Zenoss Core is the most powerful open-source IT monitoring solution in industry. Using a single, web-based console and agentless technology, we can monitor and manage the performance and availability of all devices in our IT infrastructure including networks, servers, storage, applications, converged infrastructure and cloud environment. So, Zenoss Open Source Edition is for any network admin who needs a one-stop-shop-tool for monitoring all devices on a network.
We are going to setup Zenoss Core Version 4.2.5 on Centos 6 Final release that offers new features and improvements by supporting events and jobs processing with implementation of RabbitMQ messaging framework, advanced user configuration options in the interface and more resilient event suppression through nmap-based zenping.
Zenoss Setup Prerequisites
We will be using Centos 6.6 64-Bit Operating system with minimal installation on a VPS with 4 GB RAM and 2 Core CPU which is the minimum requirement for Zenoss to operate properly.
Let’s start with the system update once the basic installation completes with yum update command.
[root@cen-zenoss ~]# yum update
Uninstall MySQL-Libs from the system otherwise the Zenoss installation script will fail to proceed with the installation. Zenoss Core requires at least MySQL 5.5.25, and supports later versions through 5.5.35. If you have older versions of MySQL installed, that why we must first remove those installations.
[root@cen-zenoss ~]# yum -y remove mysql-libs
Zenoss Core Installation
We are ready to go with installation of Zenoss Core, the simplest way to install Zenoss Core on a newly-deployed RHEL/CentOS 64-bit 5/6/7 system is to use its auto-deploy script, which will downloads all required files. Now as root user we will go through the following steps for installation.
1) Download Zenoss Auto-Install Script to install Zenoss
As a root user run the following wget command to download the auto install package developed by community from github.
[root@cen-zenoss ~]# wget --no-check-certificate https://github.com/zenoss/core-autodeploy/tarball/4.2.5 -O auto.tar.gz
2) Extract the Auto Deploy Package
By using below tar command extract the package that we had downloaded and change directory.
[root@cen-zenoss ~]# tar xvf auto.tar.gz
The extracted auto deploy packages includes with zenpack_actions.txt, which defines all ZenPacks that will be installed by default. We can change installing certain ZenPacks by editing this file and removing the corresponding lines from this file and save it.
3) Starting Auto Deploy
Now you are ready to install Zenoss Core 4.2.5, the auto-deploy script will automatically download and install all required dependencies, so during the installation process, we will be asked to accept the license agreement for Java installation and to set a secure root password for MySQL.
[root@cen-zenoss zenoss-core-autodeploy-dcb2be2]# ./core-autodeploy.sh
Once the script finished, a working instance of Zenoss is ready. At this point we can see how to login to Zenoss from your browser.
Zenoss Web Setup
After the script completes successfully, let's open the web browser to access zenoss web administration console with our servers FQDN or localhost IP. For the first time we can set the Zenoss administrator password and create your initial user account using the Web interface.
Setup Initial User
In the first step we will set the admin password and can create new user that we will be able to perform most of the tasks.
Adding New Monitoring Device
In the Next, we can Add a New Devices to Zenoss with its auto discovery or manually configuration by giving its host name or IP address, choosing the device type from the available options of different devices and by providing the credentials. We can add multiple devices at one go, once the initial settings are done click to save and exit to Zenoss Dashboard.
Welcome to Zenoss Dashboard
Once the initial web settings are done we will be redirected to the Zenoss dashboard, where we can see the newly added monitored devices and much more.
Zenoss Infrastructure and its Setup
From the web console we will setup the monitoring devices, Click on "Infrastructure" at the top and we would be redirected to the devices tab where we can see the already configured devices and can add more by pointing the "+" icon and chhose the option from the drop down to add new devices.
Fill out the required information with new device Host name or IP address, choose the device class as /Server/SSH/Linux for the SSH Client monitoring, so after filling out the information click to Add new device, which afterwards would appear in the infrastructure.
Point to the newly added device to know about the overview of the device and to perform its further configurations we have to click on "Configuration Propertise".
Here we will edit the configuration properties and change the values by double click on the items to put correct details like SSH client user and its RSA key.
Zenoss Reporting
We have almost done with the installation and basic configurations setup of zenoss infrastructure, now lets see how zenoss reporting works out. From the top menu on the web console click on the Reports option, where we will be able to see different reporting parameters that we can select generate any specific reports.
So, using the out of-the box reports in Analytics to analyze device performance and availability over time and view detailed event reports and service impact reports are the key features of Zenoss reporting that is also be customized.
Conclusion
Zenoss is a good choice for open source network and systems management. Its easy to setup and manage with its awesome features that are necessary for monitoring any network infrastructure. Many IT companies prefer to use Zenoss for their infrastructure monitoring to fix problems before business and users are impacted and to ensure that IT Service Reliability Downtime reduction increase their IT responsiveness.
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