Automatic Application Monitoring - v2

This Zabbix "module" provides automated Application Component monitoring by utilizing the Low-Level Discovery functionality of Zabbix.

It automatically creates items and triggers based on a list of components provided by the application.

Background details: https://enrise.com/2015/10/automating-application-component-monitoring/

Requirements for your application

In your application you should create two endpoints which should be available as a page which responds with JSON.

Key endpoint

This endpoint provides all available keys to Zabbix, which is used in the auto-discovery of components. Based on the content, items and triggers will be created from the prototype.

This endpoint should return a JSON array of available keys like this:

{
    "Unclassified Component": {
        "severity": "unclassified"
    },
    "Information Component": {
        "severity": "information"
    },
    "Warning Component": {
        "severity": "warning"
    },
    "Average Component": {
        "severity": "average"
    },
    "High Component": {
        "severity": "high"
    },
    "Disaster Component": {
        "severity": "disaster"
    }
}

Status endpoint

This endpoint provides the generated items with data, on which the triggers will be evaluated.

This endpoint should return the status in JSON for all available components:

{
    "Unclassified Component": {
        "statusCode": 0,
        "severity": "unclassified"
    },
    "Information Component": {
        "statusCode": 0,
        "severity": "information"
    },
    "Warning Component": {
        "statusCode": 0,
        "severity": "warning"
    },
    "Average Component": {
        "statusCode": 0,
        "severity": "average"
    },
    "High Component": {
        "statusCode": 0,
        "severity": "high"
    },
    "Disaster Component": {
        "statusCode": 0,
        "severity": "disaster"
    }
}

Installation in Zabbix

• Install the dependencies for AAMv2:

$ sudo pip install -r requirements.txt

If pip is not present on your system:

$ sudo easy_install pip

• Add aamv2.py to your external scripts (default: /usr/lib/zabbix/externalscripts/) folder on your Zabbix Server and ensure it is executable.

• Under Configuration => Templates in the Zabbix webinterface import zbx_aamv2_template.xml

• To the host you want to monitor, add the following macro's:

Macro	Value
{$AAM_KEY_ENDPOINT}	http://your-application/appmon/keys
{$AAM_STATUS_ENDPOINT}	http://your-application/appmon/status

The URL's should point towards the endpoints you have created. They can be routes, individual pages, static files or queryable with HTTP-Parameters depending on your application as long as the output matches what the module requires.

• Optionally you can override the default values for some querying periods:

Macro	Default value	Usage
${AAM_THRESHOLD_COMPONENT}	5m	Threshold for usage in min() on the discovered components
{$AAM_PERIOD_STATUS}	5m	Used to override the template's trigger in case the period has been modified on the inherited item
{$AAM_PERIOD_DISCOVERY}	30m	Used to override the template's trigger in case the period has been modified on the inherited item

• Assign the template Template Automatic Application Monitoring v2 to the host you want to monitor the application of. If your host has multiple applications its recommended to create a dummy host in Zabbix for each application on the server.
• After some time it will automatically create the items and trigger for status reporting

Demo app

The folder demoapp contains a Lumen PHP application which showcases the output it can generate. The most interesting part of the code is the app/Http/Controllers/StatusController.php.

This app serves as a demo on how to implement it. It is in no way a requirement to be able to use the Zabbix module. As long as your application produces the correct JSON output you can use any programming language or framework.

Contributing

Contributions to this module and its implementation are welcome!

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see the license file for more information.