Zabbix Reviews

• 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.

Before we implemented Zabbix, we were blind.

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

Almost seven years (from version 1.8.2).

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

Zabbix is scalable.

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. 

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

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

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.

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.

I have been using Zabbix for about a month.

Once the product is started, it is stable.

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.

I did not contact technical support.

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.

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.

I completed the deployment myself.

I was using the free, Community Edition.

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.

We are using Zabbix just to monitor our small network out here.

The integration with third-party tools and the alerts are most valuable.

We would like to monitor other touchpoints such as ATM machines. It would be great if it can provide monitoring of ATM machines. Compatibility with other products would also be great.

We have been using this solution for two or three years.

It is very stable.

It is scalable. We have two people who are using this solution.

There are a lot of professionals and sites available, so we just get help from them.

We were not using any other solution.

It is reasonable.

Our requirements are basic, and it is fulfilling them. I would rate Zabbix a seven out of 10.

Infrastructure monitoring.

Excellent monitoring tool.

Auto-config.

Multitenancy.

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.

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

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

I have used this solution for more than three years.

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

There were no scalability issues.

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

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

It’s free of cost.

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

The documentation has all the information you need.