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Zabbix plugin

Documentation Team
  • Updated

Zabbix plugin

Zabbix is an open-source tool offering enterprise-class server monitoring solutions for a variety of infrastructure needs.

How to add the Zabbix plugin

  1. In SquaredUp browse to Settings > Plugins > Add plugin and search for the plugin.

  2. Display Name:

    Enter a name for your plugin. This helps you to identify this plugin in the list of your plugins.

  3. Base URL:

    Enter the Base URL of your Zabbix endpoint, for example
    https://{your-host}/

  4. API Key:

    Go to your Zabbix account, create an API token, and paste it in here. If you need help creating an API token, please refer to the Zabbix documentation: Zabbix: API tokens

  5. Ignore Certificate errors:

    If you activate this checkbox the plugin will ignore certificate errors when accessing the Zabbix server.

  6. Leave the checkbox for Automatically create a workspace ticked, this will create a new workspace for this plugin containing out of the box dashboards and scopes.

  7. Optionally, select whether you would like to restrict access to this plugin instance. By default, restricted access is set to off.

    ClosedRestrict access to this workspace?

    The term plugin here really means plugin instance. For example, a user may configure two instances of the AWS plugin, one for their development environment and one for production. In that case, each plugin instance has its own access control settings.

    By default, Restrict access to this plugin? is set to off. The plugin can be viewed, edited and administered by anyone. If you would like to control who has access to this plugin, switch Restrict access to this plugin? to on.

    Use the Restrict access to this plugin? dropdown to control who has access to the workspace:

    • By default, the user setting the permissions for the plugin will be given Full Control and the Everyone group will be given Link to workspace permissions.

    • Tailor access to the plugin, as required, by selecting individual users or user groups from the dropdown and giving them Link to workspace or Full Control permissions.

    • If the user is not available from the dropdown, you are able to invite them to the plugin by typing in their email address and then clicking Add. The new user will then receive an email inviting them to create an account on SquaredUp Cloud. Once the account has been created, they will gain access to the tenant.

    • At least one user or group must be given Full Control.

    • Admin users can edit the configuration, modify the Access Control List (ACL) and delete the plugin, regardless of the ACL chosen.

    ClosedPlugin access levels

    Access Level:

    Link to workspace

    • User can link the plugin to any workspace they have at least Editor permissions for.
    • Data from the plugin can then be viewed by anyone with any access to the workspace.

    • User can share the plugin data with anyone they want.

    • User cannot configure the plugin in any way, or delete it.

    Full Control
    • User can change the plugin configuration, ACL, and delete the plugin.

    See Access control for more information.

  8. Click Save.

Using the Zabbix plugin

Data Streams

ClosedWhat is a data stream?

A data stream brings you data to answer a specific question like "What's the health state of the objects?", "What kind of alerts are coming from this plugin for my servers?", "What's the average memory usage of this app?"

The magic of data streams is that they standardize data from all the different shapes and formats your tools use into a straightforward tabular format. While creating a tile you can tweak data streams by grouping or aggregating specific columns. Depending on the kind of data, SquaredUp will automatically suggest how to visualize the result, for example as a table or line graph.

Data streams installed with the Zabbix plugin are:

Counter

Description

CPU DPC time

Returns the time that the processor spends receiving and servicing deferred procedure calls (DPCs) for a host reporting to Zabbix.

Context switches per second

The combined rate at which all processors on the computer are switched from one thread to another.

Context switches occur when a running thread voluntarily relinquishes the processor, is preempted by a higher priority ready thread, or switches between user-mode and privileged (kernel) mode to use an Executive or subsystem service.

It is the sum of Thread\Context Switches/sec for all threads running on all processors in the computer and is measured in numbers of switches.

There are context switch counters on the System and Thread objects. This counter displays the difference between the values observed in the last two samples, divided by the duration of the sample interval.

CPU privileged time

The Processor Information % Privileged Time counter shows the percent of time that the processor is spent executing in Kernel (or Privileged) mode. Privileged mode includes services interrupts inside Interrupt Service Routines (ISRs), executing Deferred Procedure Calls (DPCs), Device Driver calls and other kernel-mode functions of the Windows Operating System.

CPU utilization

CPU utilization in percentage format.

CPU user time

The Processor Information % User Time counter shows the percent of time that the processor(s) is spent executing in User mode.

CPU interrupt time

The Processor Information % Interrupt Time is the time the processor spends receiving and servicing hardware interrupts during sample intervals.

This value is an indirect indicator of the activity of devices that generate interrupts, such as the system clock, the mouse, disk drivers, data communication lines, network interface cards and other peripheral devices. This is an easy way to identify a potential hardware failure.

This should never be higher than 20%.

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