Network Management System – ZABBIX

If you choose to use the Windows platform as the host operating system for Zabbix, VMware/VirtualBox software and then the Zabbix Appliance. The Zabbix Appliance can be downloaded from
http://www.zabbix.com/download.php. Please remember that Zabbix Appliance is not intended for serious production use at this time.

VMware download: https://www.vmware.com/support/
VirtualBox download: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
See the respective documentation to install and use virtualisation software.

The Templates list:

All templates can be downloaded from the RipEX Download site at https://www.racom.eu/download/hw/ripex/free/eng/3_fw/RipEX_Zabbix_templ.zip.

Note that all templates (except of PING template) are ready in two versions – one for SNMPv2c and one for SNMPv3, because of different security parameters.

How do I Import the RipEX Templates?

In order to import the template, click on the Configuration → Templates button at the top of the Zabbix web page. Select the Import Template button at the top right corner.

Fig. 3.1: Importing Template button

	Important
	With Zabbix 3, Value mappings can be imported together with the template. We highly recommend to do that. Check the option “Value mapping” while uploading the templates.

Select the RipEX template file and Import that file. Repeat this step for each template or import the zbx_export_templates-RipEX-ALL.xml template with all templates in one file.

Fig. 3.2: Importing Template options

Now you can see the RipEX template in the Template list window along with other default templates.

	Note
	If you already imported the template and you need to update it, just import the newer version with the same name and the current template will be automatically overwriten. The checkbox for Updating existing template must be checked.

Each Item has its Description, SNMP OID number, community string, UDP port (161), key, update interval and other parameters. One of the key parameter is the update interval, because it defines how often Zabbix will request various replies from the RipEX stations. This interval is predefined to 30 minutes, but you should consider changing it to suit your radio network infrastructure.

The individual items can be in an active or disabled state. By default, only some items are active based on their importance – see the next chapter for more information. If you wish to monitor more values, activate the desired ones. But as already mentioned, preferably use the RipEX Ethernet interface for SNMP communication to free up the radio channel. If this is not possible, consider carefully whether monitoring other values is necessary.

Only monitor the values which you really need and with reasonable update times.

The items are divided into the usage groups, called Applications in Zabbix. These applications serve for better clarification of the defined items.

If you wish to be notified whenever any monitored value is out of its threshold range, you can define a Trigger for it. These notifications are viewable on the Zabbix dashboard, item history or you can have e-mail/jabber/sms notifications enabled. Each notification can have one of six predefined severity levels (warning, critical, …).

We also provide several triggers within the templates. Triggers defined in templates cannot be edited within individual hosts, which means you cannot define various threshold ranges for hosts and each host would have the same threshold range. Please define your own triggers within each individual host.

	Note
	You can use a Clone option to create a copy of any template item or trigger for an individual host. In this case, you can edit its predefined values to meet your requirements for each host separately.

Graphs are automatically created for each monitored numeric value, but you can also create special graphs with several values on a single graph. We provide 4 predefined graphs containing some basic watched values like temperature, UCC etc.

For more information, see the Zabbix documentation. You can delete, add or edit any template component. The predefined state serves as a quick start, but you do not have to use them at all and you can create your own set of monitored values/items.

The templates themselves are fully scalable and consist of many items. However, monitoring all of them is not required in a routine situation. Pre-activated items in RipEX default templates are:

	Note
	If you need to monitor more than one remote RipEX station, you need to “clone” existing items for the remote station watched values.

Remote Watched values are read by Zabbix using the Dynamic indexes. This works on a basis of “snmpwalk” through all available remote units (neighbours) of specific RipEX (host). When it finds the correct neighbour (correct IP), it reads the watched value for this neighbour. E.g. local RipEX has 3 neighbours (10.10.10.1, .2 and .3) and we need to know the RSS level for the 10.10.10.2 host. Zabbix sends several “snmpgetnext” requests until it reaches the end of this SNMP branch (in our example, 4 snmpgetnext requests are sent). Thanks to this, Zabbix finds out that 10.10.10.2 has for example ID “2” and thus, Zabbix knows how to ask for the RSS value of this particular neighbour and sends the correct snmpget request. All values are readable by OID ending with this previously “unknown” ID.

	Note
	Without dynamic indexes, values for several remote units could be mixed together, because each History period, the IDs can be different for particular neighbours.

	Note
	Do not read remote watched values and remote statistic values from RipEX unit which is not reachable via Ethernet. If you read it from RipEX reachable via the Radio channel, it could send too much of data over the Radio channel and cause a decrease of available bandwidth for this link. Do it on your own risk and requirements (it is supported).

Each Host linked with a RipEX template automatically obtains {$NEIGHBOUR.1} user MACRO needed for reading remote watched values. This MACRO defines the IP address of the first RipEX neighbour of the particular “local” RipEX (host). If the monitored RipEX has more than one neighbour, you need to add additional neighbours to its MACRO list. Go to the Configuration -> Hosts -> choose the particular RipEX -> Macros -> Inherited and host macros -> Click on the “Add” button and define other neighbours.

Fig. 3.3: Host MACROs

Each Neighbour IP can be set as required. The default value for the first one is 192.168.169.169.

The {$NEIGHBOUR.1} user MACRO is also used for reading statistics of particular neighbours. The IP addresses are the same (since the firmware 1.6.x) and thus they do not need to be set separately. The only difference is that you also have a “RADIO BROADCAST” line is Statistics which is NOT in the Neighbours menu (RipEX GUI). Configure it as a separate neighbour MACRO, but do not use it for remote watched values.

By default, reading the watched values is disabled. To enable it, go to the Configuration -> Hosts -> choose the host -> Go to the Applications -> Choose “Watched values – Remotes” and enable required values. If more than one neighbour is required, you need to “Clone” the existing Items and change the ID of the specific Neighbour. For example, if you have 3 neighbours, for each Item (RSS, DQ, Temperature, …) you need to:

Fig. 3.4: Remote Wached values – Item Cloning

	Note
	The same procedure must be done for Radio Statistics. By default, only the first neighbour and Total numbers are pre-defined. Broadcast and other hosts must be defined manually.

Valus from any neighbour can now be displayed in the Latest data menu.

Fig. 3.5: Remote watched values – Latest values

Macros are variables, identified by a specific syntax: {MACRO}. MACROs resolve to a specific value depending on the context. Effective use of MACROs allows to save time and make Zabbix configuration more transparent.

With our templates, each RipEX automatically obtains the following MACROs:

	Note
	SNMPv3 MACROs are not defined in SNMPv2c templates.

You can edit the values in Configuration -> Hosts -> choose the particular RipEX -> Macros -> Inherited and host macros. Edit any value and all Items will be automatically updated. Note that SNMPv3 Authentication (MD5, SHA), Encryption (DES, AES) and Security level (NoAuthNoPriv, AuthNoPriv, AuthPriv) methods cannot be defined by MACROs and must be edited within individual Items. Select all Items within the Template and use the “Mass update” button. Edit the parameters as required and all Hosts’ parameters will be changed as well.

	Note
	If you need to have different Authentication and Encryption (or other) parameters in various network parts, you might Clone the templates and use particular Template for particular Group of Hosts.

To check monitored values, go to the Monitoring → Latest data tab and choose the desired host from the Menu.

Fig. 3.9: RipEX latest data

For each item, you can see a graph or a history table. If a trigger is configured for the item, the graph shows a line with a threshold value.

Fig. 3.10: RipEX graph

Go to Configuration → Templates and choose one of the imported template. Open the item configuration window and click on the chosen item to view and edit its settings.

Choose the appropriate value map in the Menu “Show value” and save the changes.

Example: RipEX.eDhpc

Fig. 3.11: Linking a value map to an item