresholds are. Proprietary solutions would already have those thresholds in place. Once this process is done, it's really very good for your organization. But it does take a lot of work.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: reseller
PeerSpot user
Julian Lewis - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior application performance monitoring and alerting specialist at a aerospace/defense firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
A complete solution that doesn't cost anything, does what I need it to do, and has easy-to-use templates and very good scalability
Pros and Cons
  • "I like being able to use proxy servers for different locations. The agents are pretty cool. They're easy to roll out. The standard out-of-the-box templates are also pretty easy to use. The integration with other learning products is also good. I have, in the past, used Slack, but we've integrated it with Microsoft Teams. We also use it for SMS with a service called Redcoat. It is very flexible. It does what I need it to do, and my manager is very happy because it doesn't cost anything. We are nearing 4,000 hosts inside Zabbix, and we've got another 6,000 access points to add to it. We've thrown everything at it, and it has managed to keep going. I am very impressed with the tool, and I'd shake their hand very hard if I got to say the compliments to the Zabbix team. They keep improving it and doing refreshes, which is one good thing about it. There is also online information as well as books that you can purchase if you're willing to read enough. There is a lot to pick up, but it is a pretty complete solution."
  • "The APM monitoring has room for improvement, although I hear that the new 5.2 version has some improvements in that area, and I'd like to give that a go. I would like to see a few more templates out there for different styles of monitoring. I use the Grafana interface for reporting. I would also like it to have an out-of-the-box ability to email reports. You can create reports, but to be able to email those reports would be really helpful. I've got users who are not interested in logging in and generating a report. They want it all pre-canned and sent to an email address. It would also be really handy if we could pin certain reports up onto platforms such as Teams or SharePoint. A GUI for the proxy server would be cool to have for debugging purposes and for the support teams to have a look at, but I don't know whether that's really feasible to do. I get enough from the log files themselves."

What is our primary use case?

I've designed and built a high-available solution with Zabbix version 5. I introduced and deployed Zabbix in my current company, and it ended up becoming a production service within the company.

What is most valuable?

I like being able to use proxy servers for different locations. The agents are pretty cool. They're easy to roll out. 

The standard out-of-the-box templates are also pretty easy to use. The integration with other learning products is also good. I have, in the past, used Slack, but we've integrated it with Microsoft Teams. We also use it for SMS with a service called Redcoat. It is very flexible.

It does what I need it to do, and my manager is very happy because it doesn't cost anything. We are nearing 4,000 hosts inside Zabbix, and we've got another 6,000 access points to add to it. We've thrown everything at it, and it has managed to keep going. I am very impressed with the tool, and I'd shake their hand very hard if I got to say the compliments to the Zabbix team. They keep improving it and doing refreshes, which is one good thing about it. There is also online information as well as books that you can purchase if you're willing to read enough. There is a lot to pick up, but it is a pretty complete solution.

What needs improvement?

The APM monitoring has room for improvement, although I hear that the new 5.2 version has some improvements in that area, and I'd like to give that a go. I would like to see a few more templates out there for different styles of monitoring. I use the Grafana interface for reporting. 

I would also like it to have an out-of-the-box ability to email reports. You can create reports, but to be able to email those reports would be really helpful. I've got users who are not interested in logging in and generating a report. They want it all pre-canned and sent to an email address. It would also be really handy if we could pin certain reports up onto platforms such as Teams or SharePoint.

A GUI for the proxy server would be cool to have for debugging purposes and for the support teams to have a look at, but I don't know whether that's really feasible to do. I get enough from the log files themselves.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this solution for probably over five years. I started using it from version 3. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Zabbix is very stable. We ran into a few performance issues in the early proof of concept days. The database running on normal hard drives impacted the ability to process all items in a timely manner, and when I moved to SSDs, those issues went away.

For all implementations, the sizing calculator needs to be used to ensure the correct size of the database. Based on the number of hosts and items the performance of the database needs to be factored in.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We've managed to scale up recently from about 150,000 items. We're now on to about 380,000 items. We're not really seeing any major flaws or issues in that environment. It is pretty good.

How are customer service and technical support?

Many years ago, when I worked for a different company, I had access to their support, and they were very good. They were very knowledgeable. I was working on versions 3 and 4. I also got training from them. They did a five-day training course for us. 

I am pushing my company at the moment to try and get an enterprise license so that we can get some on-site support and some guidance to make sure that we're deploying within recommendations and the way they would do it. At the moment, they're relying on me to get it up and running and make it work, but I'd love to have some support, and I know they're very good. It is an education company, and I am keen to get more people in front of it. There'll be more opportunities within the university itself from what we've already done, but that's a work in progress.

How was the initial setup?

I've done many setups. They're all pretty easy to do. There are lots of different flavors of it. I've used Apache and Nginx. MySQL and PostgresSQL are the two databases I've tried out. I've done different versions. 

At the moment, my system runs on Postgres. We're looking to implement TimescaleDB on that, and we've got an Ingenex front-end that we use. It is a little bit more solid than the Apache version, and it is very flexible. You choose what you want and then you roll with it.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

My manager is very happy because it doesn't cost anything.

What other advice do I have?

I would definitely recommend it. It is very good for what I want it to do. I would recommend getting your Linux and databases teams involved very early on in the journey, and when you are deploying, make sure that you are targeting the more important applications in your portfolio. Don't just try and deploy it on everything straight off the bat. Try and pick some critical applications to look at and build the value in the product in the initial phase, and that usually gets people interested in the application and moving forward. That would be my advice to people. One of my drawbacks was that I waited a bit too long, and when I brought them on board, I had already built most of the environment myself. I should have got them involved a lot earlier and sooner. It is not really a bad thing, but you can't do everything yourself, so try and get people on board.

I would rate Zabbix a nine out of ten. I am pretty biased. I really enjoy using Zabbix, and I feel it does what I need it to do. It definitely ticked the boxes. In my current role and in three years, I've gone from demoing Zabbix, doing a proof of concept, and integrating it with a few things to the boss turning around and saying, "Right, make it production." I have to admit that everybody that has come into contact with it or I've presented it to has been very pleased with the results. It has been a very good fit. I can only compliment the tool. 

I am not giving it ten because it's not perfect. I don't think any monitoring tool is absolutely a hundred percent perfect. There is always room for improvement, but this has to be one of the better ones. I know what I'm doing, and I could do more if I had support from them, but what you can do with the tool is very good as compared to other tools that I've tried out in the past, such as Nagios. With Nagios, if you really want the full functionality, you have to pay for it. Here, they give you that functionality. You've just got to know how to use it. It is very clever, and it has definitely won me over as a tool. Thanks to deploying and using Zabbix, I have learned a lot of stuff around Zabbix as well. I have learned a lot about different tools such as Linux,  MySQL, and Postgres that are needed to run the service. It has been good. I have enjoyed it a lot.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Network Engineer at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Allows us to effortlessly monitor our client's network
Pros and Cons
  • "Zabbix is scalable."
  • "It could be more stable."

What is our primary use case?

We monitor Zabbix for different clients. In total, there are less than 40 users, using this solution. 

We definitely plan to increase usage and continue using Zabbix.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for the past few months. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It hasn't really been that stable, but I think that has a lot to do with the specs. It could be more stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Zabbix is scalable.

What other advice do I have?

I would absolutely recommend Zabbix to others. Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give Zabbix a rating of eight. Once I have more experience with it, maybe I'll give it a higher rating. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Principal Technical Consultant at CIBER
Real User
Proactive troubleshooting and has good integration with other tools
Pros and Cons
  • "We detect problems before the customer does and before it actually happens using the predictive functions in Zabbix."
  • "I would like to see a more flexible mobile client, and better HA out of the box."

What is our primary use case?

We - msp - use this solution for enterprise-wide monitoring and alerting for network devices, appliances, Linux, Windows, Exadata, ODAs, Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, and MySQL databases.

How has it helped my organization?

We detect problems before the customer does and before it actually happens using the predictive functions in Zabbix. Zabbix gives us a single point of truth.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features are the low-level discovery, auto registration, host discovery, integration with other tools, and the zbxdb plugin for database monitoring

Very good templates

What needs improvement?

I would like to see a more flexible mobile client, and better HA out of the box.

It would also be very interesting to have a GUI on the proxy server[s]

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for eight years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Stability of the product (servers and agents) was one of the key factors we checked. The agents normally have a low footprint and are very resource friendly.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Especially when using postgres with the timescaleDB option, the performance improved a lot because data deletion is now done by dropping partitions, which saves lot's of database time. We are confident that zabbix kan keep working for us while we grow. In the end, the bottle neck will be the database but we see a lot of options to stretch this.

How are customer service and technical support?

Zabbix support works through various channels and works responsive. We are also very glad with the community support where we also share our experiences. Currently there is an active community in Telegram https://t.me/ZabbixTech

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Earlier we used all kinds of other tools, all for a part of the stack. Oracle enterprise manager for oracle databases, PEM for postgres databases, SCOM for Windows, prtg for network, appman for applications. This required to run and maintain all those tools .... Now consolidating to 1 saves a lot of time and gives a single point of truth.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is easy. Making it completely HA required some work but if you are familiar with the redhat tools it is not hard.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented the zabbix solution our selves. A team consisting of a Linux admin and a postgres dba that both know Linux and zabbix setup the infra structure. The other teams gave input for their metrics, thresholds and views.

What was our ROI?

Combined with the other tools that we phased out the ROI will be within 1 year. One of the things we save a lot of money on is the replacement of SMS by an other notification service.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Make a POC, start simple and let it grow. The servers are created with good performance by design. Memory for the caching, both on the database as on the zabbix server are important. As database backend choose postgres with timescaleDB. This save many hours housekeeping processing. For proxies, sqlite will do nicely. Involve a dba for the database setup.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We checked the above mentioned options. Zabbix came out as a winner. Simple, good web application, no need for fat clients which makes maintenance simpler. Zabbix does not have the nicest GUI, compared with some above but it is certainly acceptable, especially when pricing is taking into account. Especially with the postgres database in combination with the timescaleDB options is has an excellent performance. It has a clean database design and handling.

If state of the art reporting is important, integrate with grafana. It can be done via the api and directly on the zabbix database.

What other advice do I have?

If performance and scalability is important, use postgres with timescaleDB as database backend. This wins hands down compared to mysql.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Faustine Chisasa - PeerSpot reviewer
Faustine ChisasaEngineering Supervisor- Corporate Data Solutions and Services at TZ Telecoms. Corporation
Top 5LeaderboardReal User

I am pleased to see what other tools you have used before switching to Zabbix, out of those I have only used PRTG and I see Zabbix as a better option by far.

IT Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Free to use with good functionality and good stability
Pros and Cons
  • "There are lots of great features and functionality within the solution."
  • "The user interface could be a bit better. They could update it a bit."

What is our primary use case?

I primarily use this solution in some of our different monitoring systems, including our different servers, and applications. We use it for the maintenance of the main server in the laboratory.

What is most valuable?

The ability to connect with monitoring is very useful for us. It's great that we can monitor different applications. We can even monitor remotely.

I recently tested the solution's ability to hold up to rebooting machines remotely and we were able to do so with ease. 

There are lots of great features and functionality within the solution.

So far, we've found the solution to be quite stable.

The product has a large community and therefore has lots of documentation around various aspects of the product.

What needs improvement?

I don't recall coming across missing features. It's a fairly complete solution.

The user interface could be a bit better. They could update it a bit.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution offers very good stability. It doesn't have bugs or glitches and it doesn't crash or freeze on us. It's been reliable from the very start.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have never tried to scale the solution. I can't speak to its level of scalability.

However, it is my hope that it is. It's important to be able to scale it.

We only currently have 10 people on the solution. It's a small group and therefore we haven't yet had a need to expand it.

How are customer service and technical support?

While I haven't ever actually reached out to technical support, I'd say that it would important to have access. If there was a question the community couldn't answer it would be nice to know if we could turn to Zabbix directly for assistance. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did previously use a different solution prior to Zabbix. It was a suite of applications that included, for example, DLP and myShell. I haven't used it in a very long time, so I can't speak too much about my experience with it or how it compares.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup isn't overly complex. It's largely straightforward.

There's also a fairly sizable community around the solution and there's just so much documentation and insights from other users you have access to, therefore it's very easy to find answers to your questions when it comes to implementation.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We use a free community version of the solution. We don't have to pay for licensing. 

What other advice do I have?

I'm not really a user. I deploy the solution.

Overall, I would rate the solution at an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Président / Directeur des services informatiques at Atig network
Real User
Fast, lightweight, and easy to install
Pros and Cons
  • "The basic setup is very easy."
  • "I am having difficulties connecting it to Grafana, as well as some of the other plugins like Kibana."

What is our primary use case?

I use Zabbix on my Raspberry Pi and it is set up to monitor our network. We are testing it at the moment to see how it responds to our network, which includes laptops and workstations.

I have not gone into great detail with the product, although I expect to be doing that within the next months.

What is most valuable?

It is not hard to integrate.

What needs improvement?

I am having difficulties connecting it to Grafana, as well as some of the other plugins like Kibana. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Zabbix for the past year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is okay, although, at this point, I'm only using it on a Raspberry Pi. I need to set it on a higher level server to see exactly how it responds on the network and how to deal with it. In this testing phase, it is stable, but when I'm ready to put it live into production then we will see how it reacts.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I haven't tried to scale it, yet. I am the only one using it because I'm performing the testing.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have not been in contact with technical support.

How was the initial setup?

The basic setup is very easy. I installed it in a Raspberry Pi with a Linux version. It took perhaps 20 minutes to install, at the most.

What other advice do I have?

This is a product I can recommend to others.

Overall, I think that this is a great tool, although I need to spend more time with it to see exactly what the different features are, and how I can use it to implement my network better. There are a few glitches that need to be fixed, such as making the plugins easier to install.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Responsible Infrastructure and Production at Oasis SmartSim
Real User
Open-source, easy to implement, and the dashboard is customizable
Pros and Cons
  • "Zabbix is very easy to implement."
  • "If you want to use all of the features then you have to pay a licensing fee."

What is our primary use case?

We have two Zabbix servers, deployed locally and in our New York datacenter, and we use them for monitoring traffic. It is an order processing system and we need to schedule and monitor our infrastructure.

What is most valuable?

Zabbix is very easy to implement.

The interface is customizable, so we can create the dashboard that we need.

What needs improvement?

We need to set it up step by step in order to ensure that it is stable and works properly.

If you want to use all of the features then you have to pay a licensing fee.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Zabbix for approximately one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We use Zabbix on a daily basis and we haven't had any issues with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have not needed to expand it because our infrastructure is very small. It includes a server and some VMs.

How are customer service and technical support?

When we have a problem, we search the web site for how to resolve it. We have never had an issue that necessitated contacting technical support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

In my last job, I worked with Nagios. I found that Zabbix is a good system for monitoring and it is easier to implement, and it is also less expensive.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is easy to do. It involves implementing agents in the server, but it is not difficult.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented it with our in-house team that is also responsible for maintenance. This includes updates to the product. There is a team of three administrators who manage it.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Zabbix is free but if you use it in production then you have to pay for it. It is not expensive if you compare it to something like the Amazon monitoring system.

Also, it is an open-source product, although some features are available at an extra cost.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, this is a great tool and I recommend it.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
David Collier - PeerSpot reviewer
David CollierCo-Founder at Nobius IT
Top 5LeaderboardReseller

Hi,


Can you clarify what you mean with  "Zabbix is free but if you use it in production then you have to pay
for it. It is not expensive if you compare it to something like the
Amazon monitoring system. Also, it is an open-source product, although some features are available at an extra cost."


Apologies for being so blunt, but Zabbix is TOTALLY open-source. There are no additional fees for licensing or additional features.




Operations Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Stable and easy to set up, but problems that arise take a lot of research to solve
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is network traffic monitoring."
  • "When we have a problem, we have to do a lot of research to solve it."

What is our primary use case?

We are using Zabbix for monitoring our servers and to display network traffic.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is network traffic monitoring.

What needs improvement?

When we have a problem, we have to do a lot of research to solve it.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Zabbix for a year and a half.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This product is quite stable.

How are customer service and technical support?

We have not had to contact technical support.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is not complex. In fact, it's quite easy.

It was quite quick to deploy.

What about the implementation team?

We have our own team who installed it and know how it is used.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

This solution is completely open-source, so it is quite affordable.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Project Manager at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Straightforward to set up, and works well for monitoring our internal network
Pros and Cons
  • "The initial setup was not complex."
  • "The graphical user interface could be customized a little bit more, and also the dashboard could be more friendly."

What is our primary use case?

Primarily we are using an on-premise installation, and just now we are exploring the cloud installation. It's basically the same one. It's a pre-production and production environment. We use the on-premises for testing, and we have the one with the cloud installation also.

We are using this solution for monitoring our internal network and infrastructure in the company, and also for monitoring a couple of our customers' installations. Not only their network but also their services, and to reduce consumption.

What needs improvement?

The graphical user interface could be customized a little bit more, and also the dashboard could be more friendly.

I would like to recommend the possibility of being integrated for the monitoring of the Micro Strategy System environment and clusters of machine Micro Services.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Zabbix for perhaps six months

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This solution is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's a scalable product. We have 20 users in our organization who are using it.

How are customer service and technical support?

We don't have any experience with technical support. We haven't had any reason to contact them because we have been able to address any issues on our side.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was not complex. It took two hours to install.

What about the implementation team?

My colleague, along with one other internal team member deployed this solution. We did not use anyone externally.

What other advice do I have?

We have only just started using this solution a couple of months ago, but we plan to continue using it in the future.

I can recommend this product to others who are interested in using it.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Managing Director at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Real User
Top 10
A free enterprise monitoring solution
Pros and Cons
  • "It's a very reliable platform and we've never had any issues regarding the scalability or the stability of Zabbix."
  • "Zabbix technical support is sold separately."

What is our primary use case?

The primary use case is the cost. Typically speaking, our customers have a plethora of tools and they find it very difficult to manage their business services with a selection of tools. In most cases, they're able to replace all of their tools with one — Zabbix. 

We counsel groups and we recommend using Zabbix — we're a reseller.

We focus on Zabbix. When a customer needs it integrated with Microsoft, or ServiceNow, or other solutions, then we help them out from a consulting perspective. We focus on and we recommend Zabbix. Which is an enterprise monitoring solution.

I take care of sales and marketing.

If the customer requires integration, then there are easy ways of integrating Zabbix with JIRA, ServiceNow, ITSM, and all other sorts of different solutions.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable aspect of this solution is the fact that it is enterprise-level, scalable, and free.

Just being free isn't enough, obviously. You have to be able to respond to a considerable number of enterprise requirements and be secure. Security is part of the enterprise requirements. The fact that Zabbix can offer those things, and it's free, is why our customers choose it.

What needs improvement?

When our customers don't choose to go with Zabbix, it's usually been because they're looking for a solution that also contains mainstream AI, AIOps, if you wish. AIOps is a fully noted marketing buzzword, which can mean all sorts of things for different people. When I use that term, I'm talking about the requirement to analyze in-depth enterprise data. Zabbix is not an analytics platform.

We've never had any issue at all integrating Zabbix with any of the existing enterprise tools, whether it be ITSM, JIRA, or an analytics tool like Splunk — it's never been an issue. Their design team does a very good job allowing people to get access to the Zabbix database and to the Zabbix Schema, which defines the data that's stored in.

In the latest version, which is just about to be deployed, they are adding the capability of doing APM (Application Performance Monitoring). That's a feature that has currently been lacking — we'll have to see how it goes.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Zabbix for one year.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's a very reliable platform and we've never had any issues regarding the scalability or the stability of Zabbix. We've seen customers (not our customers) that have got huge implementations of millions of objects which are being managed. We've never had any issues with scalability.

How are customer service and technical support?

Zabbix is not a licensed software. People don't buy licenses for Zabbix. Technically, we are a reseller. So what is it that we resell from Zabbix? The answer is their service. Either their contractual support, their annuity based support, or their technical support. We can get them involved in certain implementations if the customer requirements require that.

Zabbix technical support is sold separately.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. It's a powerful tool; it's applicable to many different domains, through networks, through infrastructure, through applications, through containers, virtual resources, and cloud-based applications — it can be applied to all of them. The initial implementation is usually something we never have an issue with. It's a very easy-to-download package. Implementation requires experience. Deploying Zabbix is very easy, but if you don't know what you're doing, you can make an awful mess. That's where and why we offer our consultancy — to help people to make sure that they don't end up with petabytes of monitoring information on the first day. Which of course no one has any time to go through and handle. 

What other advice do I have?

Speak to a Zabbix expert before you get started because there are so many options in terms of architecture for deployment that you really need to understand relating to how Zabbix can give you those options and why they're useful. Options might include encryption or distributed architecture, so delegating monitoring responsibilities close to the objects that have been managed using proxies is a good idea. There are choices to be made so if you don't know the product and you are speaking to someone who does, then listen, because they can advise you properly to get the best benefit out of the software. Zabbix is a free package, you're not paying for any licensed software; the expense of Zabbix over time is related to how it's deployed and used. If you don't deploy it right, then you'll spend more time fixing your mistakes than actually using the software.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Zabbix a rating of eight.

I am not giving them a higher rating because they don't have analytics. They're getting there. They're becoming more and more proactive. They just added something which was very important called 'application performance monitoring'. From an enterprise perspective, they still lack the analytics capabilities, but that's not necessarily an issue unless you're looking to choose one tool that does everything.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
IT Assistant at Hotel 2 Fevrier
Real User
Open-source, reliable monitoring that helped solve my connection problems
Pros and Cons
  • "During my testing, the features that I like the most are that it can be integrated with my system, and it provides me with reports of all of my servers."
  • "I would like to remotely connect to the computer, and Zabbix doesn't have this capability."

What is our primary use case?

The primary use case is to resolve connection issues for my YouTube access.

What is most valuable?

I am still exploring all of the features that this solution offers. At this time, I have only downloaded the system log and scripts. 

During my testing, the features that I like the most are that it can be integrated with my system, and it provides me with reports of all of my servers. This allows me to know what is going on with my servers.

Also, I can create a script to download all of my configurations.

What needs improvement?

I don't know if I can remotely restart my servers or to know how a guest is doing on the server. I would like to remotely connect to the computer, and Zabbix doesn't have this capability. 

I have to use another software such as Emperor to log into the computer to see what is going on with the servers.

I would like to see a RAS integrated with Zabbix for monitoring, also to be able to check the server and to have an automatic display to do what we need to do.

For how long have I used the solution?

We are in the testing phases of Zabbix. I have been testing it for three months.

We are currently deploying it on my VMware to test the product and see how it works. Once I have all of the skills and requirements, I can process it into a real deployment.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Zabbix is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I am currently the only user in my organization.

I plan to use Zabbix in the future, as it has helped me resolve my connection issue.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have not contacted technical support. When I have an issue, I research their YouTube channel and watch their videos. 

You have to be patient. It helped to resolve the issues.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Previously, I was using the PRTG Network Monitor. It's an expensive solution. 

I chose Zabbix because it's a free edition, and I don't require a lot of monitoring. Also, I was limited.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was fine, it was simple.

For a proper installation, it can take up to two weeks.

What about the implementation team?

I completed the installation myself.

I installed the server, and then the client on the Windows machine to make the link.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It's an open-source solution that can be used free of charge.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have not tested any other solutions. I looked at most of the other products, but we have to pay for them. 

To resolve a fixed problem, I would have asked the management to purchase the product, which would take time. Instead, I read the review and installed Zabbix directly to resolve my connection issue.

What other advice do I have?

I am also using this solution to help me with writing my master examination. I need to write something about this solution.

I would recommend this product to anyone who is interested in using it.

I would rate Zabbix an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Deputy Manager - Infrastructure at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Good for monitoring but complicated to configure and it needs to be more customizable
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is monitoring."
  • "Having a more customizable interface and dashboard would be an improvement."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use Zabbix for monitoring our infrastructure.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is monitoring.

What needs improvement?

Having a more customizable interface and dashboard would be an improvement.

The interface could be more user-friendly because it is can be really complicated if an end-user has to configure it. The administrator usually has to take care of that.

I would like to see more SNMP and storage support.

Application monitoring should be included in the future. I would like to see voice telephony monitoring and database monitoring.

The reporting functionality is limited.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with Zabbix for the past four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This is a stable product.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have had no problem with scalability. The only people who use it are the IT staff, which is between 10 and 12 people.

How are customer service and technical support?

As we are using the free version, we do not have a support contract.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We are using the free, open-source version.

What other advice do I have?

This is not a product that I recommend. Instead, I recommend using SolarWindows or ManageEngine for monitoring because there are more features on Zabbix with limited usability. Reports are also limited. Basically, you get more features in SolarWinds or ManageEngine.

I would rate this solution a five out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
ICT Network Infrastructure & Architect at a transportation company with 1-10 employees
Real User
Top 20
A straightforward setup, stable, and offers flexible licensing
Pros and Cons
  • "The flexible licensing model is one of the solution's most valuable aspects. It really allows for great flexibility for companies."
  • "The documentation could be improved."

What is our primary use case?

The solution can be used to monitor both on-premises and cloud infrastructure.

What is most valuable?

The flexible licensing model is one of the solution's most valuable aspects. It really allows for great flexibility for companies.

The initial setup is very straightforward.

What needs improvement?

The NetFlow integration really could be improved upon. In general, integration with other solutions and services needs to be worked on.

The documentation could be improved. I find that it's a bit limited.

It runs on a Linux backend, and we're using it to monitor our Windows platforms. For people who are not familiar with Linux, there may be issues. You do need to have a bit of Linux knowledge before beginning, otherwise, you may have problems working with it.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using the solution for two months at this point. It hasn't been a very long period of time.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of the solution is good. It's reliable. There aren't glitches or bugs. It doesn't crash or freeze. We haven't had any issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is quite good. If you need to scale the solution up, you can do so. It's pretty straightforward. We haven't had any issues so far.

In our organization, we have about 1,600 users on the product.

We most likely will increase usage in the future.

How are customer service and technical support?

We've used technical support in the past. They have different platforms that handle requests at different levels. The gold platform, for example, offers support but is slightly limited. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup isn't complex at all. It was very straightforward.

In terms of deployment, it takes about a day, however, you have to add in all the other items that you're monitoring. We deployed everything and then rolled it out over the course of a couple of weeks.

What about the implementation team?

I handled the implementation myself. I didn't need to solicit the help of a vendor, consultant, or integrator. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The licensing is great on Zabbix. It's very flexible and great for various types of businesses.

What other advice do I have?

We're just a customer. We don't have a business relationship with Zabbix.

I'd recommend the solution. It's easy to use and it's been quite useful. New users do have to be pretty comfortable with Linux, however, otherwise, they may have a hard time adapting to the system.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten overall.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
D6B8 - PeerSpot reviewer
District Technology at INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT 196
User
Being able to monitor almost any device in one location is extremely convenient

What is our primary use case?

Monitoring systems and services that don't have their own solution in our environment. Single place to monitor multiple systems and processes. We monitor servers, websites, key card devices, etc..

How has it helped my organization?

Before we didn't really have a centrally managed monitoring solution, so adding this product has been a blessing as we are able to actively monitor and react accordingly. Being able to monitor almost any device in one location is extremely convenient.

What is most valuable?

The feature which I like the most would have to be the GUI. At first, I was put off, as I felt it was too complex or busy. Upon using it to setup devices, I found it was well laid out and has come a long way.

The agents are also very easy to install and manage, making this more of a turnkey solution for most.

What needs improvement?

I wish it had more options for personalizing the product, such as being able to include your company's logo without editing text files. More templates for specific devices.

For how long have I used the solution?

More than three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

None yet. Runs solid on very light resources.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Not yet, but as of now, it's a single server - might have to dive in at some point with the proxy configuration.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have used publicly available resources. I can't comment on their customer service.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We used Cacti, which worked well for our uses. We moved because we needed a more updated solution that had support for a myriad of devices. The community is also active in development of plugins.

How was the initial setup?

It's a decently complex system to get setup, it's not a simple package based system (well technically it is, but not as easy as others). It's also not as extreme as Nagios or Prometheus. We added Grafana, which made it a little more complex.

What about the implementation team?

In-house team.

What was our ROI?

Time and knowledge. Without it, we wouldn't have known of current issues in our environments. It allows us to deep dive and get to the core issues quicker.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It's open source, so no cost/licensing needed.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Nagios, Prometheus, Check_MK, Adagios, Icinga 2, Zenoss, PRTG, and Cacti.

What other advice do I have?

Zabbix coupled with Grafana (there's a plugin for Zabbix, very easy to setup), is a great monitoring stack. Leveraging "Let's Encrypt for SSL" is also a must!

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Infrastructure Automation Lead at SoftServe Ltd.
Real User
Has good stability and scalability
Pros and Cons
  • "Zabbix is both stable and scalable."
  • "For us, the initial setup was complex"

What is our primary use case?

I implement Zabbix for large companies with over 5,000 employees.

What needs improvement?

In the near future, we are going to see integration with its cloud platform.

We would like to use it for RBI, for service and credibility reports for our manager and management staff, and we also hope to use it to deliver customer scripts, etc. Currently, because we monitor over 5,000 hosts and servers, we need to use open source. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used Zabbix for the last five years.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Zabbix is both stable and scalable. As I mentioned earlier, we scale more than 5,000 hosts.

How are customer service and technical support?

Currently, our own team provides support, but in the future, we may use Zabbix support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We also use Nagios, but we are going to stop using this solution as it has specific limitations that we require. 

How was the initial setup?

For us, the initial setup was complex. We plan on integrating Zabbix with Prometheus and Grafana for a smooth relationship between dashboards. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We purchased Zabbix for a good price, including support. It's cheaper than Datadog and ScienceLogic.

What other advice do I have?

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Zabbix a rating of nine, strictly because we would like to see better integration with mobile TeleCloud.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user1339749 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Consultant
Scales well, provides good visibility, and the alarm monitoring is helpful
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is the alert and alarm monitoring."
  • "If Zabbix had a better dashboard then it would be nice."

What is our primary use case?

I was using Zabbix as a monitoring tool at my previous job, although I have left that company and am no longer using this type of product. We were using it for monitoring routers and a few thousand other devices. We had visibility as to their status.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the alert and alarm monitoring.

What needs improvement?

If Zabbix had a better dashboard then it would be nice.

For how long have I used the solution?

I had been working with Zabbix for three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is very good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We had between 20 and 30 users and more than 2,000 devices.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have not personally been in contact with technical support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Prior to using Zabbix, we used Nagios. We switched because it became unstable and clumsy when we grew to have more than 2,000 devices. Zabbix was much better in terms of scalability.

How was the initial setup?

I don't recall all of the details related to the initial setup, although I remember that it was not quite easy. We had to conduct quite a few searches on Google during the process in order to properly understand how to install it. If I remember correctly, there were a couple of errors.

What about the implementation team?

We had two engineers who were responsible for maintenance.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, I think that Zabbix is an awesome tool and I would use it again, rather than another one. For us, Nagios was a disaster and Zabbix was the savior. We didn't require any functionality that it didn't already have. My only complaint is that the dashboard needs to be improved.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
IT Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Poor server monitoring, does not scale well, and lacks performance
Pros and Cons
  • "The implementation process is very straightforward."
  • "The server monitoring could be better."

What is our primary use case?

Our company works with the health ministry in our country. We implement the solution for them and they use it as a monitoring solution in order to watch trends and server patterns, etc.

What is most valuable?

The solution works well for monitoring our on-site server.

Sometimes, the server can go down. When this happens, the solution has the capability to alert us to problems and will automatically notify us of any issues via email.

The implementation process is very straightforward.

What needs improvement?

The server monitoring could be better.

I'm not well versed in Zabbix, so it's difficult for someone like me to handle the setup. They should work to make the implementation much easier. It would improve the useability of the solution.

The solution needs to have a higher quality of performance. Performance is very important to our clients, and this solution doesn't perform very well. The quality and code are difficult.

The solution does not scale well.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using the solution for one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

HIgh performance is important to us, and this solution just doesn't offer it. It's unreliable. The quality just isn't there right now.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Our company needs a solution that can scale, and this product does not offer good scalability. It's one of its biggest downsides. If a company needs to expand the solution, they'll find that they won't be able to effectively.

How are customer service and technical support?

We haven't had any issues with technical support. They've satisfied our needs to far. We don't have any complaints about the service they offer their clients.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup isn't too complex. It's fairly easy to implement and set up.

What other advice do I have?

We're just a Zabbix user. We don't have a special relationship with the company.

I would rate the solution three out of ten. I would rate it higher if there was better scalability potential and the performance was of a much higher quality. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
PeerSpot user
David Collier - PeerSpot reviewer
David CollierCo-Founder at Nobius IT
Top 5LeaderboardReseller

I'm surprised that you believe that scalability and performance are an issue. Having said that, much depends on the configuration that is implemented. I'm not suggesting that this is the case with your implementation, but we have often seen customers simply implementing the Zabbix "appliance" (a single VM) as a production instance. A full Zabbix implementation is highly scalable and performant with many hundreds of thousands of "values per second" possible. Of course, as with any monitoring software it does require a degree of administration. For example, if you are using only a single server for Zabbix you may wish to consider splitting the web server, zabbix server and database across multiple VM's. We also implement multiple web server front-end which are load balanced.


It's also possible to tune the number of pollers that are running to further improve performance.


I hope that gives you some ideas.

VP of IT Infrastructure at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Cost-effective and works well for Cisco switches, but the setup is difficult and time-consuming
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is the support for monitoring Cisco switches."
  • "The main problem with Zabbix is that you have to spend time writing templates for all of the products that you have."

What is our primary use case?

This is a network monitoring solution that I was playing around with to see if it would meet my needs.

How has it helped my organization?

Zabbix helped me to identify issues on the system, as well as ports that were open.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the support for monitoring Cisco switches. It is easy to use because there is a free template for it included.

What needs improvement?

The main problem with Zabbix is that you have to spend time writing templates for all of the products that you have. It would work great if I had the time to do it, but considering that I have all kinds of different devices, I don't want to spend the time doing it.

If they included more prebuilt templates of devices that are in use today, then it would be very helpful. For example, they have a template for a SonicWall 3600, but they don't have one for a SonicWall Tz300. They do have some base templates but they are not customized for these specific products. For some products, I was able to download one, but not for all of them.

The documentation needs to be improved.

The deployment is complex and should be simpler to complete.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Zabbix for about a month.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Once the product is started, it is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I didn't really test the scalability. For me, it wasn't scalable because I only used it for the devices for which I had templates. I was the only person who was using it.

How are customer service and technical support?

I did not contact technical support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I was using Kaseya Traverse, which I bought because I have a large Kaseya installation. I thought that it would monitor sFlow, but it didn't, so I returned it and then replaced it with LogicMonitor.

Basically, the problem was that in order to support sFlow, I would have to have a virtual machine for each of the network switches that I wanted to monitor. So if I had 50 switches then I would need 50 virtual machines to monitor sFlow. When they told me that it supports sFlow, then technically, they are correct. However, what they didn't tell me was that for each switch, you have to create a separate collector, which didn't make any sense.

With SolarWinds NetFlow, you can have multiple switches with one collector.

How was the initial setup?

After I downloaded Zabbix, it was a pain to set up. I would say that it is complex in terms of the instructions. I was getting errors, and apparently, I was not the only one. I had to look at two or three different websites to get it set up. I found that if you follow the steps that come with it, which were not very detailed, it did not work. I had to search through different forums in order to figure out the error that I was getting. By the time I had finished, it took me three or four hours to figure out why I was getting the errors, and I had to reinstall it four times in the process.

In total, I would say that the deployment took at least 12 hours.

What about the implementation team?

I completed the deployment myself.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I was using the free, Community Edition.

What other advice do I have?

My advice for anybody who is implementing Zabbix is to seek the help of somebody who has actually done it before. Otherwise, it's not worth their time. Also, find somebody who can provide you with the templates that you need, or who's got familiarity with building them. It is a good solution if you have the time to build the templates and figure it all out. This requires knowledge of SNMP, as well as all of the devices. Then, you have to put it into XML and create a template that Zabbix can use. It is not a straightforward solution.

The reason that I stopped using Zabbix and bought LogicMonitor is not that it didn't work well. Rather, I needed a solution that was complete, where I didn't have to do the development.

I would rate this solution a four out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
IT Administrator at a aerospace/defense firm with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Top 20
Reasonable network monitoring which works okay if you don't mind the glitches
Pros and Cons
  • "Simple network monitoring that is easy to install and manage."
  • "The product delivers false positives during reporting because of flapping. Other reasonably priced alternatives may have better performance."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use for the solution was to monitor the network and servers.

How has it helped my organization?

We used this solution for monitoring our applications and our internal web applications, which we couldn't do with Icinga (the previous software we used). That product was very good but the application monitoring of it wasn't good at all. Now I hear that application monitoring is very good in Icinga EN, so we might try it again.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable thing about the Zabbix product is that it was easy to install and manage.

What needs improvement?

There are a lot of things that can use improvement which is why we are seeking a new solution. Network monitoring is a problem. It gives too many false positives. For example, it notifies us that a server is down while I'm using that server — the server it claims is down — to do the search. A moment after the search is complete, everything is OK again. It's called flapping. It has some flapping control, but it's not as good as other products. I used to use Icinga and it is a better product in that respect.

For how long have I used the solution?

We had been using this product for about four years or more.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I know it doesn't just go dead on me, so the stability is okay I guess. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I don't really know how the product scales as I haven't tried to scale it up or I haven't had the need. Considering that we will be moving away from the product, I don't need to bother with that right now.

How are customer service and technical support?

Their online help is okay, but not as amazingly good as Icinga, for example. Icinga has the largest user base as far as I can tell and I use IRC for help a lot and there's a lot of people in it. There are few helping with Zabbix. The forums are pretty up-to-date.

As far as tech support itself, I have emailed them about the flapping issue, but the main issue that bothers me is the flapping and infrastructure monitoring which is not very good. The support team suggested a few tricks which would help but not as much as I want. The support team is responsive, but nothing was resolved.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We are actually looking for another solution that meets our needs better. That is not because Zabbix is necessarily a bad solution. Our needs changed and there are better solutions available.

I previously used ManageEngine OpManager in another organization, so I guess the reason as to why I switched was that I changed jobs. That product was excellent, but it is also out of the reach of my current budget.

How was the initial setup?

Installation was not hard and it was very straightforward. The initial deployment without any complex setup took a few hours. Then the setup took an additional three days to a week. In total about a week to be completely deployed with all the servers monitored and everything working.

I did the deployment alone. I set it up and everything, and left it to other people to monitor as per their responsibility. I have 10 admins monitoring it. I've stopped monitoring it at this point, or in the half past year or so, as I am looking for a better solution.

The admins use it daily. Even now, I'm getting all the emails and I'm a little bit bothered from the continued flapping. Every admin is responsible for a different aspect of the monitoring so they get their dedicated reports. For example, one admin is responsible for the ELP servers, so he's getting only the email for the ELP related stuff.

What about the implementation team?

We did not implement through a vendor. I did the implementation myself. It's very easy, you don't need anyone just to install it. For more complicated stuff that I was not sure of, I asked around on forums. I did the entire implementation myself and it's very easy.

What was our ROI?

Any product that is saving you from a network meltdown is really worth more than you pay for it. This product did its job and some are still using it in the organization while we search for a better solution.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this product a 7 out of 10. This is because it needs better flapping control and better infrastructure monitoring. Other products provide this already. I don't think I have much to say that isn't answered elsewhere. The product's benefit is that it is easy to get up and running. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Damien Finette - PeerSpot reviewer
Damien FinetteVP Sales APAC, EMEA at Argent Software
User

Hi Dror

Please feel free to contact me should I be of assistance.

Regards
Damien
DamienF@argsoft.com
Www.argent.com

See all 4 comments
Monitoring Manager at SkyToll, a. s.
Real User
DBforBIX and auto-discovery are valuable features

What is our primary use case?

To monitoring our prod, pre-prod, and test environments.

How has it helped my organization?

Simple, we know everything about our infrastructure, problems, etc.

What is most valuable?

  • DBforBIX
  • Auto-discovery.

What needs improvement?

It's OK for me as is, but some frontend improvements would be nice.

For how long have I used the solution?

More than five years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Tchidat Linda - PeerSpot reviewer
Tchidat LindaEngineer of Telecommunication at Gold Telecom
Top 5Real User

Very interesting your Zabbix review,
For me, i have not yet test DBforBIX,
and, if you want, i would like to share your experience in some points.

it_user1005354 - PeerSpot reviewer
User at Fujitsu
MSP
The auto-config feature is invaluable

What is our primary use case?

Infrastructure monitoring.

How has it helped my organization?

Excellent monitoring tool.

What is most valuable?

Auto-config.

What needs improvement?

Multitenancy.

For how long have I used the solution?

Still implementing.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Network Security Specialist at SON Corporate Group
Real User
Enables the ability to execute a custom script on devices to solve problems in seconds.

What is our primary use case?

  • OS monitoring with SNMP or Zabbix agent (Windows(server and client), Linux and mac)
  • Database monitoring with Zabbix agent (mariadb-oracle)
  • Device monitoring whit SNMP (Cisco devices, Mikrotik and firewalls like sophos nad juniper)

How has it helped my organization?

Creating a trigger to get alarmed on it and take action to solve them (automatically), and get management info to improve performance.

What is most valuable?

Zabbix scripts is the most valuable feature because you can execute a custom script on devices to solve problems in seconds.

What needs improvement?

It is a little complex to config and implement so I'd like for them to make it easier to config, for example, a configuration for SNMPv3 or trap listener on it.

For how long have I used the solution?

Still implementing.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We still do not have this software completely under the stress, but it has worked well so far.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Like other software, its efficiency and scalability depend on a variety of circumstances, one of the most important is to allocate enough resources to it and its database.

How are customer service and technical support?

There are good resources to help with fixing your needs.

And while this is an open source software but has a good support team, however, we have not had the support needed before.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Because zabbix is a open source NMS however it is very powerful and highly scalable.

How was the initial setup?

Its launch is more complicated than other software and requires more steps for settings. But when it comes to how it works and how to categorize the information in the database, you'll have a better idea of what you can say.

What about the implementation team?

We did this ourselves.

What was our ROI?

Of course, as with other network management software, the return on investment depends entirely on management responses to the information that is available from these systems.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

This is definitely a free software (it's open source), and You just need to allocate some resources to launch it

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Of course, we compared it with similar tools like Nagios, Zenoss, PRTG and OP Manager , and we chose it based on the benefits

What other advice do I have?

When you learn how to work with it, you will love it.

It is a complete network management system that will meet all your needs.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user901191 - PeerSpot reviewer
Assistant Manager at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
We use it to monitor and manage our servers
Pros and Cons
  • "Zabbix can use old data to current data to set the threshold. We can use previous data to set the threshold."
  • "We use it to monitor and manage our servers."
  • "I want Zabbix to improve the UX/UI. Zabbix doesn't use a JavaScript chart for images, and I want them to improve this."

What is our primary use case?

We have a lot of servers (about 10,000). We monitor and manage them using Zabbix.

How has it helped my organization?

It has rich functions.

What is most valuable?

The financial setting is the most valuable feature, since Zabbix can use old data to current data to set the threshold. We can use previous data to set the threshold.

What needs improvement?

I want Zabbix to improve the UX/UI. Zabbix doesn't use a JavaScript chart for images, and I want them to improve this.

For how long have I used the solution?

More than five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Performance is really stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable.

How are customer service and technical support?

We don't use technical support. We have a contract, but we don't use it because there are not many problems.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We switched from our previous solution because of cost.

How was the initial setup?

I installed Zabbix, and it was easy.

What was our ROI?

It is free, which allows us to reduce costs.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Our choices were Geneos, Nagios, Zabbix, Centreon, and Cacti. We chose Zabbix because we did a proof of concept, and Zabbix was the best. It had the richest functions, and it was free.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution as a 10 out of 10. It is the best product. I really love Zabbix because it has a lot of functions and works well. My advice is to use Zabbix.

When selecting a vendor, the number of customers is very important along with the price.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Sr. Linux Analyst at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
We are able to do problem determination on runaway processes
Pros and Cons
  • "It can send messages to our ticketing system."
  • "It has good graphs of what is going on within the operating system.​"
  • "We are able to do problem determination on runaway processes."
  • "​I would like to better be able to monitor Oracle processes.​"

What is our primary use case?

We use it to monitor Linux systems. It has performed well.

How has it helped my organization?

We are able to do problem determination on runaway processes. 

What is most valuable?

Graphing processes. It can send messages to our ticketing system. It has good graphs of what is going on within the operating system.

What needs improvement?

I would like to better be able to monitor Oracle processes.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is good.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have not used technical support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did not previously use a different solution, so I asked my manager to look into it.

How was the initial setup?

I was involved in the initial setup. The initial setup was straightforward.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated SCOM.

What other advice do I have?

Most important criteria when selecting a vendor: 

  1. Features
  2. Price.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user200937 - PeerSpot reviewer
System & Network Engineer at a tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Easier to maintain, configure and less expensive in the total cost of ownership.

What is our primary use case?

Monitor systems and networks devices and web applications. Increase monitoring by including powershell script and automation on incidence responses.

How has it helped my organization?

We are now more pro-active before an issue appears to our customer because all the layers are now converged by Zabbix monitoring.

In addition, this monitoring product is easier to maintain, configure and less expensive in the total cost of ownership than the others.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features are its performance (scalability) in monitoring, the monitoring centric (agent compatibility with the large vendors OS, SNMP, IPMI, JMX), VMware monitoring, web monitoring, capacity planning and the proxifying monitoring.

What needs improvement?

The capacity planning feature and SLA monitoring need to be improved.

The capacity planning feature should give to administrator recommendations regarding the actions to be done on systems to ensure scalability and stability. In addition, currently this feature only provides basic information (disk usage time left, cpu consumption forecast, etc.). You cannot predict easly the capacity planning of virtual infrastructure or scale-out network storage.


What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There were no stability issues experienced because the server component is compiled in C and is separated from the web dashboard (PHP).

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

There were no scalability issues experienced because Zabbix is optimized for a high performance. The Zabbix server and the Zabbix proxy use various data caching solutions, giving them great performance and reducing the load on the back-end database.

How are customer service and technical support?

We have a partnership with a solution integrator, so we don't open a case directly with Zabbix LLC.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Previously, we were using Nagios coupled with Centreon. We switched because Centreon has some paid features and so, there are some hidden costs. In addition, we needed to use an agent in our client OS because some metrics are deprecated by SNMP and are only available via WMI; WMI is known for its performance problem in monitoring.

How was the initial setup?

The setup was very simple, it is very well-documented and packaged for a lot of Linux distribution.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

This product is free, i.e., no vendor lock and all the features are included without the Enterprise Edition. However, just like the other products used in production, it's better to subscribe to a support contract.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We looked at other solutions; stay with Centreon's newer version.

What other advice do I have?

The only advice is:

  • To read the documentation before implementing.

  • Test the software with the appliance (i.e., only for testing and not for the production environment).

  • Participate with the community on the forum.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Gerente de Informática at a tech services company
Consultant
Move from a reactionary approach to a proactive evaluation of equipment or systems
Pros and Cons
  • "Health and communication links availability."
  • "Look and feel."

What is most valuable?

  • Monitoring servers
  • Health and communication links availability

How has it helped my organization?

By using the solution, we moved from a reactionary approach to a proactive evaluation of our equipment/systems.

What needs improvement?

Look and feel.

For how long have I used the solution?

Six years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Not in the version we’re currently using.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No.

How are customer service and technical support?

We only use the free version without support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Yes, we used to use another solution. We migrate to Zabbix after evaluating when it was implemented as a part of a web-based software solution that was acquired by the company in which I was working at that time.

How was the initial setup?

The installation process was simple.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Nothing, because we’re using the free version, which covers all our current needs.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

No.

What other advice do I have?

You’ll be pleasantly surprised if you give the product a chance.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user656028 - PeerSpot reviewer
PostgreSQL Database Administrator at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
Gives Flexibility Of Building Checks Without Relying On Special Plugins

What is most valuable?

  • Multi-level infrastructure maps. You can set up highly customizable maps of your infrastructure, including each component status, maps which can contain submaps, and if something’s wrong at the submap level - the submap will be shown with problems.
  • Agent and agentless monitoring. Installing an agent is the easiest way, but SSH, SNMP, Impi, custom scripting and other protocols are supported.
  • Templates. There are a broad set of templates that define monitoring items for common OS and applications, you can build your own or use one developed by the community.
  • An API for you to create, modify, and delete most things programmatically, including items, triggers, charts, etc.

How has it helped my organization?

As we know how are systems are supposed to work, Zabbix has given us the flexibility of building our checks without relying on special plugins. If some monitoring item is not provided already, building your own is very easy, and any scripting language will do. We’re able to pinpoint with accuracy where issues lie, and respond to them in a cost effective way, due to the nature of it being open source, with fairly decent documentation and optional commercial support.

What needs improvement?

The Java gateway for monitoring Java applications didn’t work for us. Our JMX Service URL’s are somewhat complex, but we were able to write our own JMX checks.

For how long have I used the solution?

Three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

When your checks grow to a certain volume, you need to adjust some settings on the server related to cache sizes, preforked workers, and so on. This is expected as with any service that grows beyond its default settings, there’s documentation about it.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The system is as scalable as your database is. We applied partitioning on the biggest tables to keep the performant at 14 new values per second. You can setup a distributed architecture consisting of an N number of proxies capturing data and reporting to N master servers.

How are customer service and technical support?

Fortunately, we’ve never needed it, because we have very talented engineers in our team and there’s plenty of documentation available online. There are also user forums which are helpful most of the time.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

A fork of Nagios called Icinga, it’s pretty good, but something like the Zabbix Maps feature was a must have for us. We needed something very schematic and flexible to show the overall status of our systems.

How was the initial setup?

It wasn’t complex, but we have very skilled engineers.

The quickest way to go is to have a turnkey virtual instance tailored to your needs by Zabbix, or use one of the freely available ones.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The product is open source with optional commercial support, which is recommended to reduce the learning curve, avoid pitfalls, and keep the project going.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

SolarWinds. Nice product, but our particular project was more in line with the Linux, PostgreSQL, and the Open Source philosophy.

What other advice do I have?

If you’re into the Open Source and freedom principles, don’t mind getting your hands dirty, and have the technical skills, Zabbix is a good choice. Commercial support is available if you don’t want to go at it alone, lack sufficient technical skills, and you need help to keep the project going.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Director at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Consultant
Integration With Other Open Source Solutions Expand Possibilities For Data Visualization

What is most valuable?

Highly adaptable to almost any environment and technology. The use of features, like Low Level Discovery, Templates, and Macros, allow an easy and customizable deployment over large environments.

Regarding notifications, the ability to use different media types and custom scripts gives Zabbix virtually no limits (mail, SMS, Telegram, Slack, etc.). Integration with other Open Source solutions, like Grafana, expand the possibilities for data visualization.

How has it helped my organization?

Availability problems are easily detected, minimizing downtime. Performance problems are detected before having an impact in customer experience. There is a centralized view of the whole IT system (HW to apps), and new devices services are easily integrated.

What needs improvement?

Reporting and SLA customization.

For how long have I used the solution?

Five years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

None.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

None.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

None.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

We are partners, so customer service does not apply to us.

Technical Support:

We are partners with Zabbix. The response whenever we needed their technical assistance was excellent.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We used Cacti for data visualization. We switched because of the benefits of using Zabbix as a central monitoring solution instead of having multiple tools to manage.

How was the initial setup?

Straightforward. Documentation on the initial setup is available at Zabbix's website and easy to follow.

What about the implementation team?

We are Zabbix's partners.

What was our ROI?

Being truly Open Source, the only investment is in the time needed to get to know Zabbix and all the features it brings. This time is later gained in downtime minimization, easy scalability, and overall system status visualization.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Zabbix is Open Source, there is no licensing or pricing. As with any monitoring tool, there is a time cost which is required to learn how to use it well.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated Nagios. We preferred Zabbix for the easy to use GUI and because it is 100% Open Source.

What other advice do I have?

In our opinion Zabbix is an amazing monitoring solution which allows for any service or device to be monitored. In most cases, integration is supported out-of-the-box. In some cases, additional scripting or minor development is required.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We are Zabbix resellers.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Head of computer network and telecommunications division at a financial services firm
Real User
with Zabbix and some programming experience, you can monitor absolutely everything

What is most valuable?

  • Stability
  • Flexibility
  • Expandability

My favorite features are auto-discovery and LLD (low-level discovery) with Zabbix (and with some programming experience), you can monitor absolutely everything.

Also, it is worth mentioning the good quality of documentation and great community support.

How has it helped my organization?

Before we implemented Zabbix, we were blind.

What needs improvement?

I'd like it if they'd have implemented some sort of SNMP auto-discovery.

For how long have I used the solution?

Almost seven years (from version 1.8.2).

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There were some issues, then I made an upgrade from version 1.8 to 2.4.
I had to migrate existing MySQL DB (that is sitting under the hood) from one engine to another.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Yes. But again, it was an upgrade issue.

From the very beginning, I used distributed monitoring that was based on the Zabbix nodes conception, but they got rid of the nodes since version 3.0.0.

So, I had to change Zabbix Nodes with Zabbix Proxies. Finally, I have found out that the Proxies have better performance, stable matching, and are easier to configure than the Nodes.

How are customer service and technical support?

I know they have one but I never had a chance to use it.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Before Zabbix, It was another Open Source solution: Nagios. Actually, I set them both up simultaneously.

So, I had a chance to compare them side-by-side. Finally, I chose Zabbix.

How was the initial setup?

Setup is the very first step. This step you have to perform just once. The process is easy and straightforward, but the product itself is not easy to use.

I would suggest reading documentation before the installation. It has a steep learning curve.

What about the implementation team?

The monitoring of IT infrastructure is not a piece of cake. Don't think you can install it with a couple of clicks and be done.

To implement have a good implementation, you have to read the documentation thoroughly.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Like any other Open Source product, you can spend some money on support, but the product itself is free of charge.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

No, I did not evaluate other options before choosing this product.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Senior Consultant at a tech services company
Consultant
The most valuable features are the monitoring and the ease in which we can set it up at customer sites.
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features are the monitoring and the ease with which we can set it up at customer sites with our custom Zabbix proxy and tools."
  • "The dashboard and the graph section could be a little bit more professional."

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features are the monitoring and the ease with which we can set it up at customer sites with our custom Zabbix proxy and tools. It is very agile and it is easy to do custom setups.

What needs improvement?

The dashboard and the graph section could be a little bit more professional.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Zabbix for about five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There were no issues with stability, but we needed to adjust some of the standard values in the configuration. However, that was to be expected.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I haven't scaled yet, but we plan to do this with two front-ends, two Zabbix cores, and HA MySQL.

How are customer service and technical support?

We haven't used technical support yet. I have attended a course with one of the employees at Zabbix, and he was very good.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did not use a solution previous to this one.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup and the subsequent upgrade were both very easy.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

There are no licenses.

What other advice do I have?

Just go for it. The possibilities are endless and very large.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We have teamed up with Zabbix and have become a partner.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
System Integrator at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Consultant
Scalability is extremely valuable.

What is most valuable?

Scalability, everything can be monitored.

What needs improvement?

Reporting is weak, if you want something better you must write your own SQL scripts/

For how long have I used the solution?

3 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Sometimes.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Yes, web-page Zabbix server, database can be separate machine.

How are customer service and technical support?

Never used the technical support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Yes, previously used Cacti or Nagios but Zabbix has node communication.

How was the initial setup?

Straightforward, if you understand basic things about databases or web services, it's easy.

What other advice do I have?

All data is stored in the database. If you have more than 200 hosts you need a fast disk or good tuning of the OS/database.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Consulting System Engineer at ENEA
Real User
We value the auto-host discovery, template import, and bulk import/export features.
Pros and Cons
  • "We value the auto-host discovery, template import, bulk import/export features. Newer versions also add nice features, such as multi-IP per host."
  • "We had some scalability issues with a large number of nodes."

What is most valuable?

We value the auto-host discovery, template import, bulk import/export features. Newer versions also add nice features, such as multi-IP per host.

How has it helped my organization?

We operate an HPC cluster. On several occasions, the datacenter(s) counted above 1000 hosts. An easily scalable solution is most valued against other solutions which are simpler to operate and have a smoother learning curve, such as Nagios.

The design of Zabbix allows the user to change metrics and check on the server side, instead of changing them on the client side, via a configuration file.

What needs improvement?

I use an older version of the product, so I cannot answer this question.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using the solution for seven years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The underlying database needs proper tuning and maintenance to avoid table fragmentation.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We had some scalability issues with a large number of nodes. It was as if the underlying relational database is on the same machine and has fragmented tables. The server CPU could ramp up to 100% and the metrics are not refreshed properly.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We switched in order to get the benefit of the ability to redefine metrics server-side, nested templates, and the really powerful graphs available at the time.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was really straightforward. However, as soon as you reach 100 monitored clients, the default MySQL configuration doesn't scale up. I'm sure that a newer Zabbix version relies on better backend solutions for data storage.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It's free software released under the GNU/GPL license.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated Nagios.

What other advice do I have?

It is unnecessary if you have below 100 hosts. Otherwise, it's a great tool, with a nice web interface.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
IT Administrator at a retailer with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
The dashborad helps us to anticipate problems.
Pros and Cons
  • "Dashboard and the customization of the items and triggers are the most valuable features."
  • "It should be easy to modify the front end."

What is most valuable?

Dashboard and the customization of the items and triggers are the most valuable features.

How has it helped my organization?

With just one look at the dashboard every morning, we can anticipate problems.

What needs improvement?

It should be easy to modify the front end.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used this solution for five years (started out with v1.8).

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There were no stability issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

There were no scalability issues.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Previously, we were using Nagios. The front end was poor so we switched over to Zabbix.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The product is an open source and free solution.

What other advice do I have?

It's a complete solution. There is a learning curve but it is worth it.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Associate Solutions Engineer with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
By proactively monitoring, it helped us to fix problems before any major disaster. Dashboards and reports can be improved.
Pros and Cons
  • "It provides high scalability, alerting, notification, templating, and end-to-end security."
  • "There are a lot of areas for improvement, specifically in the dashboards and reports functionalities."

What is most valuable?

It monitors almost everything.

It provides high scalability, alerting, notification, templating, and end-to-end security.

How has it helped my organization?

By proactively monitoring, it helped us to fix problems before any major disaster.

What needs improvement?

There are a lot of areas for improvement, specifically in the dashboards and reports functionalities.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used this solution for four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There were no stability issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

There were no scalability issues.

How is customer service and technical support?

I haven’t used technical support yet.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is a bit complex, as lots of things need to be planned carefully during the implementation of the solution, such as the hardware sizing, customizing templates for monitoring the customer's environment, and much more.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It is a true open-source solution, so there are no licensing costs.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated many products such as HPE SiteScope, Nagios etc.

What other advice do I have?

An in-depth knowledge of the product is needed to customize it, according to your customer's needs.

It is advisable to hire a consultant and do a PoC (proof of concept) before arriving at conclusion.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user692547 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user692547Lead - Solution Specialist at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Consultant

Zabbix is good solution considering open source platform. It meets customer basic needs . Inbuilt dashboard and report capabilities needs to improve more.

Regards
Sameer

PeerSpot user
IT Infrastructure Manager at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
I like its versatility the most. Its template is another valuable feature as hosts can be easily added.
Pros and Cons
  • "It not only provides the preconfigured item monitoring feature, but it is also easy to configure custom items."
  • "Even though it’s such a powerful monitoring system, it would be more helpful if it had a flexible UI."

What is most valuable?

It has various features, I like its versatility the most.

It not only provides the preconfigured item monitoring feature, but it is also easy to configure custom items.

The template is another valuable feature, because hosts can be easily added.

How has it helped my organization?

My organization can get a proper alarm when some issues occur on a system.

What needs improvement?

Even though it’s such a powerful monitoring system, it would be more helpful if it had a flexible UI.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used this solution for more than three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There were no stability issues experienced, it’s so stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

There were no scalability issues.

How is customer service and technical support?

I’ve never used technical support because it is free.

How was the initial setup?

I did the setup by referring to its documentation and that was enough.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It’s free of cost.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I checked Nagios, but I didn’t seriously evaluate it.

What other advice do I have?

The documentation has all the information you need.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user685347 - PeerSpot reviewer
Linux System Administrator at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
The solution allows us to monitor critical parts of our systems, track performance and utilization, and prevent outages.

What is most valuable?

Zabbix is fully open-source - no paid features/versions, so you get everything for free. Great, totally free product:

  • It is very customizable and flexible - you can monitor almost everything.
  • It has many great options - like auto discovery/registration, many types of alerting and templates provided by the vendor.
  • It is easy to implement, easy to use for technical people.
  • It is very stable, flexible and scalable.
  • It has many great features ready to use right after installation.
  • It is a little hard to understand for the non-technical user.

How has it helped my organization?

Zabbix allows us to monitor critical parts of our systems, track performance and utilization, and prevent outages.

It allows us to monitor specific parts of the system as well as control how the whole environment is doing.

With the great alerting system we always know which component might fail and can prevent it.

Adding new hosts/items is easy and quick and the great function for mass updating many components at once is very helpful as well.

What needs improvement?

Zabbix is a great tool and fairly easy for a technical person but it could be more friendly for non-technical staff.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using the solution for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We did not encounter any issues with stability. Zabbix is very stable. I can't remember a Zabbix server ever failing.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We did not encounter any issues with scalability.

How are customer service and technical support?

I've never contacted Zabbix technical support. I had no need to. The Zabbix forum was enough for my issues.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I switched from Nagios to Zabbix. For me Zabbix is more intuitive, flexible, offering more options out-of-the-box.

How was the initial setup?

I didn't have troubles implementing it. The official documentation is more than enough.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Zabbix is free - no hidden costs, no paid features. Just download, install and enjoy.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I had the option to stay with Nagios or switch to Zabbix. I switched.

What other advice do I have?

Make a plan for components you want to monitor, how these components are related, what groups and templates you want to create.

Also at the beginning don't be afraid to use templates provided by Zabbix - it will help you start. After that you can slowly tweak them or add new ones.

Make the database backup - that should be obvious.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Consultant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Consultant
My extended experience with Zabbix or how to cook toasts

Hi everyone,

I want to share a story about cooking toasts and tell you how we were expanding the functionality of Zabbix by a coil of wire and an integrated circuit Open Source solutions. First things first.

Imagine, you work in an organization (and it can be yours) where its business process is supported by one or more IT systems. There is a monitoring system. Then a little blurred vision, and it is not clear whether /the industrial system is free or Open Source. However, there aresituations when all the sensors aregreen, but the business process gives unexplained setbacks, showing a decrease of key indicators. Matter-of-factly, the situation is out of control and your intervention is required. It’s quite a common case. A systematical approach for solving this problem will provide a drafting services model.

Tom Wujec who provides services for the visualization of the processes occurring in the companies (not just IT), carried out a curious study. He asked different people to draw the process of toasting. See below for some results of this work.

What do we see on this pictures? Right you are. You can see objects and links presented in any system. The more you see them , the more the approach will be systematical. The correct degree of granularity will more accurately monitor the "health" of business system. To construct a circuit, you can try to use the Visio, but much more interesting is to take a marker to draw connections, adhesive sheets for objects and to portray your system on the whiteboard. The more is the quantity of yellow leaves, the more are the links, the higher is the chance to determine the maximum number of monitoring points for right resolving of the problem.

And now it's high time to tell you about our experience in the field of expansion of standard functional Zabbix and of systematical approach described above. There are exactly two of them.

The first is Mapping systems and the installation of thermal services’ card. In view of our considerable experience in the monitoring of the banking business processes, we give an example of exactly this area. Let’s consider three of the most common banking systems. If there is a more typical system in your bank it will not be considered here.

Home banking (online banking):

Enterprise serial bus (ESB):

Decision-making system (Credit convey):

In our application, it will look like this (yes, the structure is somewhat broken, but visibility still persists):

You can go to a lower level in case of need. And, last but not least, when you move the object pops up pop-up window with the description of the event and with a link to the graph in Zabbix

Through this approach, and given the level of details, we get friendly dashboards in the output, and at the same time a simple problem of localization tool. A few words about the features of our system:

- Visualization of the dependencies among enterprise systems;
- Set up of the degree of mutual components’influence (due weight);
- Integration with Zabbix (objects on the heat map are associated with flip-flops);
- Pop-up windows with text events when you hover over the event object;
- Visual Interface Communication Configuration objects;
- Visual communication setup interface of objects with triggers Zabbix.

As an example, some already developed interfaces.

Adding objects to a heat map:

Adding integrations from Zabbix:

Connecting Zabbix triggers to objects on the heat map:

The system is based on Google Charts and Bootstrap. While this is an alpha version, we plan to develop it further, adding useful pieces of industrial systems, which have been working successfully for many years. I will try to keep you in touch and to publish posts on the basis of practices developed.

The second experience is the integration with Zabbix and heat maps of synthetic transactions functionality. In fact, it’s a continuation of the heat map, and the look from the other side. Definitely controlling the system only from the application and infrastructure, you will not have the necessary information completeness. Synthetic transactions will allow having a look as a user and isolate the problem even before the first user requests to the Help Desk.

Synthetic transactions are based on the framework phantom.js (but nothing prevents you to go to casper.js, to pure selenium or anything else on your liking). In our test lab the execution of scenario is configured through cron and then the data are transferred to Zabbix by Zabbix trapper. As an example, the test scripts are logged into the MTS (Russia's mobile operator) personal account and receive money from the demand balance and the traffic in the Internet package (I can send it to you if you interested in this script). In the banking community, the most likely use of this tool can be, for example, online banking. Nobody will prevent you to log into the system and flip 1 dollar from one account to another.

Collected items from our example are as follows:

Each has its own schedule.

I do not want to say that the use of Open Source solutions monitoring is a tablet from all troubles. I will reveal an open secret: as in physics, there is the law of conservation of money and effort. The more money you invest into a finished product, the less effort for improvement, and vice versa. Always should be guided by common sense, the available budget and the human factor: ready to be your team to throw in the recess of business monitoring on the first call?

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user2652 - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Manager at a non-tech company with 10,001+ employees
Vendor
Popular
Highly recommended open source monitoring software for servers and network monitoring

Zabbix provides flexible functionality over Nagios and other open source monitoring softwares like opennms, zenoss etc. It is widely used in market these days due to its easy administration and configuration.

Pros:-  1. Zabbix provides a user friendly GUI interface for administration and configuration for monitoring servers and network. 

2. Zabbix is open source software, so no licenses needs to be purchased. 

3. Zabbix clients can be configued easily by installing Zabbix client software on client machines on the network. Zabbix client machines can be of either windows, linux or any unix machine. 

4. User parameters can be configured for customized scripts. 

5. Configuration/administration documentations are available on official web site of Zabbix and videos/additional documentations are also available on other popular websites like youtube etc.

Cons:- 1. Installation is little complex, tedious, time consuming and prone to user errors. However, once installed, it provides user friendly interface for all administrative tasks. 

2. Some scripting knowledge is required in order to make changes to configuration files. 

3. Adding custom services requires reloading the config or restarting the service.

Alternate Vendors:- Nagios, Zenoss, Cacti !!


Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user2652 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user2652Project Manager at a non-tech company with 10,001+ employees
PopularVendor

I have not used Anturis, but I have heard that this is very good monitoring tool for cloud servers.

See all 3 comments
PeerSpot user
IT Developer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Consultant
Nagios vs. Zabbix vs. PRTG vs. Spiceworks vs. Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor

I have researched a quite a few network monitoring tools which can be used for various monitoring purposes of not only the servers, but the intermediate routers as well. There are majorly three types of these softwares. Ones which are completely open-source, you can do almost anything you want using these, but they require quite some expertise before you can use them. Then there are the ones that are not open source, the enterprise softwares and cost you some money, but on the other hand, they are extremely easy to set-up and learn. You can have them up and running in a matter of minutes. And then there are those which are completely cloud based. They can be free of cost or charge some money depending on the software. The good thing about these is that you don’t have to install any extra software, and it can be managed completely online but then again these have limited features and you cannot exploit them to the full extent as you can do with the open-source and to some extent the enterprise software, so I won’t suggest you to use these, because these are generally not the complete solutions and require other support software to achieve the same. Below I have listed the outstanding pros and cons of the various Network analyzers that you can look into.

Nagios

Pros:

  • Nagios offers an extensive set of collector plug-ins that allows users to gather performance and availability data from a broad range of operating systems, including  Windows and Netware
  • Nagios has a web interface that helps users check network health from anywhere
  • Creates reports on trends, availability, alerts, notifications — via the web interface
  • Monitors network redundancies and failure rates

Cons:

  • Web GUI is not good
  • Steep learning curve is required for managing config files to run devices and tests

Zabbix

Pros:

  • Zabbix is fully configurable from its web front end and so it is easier to use Zabbix
    than the popular Nagios — whose configuration requires several text files
  • Further, Zabbix combines both monitoring and trending functionality, while Nagios
    focuses exclusively on monitoring
  • The Web monitoring function of Zabbix allows users to monitor the availability and
    performance of web-based services over time. Moreover, this functionality allows
    Zabbix to log into a web application periodically and run through a series of typical
    steps being performed by a customer
  • It’s open-source and has a well-designed Web GUI and overall concept
  • Zabbix offers good alerts, dedicated agents and an active user community

Cons:

  • Zabbix is not suitable for large networks with 1,000+ nodes, due to PHP performance
    and Web GUI limitations
  • A lack of real-time tests, as well as complicated templates and alerting rules

Solarwinds

Pros:

  • SolarWinds’s ConnectNow Topology Mapping allows users’ environment to be mapped
    in real time automatically. This provides graphical visibility into users’ networks,
    requiring no additional work or tools
  • SolarWinds’s Integrated Wireless Poller monitors wireless devices for security and other issues and reduces the difficulty in managing these items, allowing more widespread use of wireless technologies
  • Excellent UI design
  • Customizable, automated network mapping
  • Great community support provided by Thwack
  • Mobile access
  • Native VMware support

Cons:

  • Unable to configure alerts from the web-console
  • Clumsy “Group Dependency” configuration
  • Reporting module needs better ad-hoc reports
  • No native support for Microsoft Hyper-V.  Features SNMP only

PRTG Network Monitor

Paessler has completely redesigned its Web interface to make it simpler to use. In addition, the company has added support for a mini-HTML interface for mobile devices, including iPhones, BlackBerrys, Androids and Windows Mobile devices. What’s more, with the iPhone app — available through the iTunes App Store — IT managers can not only receive alerts about network status, they can also take action.

Pros:

  • Google Maps integrated with the Web interface, allowing monitoring software to display
    geographical maps
  • Functions of advanced maps for creating custom network views
  • Real-time availability of up to a year of actual historic data, not aggregated data
  • Integrated native Linux monitoring functions
  • Monitoring of virtual environments, including VMware, HyperV, Xen and Amazon Cloud Watch
  • Installation of reliable alarm system enabling alerts via e-mail, SMS, instant
    messenger, pager message, HTTP request, syslog, etc.
  • A variety of new sensors and remote probes to monitor distributed systems, including
    xFlow sensors for monitoring via NetFlow or sFlow.
  • Very easy setup, 
  • broad  range of sensors,
  • self-contained design

**I did not find any cons!

Spiceworks

Spiceworks is a network management and monitoring, Help Desk, PC inventory and software reporting solution for handling IT in small and medium-sized businesses.

Pros

● Fast installation
● Main dashboard completely configurable
● Easy to use monitoring console
● Active user community, with forums, ratings and reviews, how-tos and whitepapers
● Free
● Easy to install and configure for Windows environments
● “All in one” solution for Inventory, Monitoring, and Help Desk
● Great starting point for IT management

Cons

● On larger networks, performance can be slow
● Limited scalability
● Does not facilitate managing control of monitored devices
● Some initial device configuration is required to be recognized by Spiceworks
● VMWare and Unix systems not discovered nearly as easily as Windows
● Does not provide the same depth of monitoring and control as enterprise-level
   products

Software Faster Config Process Good web interface Compatible to leading OS Better Graphics and Navigation Cost Effective Free? Mobile Access Integrated Maps
Nagios No Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No
Zabbix Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
Solarwinds Orion Network Performance Monitor No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes

Yes

Paessler NetworkMonitor Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes
Spiceworks Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No

Inputs

If you want to try out an open-source software, which is absolutely free, you should opt for Zabbix. You can also try out the PRTG Network monitor as it is free for up to 30 sensors. Considering the fact that currently we do not have a lot of servers, you can opt for the PRTG monitor as it is much simpler than Zabbix with almost all the same features and actually much better GUI. Like Zabbix it also has excellent community support and once you feel that you need to add more sensors you can opt to pay for those using the PRTG Network monitor or go for Zabbix. The problem with softwares like Zabbix and Nagios is that they require a very steep learning curve and unless you devote a person for that purpose it would be really time (that implies money) consuming. So basically its just the same. I would suggest to give the PRTG Network Monitoring System a try.

Important links

PRTG Network Monitor download link : http://www.paessler.com/prtg/download
Zabbix Download link : http://www.zabbix.com/download.php

PRTG System Requirements : http://www.paessler.com/prtg/detailedrequirements
Zabbix Systems Requirements : http://www.zabbix.com/requirements.php

PRTG Support : http://www.paessler.com/support/manuals
Zabbix Support : http://www.zabbix.com/documentation.php

PRTG Community and Blog : http://www.paessler.com/blog
Zabbix Community and Blog : http://www.zabbix.com/community.php

Extended Feature Comparison of the Network Analyzer tools

Name IP SLA Reports Logical
Groupings
Trending Trend Prediction Auto-Discovery Agentless SNMP SysLog Plug-Ins
Zabbix Yes Yes Yes No Yes Supported Yes Yes Yes
Solarwinds Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Supported Yes Yes Yes
PRTG Network Monitor Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Supported Yes Yes Yes
Nagios via Pliug-in Yes Yes No via Pliug-in Supported via Pliug-in via Pliug-in Yes
Name Triggers/ Alerts WebApp Distributed Monitoring Inventory Platform Data Storage Method License Maps
Zabbix Yes Full Control Yes Yes C, PHP Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL, IBM DB2, SQLite GPL Yes
Solarwinds Yes Full Control Yes Yes .NET SQL Commercial Yes
PRTG Network Monitor Yes Full Control Yes Yes Unknown Proprietary Freeware and Commercial Yes
Nagios Yes Yes Yes via Pliug-in C, PHP Flat file,SQL GPL Yes

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user613302 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user613302User at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
MSP

Meanwhile Zabbix offers trend prediction as well:
https://www.zabbix.com/documentation/3.4/manual/config/triggers/prediction

See all 19 comments
PeerSpot user
Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
MSP
Flexible but the UI is hard to get used to.

Valuable Features:

Zabbix is very flexible and scalable.

Room for Improvement:

The UI is hard to get used to.

Use of Solution:

2 years

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
IT Manager at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
Vendor
Zabbix sends alerts which are useful to prevent server outages.

What is most valuable?

The e-mail and SMS alerts are two features I have found valuable.

How has it helped my organization?

Zabbix sends alerts e.g space on drives etc... which is useful as a prevention of server outage.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for 3 years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No issues with deployment.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No issues with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues with scalability.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously used Spiceworks.

How was the initial setup?

The setup was straightforward, monitoring simple environment.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented in-house.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

1 virtual server equals 1000 USD.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Spiceworks.

What other advice do I have?

I recommend this solution.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Owner at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Consultant
ZABBIX is a 'all-in-on' and 'true opensource' monitoring solution but needs needs improved reporting functions

What is most valuable?

This software is the most powerfull monitoring tool that I know. Actually since 2005, when I started to work with ZABBIX, this software keeps growing and growing. Each new version ZABBIX SIA company (who maintain this software) delivers improvements and new features that help IT professionals to take care of their infrastructure. Some of the main features:
  • Automated network discover (ICs, servers, switches, routers, etc)
  • Automated item/metric discovery (partitions, network interfaces, users, databases, virtualhosts, etc)
  • Flexibility to 'learn' things (is trivial to extend ZABBIX features)
  • All things (historical data, configuration, etc) are in database
  • Automated inventory hosts (hardware and software)
  • Web monitoring (a robot to check websites)

ZABBIX is a 'all-in-on' monitoring solution. We don't need any other monitoring tool since we use ZABBIX.

How has it helped my organization?

Actually we are ZABBIX partners (premium and training) to Brazil and LatAm and our goal is to help other companies using ZABBIX.

What needs improvement?

I think ZABBIX needs improved report functions. Since ZABBIX version 1.8 we are using the ZABBIX API to integrate ZABBIX data with others tools (Pentaho, QlikView, etc.) when ZABBIX built-in reports are not enough.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using ZABBIX since 2005.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

None.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

None.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

In some scenarios/projects we need to adjust ZABBIX components (agents, proxies, nodes, GUI, database, etc) in line with each one. What I mean is that we need to know ZABBIX and also know the customer's environment to have a successful deployment without stability and scalability issues.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service: ZABBIX SIA has almost 70 partners around the world and services are delivered in local customer languages :)Technical Support: ZABBIX SIA partners has levels (Reseller, Certified and Premium) and Premium partners are the best ones :)

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Yes, we used a lot of other monitoring tools (6 at the same time with distinct functions). We switched to ZABBIX because:
  • ZABBIX is a 'all-in-on' monitoring solution
  • ZABBIX is 'true open source'
  • ZABBIX is 'Commercial/Professional' supported
  • ZABBIX has a 'centralized' approach. All things are done using the ZABBIX GUI

How was the initial setup?

Its depends, if the customer environment is complex, the initial setup will be same. Here (at Unirede) the initial setups are always straightforward because we already have good expertise with ZABBIX and infrastructure areas.

What about the implementation team?

In-house team.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Our setup was done with a in-house team and the costs are a 'ZABBIX Certified Specialist' to take care. But we are a ZABBIX Premium Partner and our customers choose ZABBIX (instead other commercial softwares) mainly because a ZABBIX deployment is not too expensive ;)

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Of course. We need to check other oprions all the time. Some software we evaluated: Nagios, Zenoos, HypericHQ, PandoraFMS, BigBrother/Quest.

What other advice do I have?

People need do a POC (Prove of Concept) to check if ZABBIX will fit in their needs. We also have a lot of blogs talking about 'Monitoring Solutions' and a lot of 'comparisons', but I think the best way to start is to choose to work with a ZABBIX Partner around the world and talk about your needs.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Consultant at a tech consulting company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Consultant
Easy product with all the features you need but it would be nice if it had predictive trending.

What is most valuable?

Low Level Discovery is imho the best feature in Zabbix. It will do some auto discovery of network devices, filesystems and snmp oid's.

How has it helped my organization?

If you are serious about your infrastructure then you have to know what is going on. With Zabbix we know when servers are using to much cpu, memory, disk IO, etc. Besides getting notified when something goes wrong, we are also now aware of how good our infrastructure scales, something that can save us money and frustrations.

What needs improvement?

Zabbix has it all except for predictive trending. This would be a nice extra feature. Also the SLA (it services) part can use some improvement.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the product for about 2 years now, the company I work for was using it already before I joined. About a year ago I passed the Zabbix training course.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

Deployment of Zabbix is easy and very straightforward. The only thing to do is install clients on your devices that you want to monitor. And even that is not always needed. It is also possible to do some checking from the server side. Also, it runs on almost every platform available on the market today.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Zabbix is written in C, developers have high standards before accepting code from the community. Zabbix itself uses little resources and is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

If it scales then it is Zabbix. The only thing that can be in your way is the database and the hardware it runs on. As Zabbix uses a database you need descent hardware and a good DB if you have alot of machines to monitor with lots of items to check.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service: For us, as partner the support we get from Zabbix is great. We get answers quick and they always take our issues seriously.Technical Support: There is professional support from Zabbix SIA that can be bought. They even offer to develop custom features in Zabbix if you like. Of course there are also the Zabbix partners like the company I work for that can provide support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Before I knew about Zabbix I was working at another company where we where using Nagios (opsview). Glad I had a chance to learn Zabbix, there is just no way to compare Zabbix. This is real time monitoring :)

How was the initial setup?

Setup of Zabbix is easy. There is a great manual how to install and use it on most of the systems be it with rpm or deb or from source. It's probably the easiest open source monitoring platform to install. Also there are almost no dependencies needed that are not in the os already.

What about the implementation team?

As a Zabbix partner and official trainer we of course did the setup on our own.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The product self is free there is no hidden cost or no cost for a enterprise version or some features that get disabled later. The product comes 100% free and it stays that way.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

In our company we are always following the latest trends on the market so we try to follow them all as much as needed. Our preference goes mostly out to Zabbix of course.

What other advice do I have?

Tweak the standard templates and make sure you don't run the DB on a virtual platform.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user8784 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user8784Consultant at a tech consulting company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Consultant

Since Zabbix 3.0 there is now predictive trending and much more. In fact Zabbix is now the only open-source solution that delivers a complete set of features.

it_user82719 - PeerSpot reviewer
Engineer at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Vendor
Chose Zabbix over Nagios but wouldn’t suggest an in-house Zabbix implementation without a technical staff

What is most valuable?

Open Source: All the sources for all the products are Open Source, so you can use a complete product from the start. There are no "premium" features with additional cost.

How has it helped my organization?

It gives you visibility over your infrastructure, so you are able to know the health of your services and it's dependencies every moment (and even to react automatically to problems). For example, in one organization I worked for, before Zabbix the problems were normally reported by the clients using the call center, so the Operations team was always working against the clock and with high levels of stress; after a successful implementation of Zabbix, putting the right monitors in place and a period of stabilization, the Operations team had the information to prevent the problems before the clients were affected. This resulted in a Operations team with lower levels of stress, more time to work on important projects and client satisfaction by lowering the number of problems visible by the client.

What needs improvement?

The low discovery functionality is still very young so this feature has a lot of room for improvement. The graphics generated by the system can be improved and also the web interface. At this point in time it's possible to archive a good level of security by using external tools, but it would be nice if this level of security could be archived out of the box.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution since version 1.4 which was around 2008, so I've been using the product for six years now.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

Having the right knowledge, the installation and implementation of Zabbix it's very simple, even the principal Linux distributions already have a Zabbix version in their repositories. A successful implementations requires the knowledge of what it's necessary to monitor and the way to do it, but this is true for all monitoring products.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No, the software is very stable as well as the the components it depends on (in my case Linux, Apache, MySQL).

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No, Zabbix is very scalable and well programmed, also gives you elements to identify when the performance could be a problem and can be configured in a very granulated way. Also, the principal components can be separated and gives you options to distribute the monitoring (archiving horizontal scaling).

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

I don't have first hand experience with the Zabbix SIA support, but the support the community provides it's great.

Technical Support:

Based on the information I can see in the Zabbix forums and social networks I would say Zabbix SIA have engineers with an excellent technical level.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Yes, the principal reasons to switch to Zabbix were: Flexibility (Zabbix allowed the monitoring of something the other product does not), cost (no license costs, it was possible to monitor something with no extra costs, the hardware necessary for Zabbix was much lower) and in the tests Zabbix outperformed the other products evaluated.

How was the initial setup?

The first time I installed the product (back in 2008) my initial impression was the software was complex to install, basically because at that time the repositories of my Linux distribution had an old version of the software and I wanted the most recent so I installed the software by compiling the sources; but once you understand, document and become familiar with the process it's pretty easy. Also, at the beginning understand the philosophy behind Zabbix was a little complicated but equally once you have the knowledge it all become easy and natural. Another aspect you can consider complex in Zabbix it's the lack of detail in some templates, so if you only use the out of the box templates (without changes) you ended up with a basic monitoring, most of the time you will need to extend the template to adjust it to your specific needs and obviously this will require knowledge of several aspects (this can be seen as an advantage or a disadvantage).

What about the implementation team?

I've been responsible for about 4 Zabbix implementations and always was in-house job.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

In this case, again, I don't have numbers. In the last implementation, the original cost was only the cost of the hardware plus the salary of the sysadmin responsible of the system, the day to day cost it's only the salary of the sysadmin. No fees for licenses and no fees for support at this time.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Yes. Nagios: This product it's the de-facto for open source network monitoring. System Center Operations Manager: The monitoring solution of Microsoft.

What other advice do I have?

My advice is that its good to have a clear understanding of the goals you are looking to fulfill with the monitoring system, the objectives must be clear, also the environment in which the system will be implemented and the capacities (hardware, people, time, etc). There are a lot of aspects to take into consideration when choosing and implementing a monitoring system so invest as much time as possible in planning carefully. Zabbix is a great product, with great flexibility and I'm sure can be adequate to most of the situations, but maybe it's not the best choice in some scenarios, so plan carefully before choosing and implementing any product. For example, I would not suggest an in-house Zabbix implementation to a company without technical staff.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user67692 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager of Development at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
No comparison between Nagios and Zabbix. Zabbix wins hands down.

IMO there is no comparison between Nagios and Zabbix. Zabbix wins hands down. Having worked with Zabbix since 1.4 it has evolved into a great product and the features coming into 2.x are amazing.

Some features that Zabbix has that Nagios is lacking:

- Auto Registration
- Auto Discovery (agent devices, snmp, etc..)
- Aggregate Graphs (this is very useful when looking at the overall picture)
- Distributed Monitoring
- Windows Service Discovery (coming in 2.x)
- Native JMX Support (coming in 2.x)

There are many other features that Nagios just doesn't have, not to mention the ease of use.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Engineer at DevScope
Vendor
Great for monitoring several network services but reporting capabilities has room for improvement

For how long have you used this product?
- Approximately since Jan/2012

Which features of this product are most valuable to you?
- The ability to monitor IT Services (SLA) as a whole and not just counters on particular systems.

Can you give an example of how this product has improved the way your organization functions?
- It provided us with the ability to monitor on a reliable way service levels acquired from several network services provided by interconnect devices.

What areas of this product have room for improvement?
- With no doubt one of the areas that has a lot to improve is the reporting capability. Zabbix is a fantastic system for technicians but not as good as the competition to build reports, specially reports for management/not technical.

Did you encounter any issues with deployment, stability or scalability?
- The current version has more detailed documentation but when we first deployed Zabbix (version 1.4) some areas were not very well documented and we had some issues. Nothing that prevented us from deploying the solution but made it a bit harder to do, in particular to configure the agents on Windows servers and configure the needed counters.

Did you previously use a different solution and if so, why did you switch?
- I've used several other solutions in the past, from the "standard" Nagios to Cacti, Solarwinds, Spiceworks, Zenoss, etc.

Before choosing this product, did you evaluate other options? If so, which ones?
- I really knew well other solutions and if Zabbix wouldn't do what we needed, I had other options. Nagios or Cacti would be the chosen ones.

How would you rate the level of customer service and technical support?
- I've never needed to contact customer service or technical support but used the Community Forum to answer some questions/implementation difficulties.

Was the initial setup straightforward or complex? In what ways?
- The first installation was a bit complex due to lack of proper/extensive documentation. Subsequent upgrades have gone smother due to improvements on the documentation and hands-on experience with the Zabbix particularities.

Did you implement through a vendor team or an in-house one? If through a vendor team, how would you rate their level of expertise?
- The implementation was done 100% in-house as I have a good expertise level on such systems.

What is your ROI on this product?
- Zabbix is Open-Source and because we did an in-house implementation the costs can be summarized to a part of one server, due to the implementation on a virtual environment.

What was your original setup cost for this product and what is your day-to-day cost of using this product?
- The setup cost was only the man power hour costs and it really has no day-to-day costs.

What advice would you give to others looking into implementing this product?
- My advice would be to plan well what you need to monitor first - define which systems and which counters you really need to monitor - and start slow, one thing at a time.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Senior Manager of Engineering with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
Extremely powerful and flexible but the auto-discovery function has room for improvement
On a scale from 1-5 (1=worst, 5=best), how would you rate this product overall compared to similar products?
- In my experience there are two classes of network management systems, Open-source systems that are generally free, and commercial systems complete with support as well as some advanced self configuring features. Zabbix actually fits into both classes, but in my view it has more in common with the open source systems.
- Compared to SIMILAR products, I would give it a 5. This means as compared to similar open-source tools that do not have a strong network auto-discovery feature.
- By network auto-discovery, I mean features found in tools like SolarWinds, NetMRI and other commercial products that have part of the configuration work done in advance. For example, when I plug in NetMRI and give it a list of login/password combinations and an IP range, it is able to self-configure, finding most of my network gear automatically. Network discovery is a useful feature that can reduce the amount of time it takes to integrate a system.
- Zabbix does have a discovery feature, but it is configured by the user. Zabbix is extremely powerful, and I got the network discovery tool working in just a couple hours after my first installation. The advantage is that it can be used to detect and configure non-standard devices.
- The self-configuring systems like SolarWinds and NetMRI seem like they have an advantage, however there is a cost associated with that advanced function. The largest one being that they only support a small set of big-names, like Cisco. Not everything on a network is a Cisco, so that advantage quickly becomes less important.

For how long have you used this product?
- Over 6 years.

Which features of this product are most valuable to you?
- It is the flexibility of the system that I enjoy the most. I can make it do things that are unique to me, such as do deep analysis of a custom device that I built. Or non-standard hardware that require unique test methods. Of course it also does the standard stuff very well. I have Zabbix monitoring Servers, network components, Air conditioners, etc. I have it alerting field installers for an ISP, to let them know that they have made an error in configuring an end-user router.
- It can do anything I can imagine doing. I even keep an eye on my BBQ smoker at home with Zabbix.

Can you give an example of how this product has improved the way your organization functions?
- The best examples are in an ISP and in a large network of Hospitals.
- In an ISP, it allows the network operators to track the performance for each customer, and know about outages before the customers do. It allows the operators to track network quality so that problem trends are detected before customers are impacted. It also watches for new devices being connected to the network, and tracks environmental conditions in field. If we discover a new condition to watch for, it takes only seconds to add new tests to thousands of devices.
- In a hospital network where there are many mission critical systems, I can use it to track and report on SLA's as well as monitor unique medical devices that you are not going to find supported by a system like SolarWinds. It allows me to create dash-boards for executives, giving each management user a front page view that is specific to their needs. So each user sees what they need, and nothing that they don't need. With the discovery engine, I can take common network components, and create a template for the desired configuration. Then I can have the system scan the entire network and automatically identify and add each different type of equipment to the system.

What areas of this product have room for improvement?
- The auto-discovery function could be improved to include more hands-off automation. The current system is great for experts, but it could be improved so that a novice could use it as well.

Did you encounter any issues with deployment, stability or scalability?
- In the early versions, there were some scaling issues, but there have been several large improvements in that area, and in general the system is much more scalable than most systems, such as SolarWinds.

Did you previously use a different solution and if so, why did you switch?
- I have used many different systems over the years. As time passes, each system was replaced by a different competing system. Each new system was better than the ones before it, with improvements in ease of use, scalability, depth of function, and flexibility all seeing improvement as I progressed from one system to another.

Before choosing this product, did you evaluate other options? If so, which ones?
- HP Openview, Ipswitch whats up, Big Brother, Nagios (was Net Saint), MRTG, RRD, Cacti, Zenoss, GLPI, Solar Winds, NetMRI, LiveAction... and I'm sure there have been others that I left out, as well as many home-grown systems.

How would you rate the level of customer service and technical support?
- I have never used the official technical support channel for Zabbix, however I have engaged the community by using the support forums. And in the forums I was able to get help directly from one of the Zabbix developers when I found specific issues I needed help with.

Was the initial setup straightforward or complex? In what ways?
- There was a steep learning curve. I have found nearly all systems to have steep curves. The easiest systems were the expensive commercial systems, although even those had some difficulties when you wanted to do something non-standard. Zabbix was not the worst system, and was far from the easiest. However the need to learn something complex is rewarded by the capabilities gained. I'm an expert as implementing monitoring systems, but someone with fewer years of experience will probably find it even more challenging, and may feel the need for training, which is available.

Did you implement through a vendor team or an in-house one? If through a vendor team, how would you rate their level of expertise?
- I am an army of one!

What is your ROI on this product?
- Because I focused on an unsupported free version, my main investment is time. Because of my experience level, and the automation featured I used on day one, I found an immediate ROI half-way through the first day of use. I was able to get done in 4 hours on Zabbix what was going to take many months on the system I had been using before (a combination of Nagios and Cacti).

What was your original setup cost for this product and what is your day-to-day cost of using this product?
- The original set-up cost was an open-source OS deployed in a virtual environment... so about 1/4th the price of one server, and about half a day of labor.

What advice would you give to others looking into implementing this product?
- This is a system designed for professionals, and is most advantageous when used by someone with some training or a lot of experience. A novice can learn to use the system, but be prepared to work hard to learn a fairly complex system.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user4329 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user4329Senior Manager of Engineering with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor

I purchased a copy of that book myself. I can't say that I read very much of it, but I keep it around for others, and I like the idea of supporting the author of my favorite management system.

As for the SNMP traps, when I refer to the Zabbix documentation, I incorrectly lump the official and community documentation together. I'm a googler, so they tend to transparently intermingle under my fingertips. But yes, the SNMP traps are documented on the community wiki with four different recipes,

See all 10 comments
it_user3579 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
Consultant
Nagios vs Zabbix

Everyone is familiar with the product Nagios, which is often considered the de-facto standard for monitoring. The other tools in that general category are OpenNMS, Zenoss, Groundworks, HyperIQ and others. I am only talking here about tools that would qualify in the NMS category: something that really tracks different systems and devices across the entire infrastructure.

A couple of years ago, I was so tired of Nagios that I was ready to try something new. A couple of tools didn’t make the list, simply because of the “fremium” model. The basics are there, but anything more typically carries a hefty price tag.

I decided to try Zabbix and I have pretty much been a fan ever since. One caveat here, is that I am talking about version 1.8.x. Version 2.0 just came out and offers a few notable improvements, which I haven’t tried out yet. A couple of things that look very promising are: Direct JXM support, multi-homed hosts, and mounted filesystem discovery. Full list of changes is here

As an overview, Zabbix offers the following benefits:

Relatively quick & simple install on a variety of platforms Agent-based, but available agentless options. A fairly vibrant community A large amount of templates covering most popular software Integrated graphs Escalation management

More specifically:

Graphs

There are a lot of graphic front ends for Nagios. In general, they are bolt-ons of varying quality. On the other hand, graphs are probably one of the stronger features of Zabbix. Typically, templates will have a few graphs predefined, but more can be added fairly easily. Any item that’s being collected can also be graphed on-demand. The one small drawback is the inability to save pics on the fly, which is sometimes useful for distribution. A workaround for that is described in this thread.

Graphing performance is decent if not spectacular. That will largely depend of data volume, your hardware and range of time. What I found especially valuable is something zabbix refers to as “screens“. Generally, the entire point of graphing or visualizing something is to be able to easily identify trends and correlations. “Screens” allow you to group disparate items together. For example, if you wanted to see the correlation between your requests per second, queries per second, response time, network traffic and read/write percentage, it’s fairly trivial to put it together. Besides that, I’ve tended to use screens almost as targeted dashboards. Something like putting all the MySQL relevant information on the same screen (disk IO, queries per second, replication lag, cpu/mem, cache hits, etc) can let you know the health of your MySQL infrastructure almost immediately. Same can be done on the web side and other areas.

Performance Performance will vary quite a bit. I’ve ran Zabbix on a large instance at EC2, backed by a 4-volume EBS RAID set and was able to receive 600-800 values/second without much of a problem. However, with that setup, the screens (particularly the ones with with a lot of metrics) would load in 2-5 seconds and the lag was noticeable. One key tweak that is absolutely necessary is the polling frequency. Most of the default (and 3rd party) templates will have the polling frequency too high. You generally don’t need to poll for free space every 5 seconds and there are plenty of examples like this. The data retention period also needs to be adjusted in a lot of cases. Reducing those intervals to something more reasonable is going to give a significant performance boost. It will behave better because you’ll reduce the volume of incoming values, but it will also reduce the amount of data you store and query against in the database. You likely don’t need precise-to-the-second numbers for every metric you collect going back a year. Historical data is still available, though in a somewhat less detailed form, which is generally sufficient for trend information. If the data volume gets too large, the clean up process might start failing. I’ve noticed that around 150GB of data it would start having trouble. At that point there aren’t very many good options and they tend to be quite hairy. It’s best to avoid getting into the situation in the fist place.

There are also a couple of options for distributed monitoring, if the performance requirements exceed the capability of a single node. There is a lot of documentation about it on their site, but it generally boils down to a choice between proxy or a node. I tend to prefer a proxy because of easier setup and maintenance. In a more specific example, I’d use proxies in an AWS environment which was spread across different regions. Another good use case in AWS is if you have a mix of a VPC and regular EC2 and you’d place your proxy in the VPC. This method can allow for significant scaling capabilities, though you would still need a very capable central master. The one significant benefit to a node approach is that they can be queried independently and support a hierarchical approach. However, in an environment with 1000s of devices that support different applications, nodes are likely a better approach.

Monitoring It’s a fairly standard feature set that is generally similar across other NMS systems. A couple of things worth noting:

Web Monitoring – it has a built in web transaction monitoring. It’s decent if not spectacular and doesn’t really compare against sophisticated transaction monitoring systems that are out there. It does support multiple steps and it’s based on curl, though it doesn’t expose all of curl’s functionality. That will present a problem if you need to do extensive cookie manipulation and/or variables. It’s also useless for heavily AJAXed pages and the ones that use flash. Still, it’s decent for basic monitoring and more then most other systems offer. IMPI support is worth noting, but I’ve personally never used it. Log Monitoring – this isn’t going to work well for high traffic web logs, but it does a pretty solid job at picking up exceptions and errors in various files. It does support a full regex engine for pattern matching. I’ve had it monitoring files that received ~500 lines per second and it had no issues with that. Templates – this is the core approach to monitoring in Zabbix. All your monitoring definitions are ideally grouped in templates. When a new server/instance shows up, you simply apply the template to it or add it to a group to which this template is assigned. There are a few templates that come out of the box of varying quality and there are a lot of user-generated templates for a variety of applications. A lot of them will have a script (PHP/Perl/Python) that polls the application and sends the data back. Typically you’ll have to make a few tweaks that are specific to your environment. Some of the ones that I found useful and better then others are: This is the “default” MySQL template for Zabbix and it’s based on a PHP script. The description says it wasn’t tested on 5.1, but I didn’t seem to notice any issues. There are range of values that have to be tuned in order to avoid false alerts. If you’re used to the Cacti templates for MySQL and the data those provide, this is a port to Zabbix. If I remember correctly, this template required a few tweaks to the PHP script, in order to get it working. This is another decent template for MySQL, but you don’t get InnoDB information out of the box. It is good for monitoring multiple MySQL instances on the same box though. The other templates would require modifications in their polling scripts. For Haproxy, I’ve used this template. It’s better than others, since it allows you to look and compare statistics of individual servers behind Haproxy. The downside is that it won’t automatically discover changes. That can be scripted, but it might get a little hairy. For Nginx, this is more than sufficient for most needs. Another one that is useful for Nginx, though the site is in Russian. Google translate does a pretty good job there. There are a few other templates on that site, but I’ve never tried them.

Misc

It does have an API for automation. I think it was improved in 2.0, but in 1.8 it was already solid. There is a decent CLI tool written in Ruby that will interface with the API, called zabcon There isn’t a great way to control alert floods. You can control trigger dependencies, but if something really goes haywire you might be manually clearing SQL tables after that. Alert escalations are a little wonky, but they work reasonably well. It is pretty trivial to port existing Nagios plugins or other scripts into Zabbix. JMX monitoring was done via zapcat. It wasn’t great, but for the lack of better options this was the only thing to work with. Version 2.0 does it natively and if they did it right, that’s probably one of the biggest improvements.

In summary, from what I’ve seen, Zabbix is easily one of the top NMS systems out there, though it’s probably somewhat less popular than others. If you’re fed up with Nagios or doing a brand new deployment, taking a serious look at Zabbix will be worth your while.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user4329 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user4329Senior Manager of Engineering with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor

The old-school systems produced graphs every time data was gathered. This resulted in a fast user experience displaying graphs, but it caused the number of values per second to be limited by the number of graphs per second you can produce.

Zabbix dynamically creates the graphs on demand. This reduces the number of times it much produce a graph, pushing up the number of values per second you can capture. But as the reviewer noted above, screens and individual graphs can display slowly if they contain too many data points.

I agree with the reviewer that many or most of the default poll rates in the templates have excessive poll frequency. In fact, they are so high as to have an impact on the machine your are polling if you have very many values you are pulling. Sometimes I think that the people that create the templates only have one machine they are monitoring, and they set the poll frequency high just to have quicker graphs appear when setting up a new zabbix server. Nothing is more boring than spending a couple hours setting up a monitoring system, only to have a bunch of graphs with single dots on them because your polling cycle for disk space is every 15 minutes. But regardless of the reason for it, I think it is irresponsible to release templates with inappropriate polling cycles.

But back to the graphs, if you have too much data, an otherwise simple graph will take a long time to display. On a screen this gets worse because you are displaying multiple graphs. So to get the best screen display performance, reduce the polling frequency to the lowest value that still produces good graphs.

I have been knows to produce two objects for the same item, with different polling cycles. A long polling cycle for graphs that appear on screens and public viewable pages, and faster polling cycles for detailed data collection to be used in debugging.

I've used nearly all of the network monitoring systems in the 30+ years I have been monitoring networks. Zabbix is my favorite for most applications. I do use more advanced commercial systems such as NetMRI, as the commercial systems can do things like discover all of your systems, and self configure. Commercial systems like NetMRI also do deep inspection, such as VOIP quality analysis, that Zabbix simply isn't designed to do.

I can do anything with Zabbix, anything that I have time to configure. But to be fair, systems like NetMRI can be configured for very large environments in 5 or 10 minutes, out of the box. But when I want to do something special, that I create code for myself, I don't use systems like NetMRI, I use Zabbix. Zabbix is my favorite general purpose network monitoring system. And to be fair, Zabbix is a commercial system too, when you need it to be.

Tools like NetMRI have a lot more power to self-configure, but that power is not free... The NetMRI quote for the hospital I worked for was $300,000!! The commercial version of Zabbix was much lower. And with some careful work with discovery templates, you could still get some self-configuration out of Zabbix.

Solar Winds is another commercial tool in the same space as NetMRI. Solar Winds is nice, but the performance is impacted by the fact it runs on Windows, so it takes more hardware to monitor large enterprises, but it is comfortable for the Windows geeks. I'm not a Windows geek...;)

George

See all 3 comments
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Zabbix Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: May 2023
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Zabbix Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.