Architecture

Question 1

What language is the Zabbix agent 2 developed in?

Answer 1

The Zabbix agent 2 is developed in the Go language.

Question 2

What Zabbix components are developed in the C language?

Answer 2

The Zabbix server, proxy and Zabbix agent (variant 1) are developed in the C language.

Question 3

What language is the Zabbix front end developed in?

Answer 3

The Zabbix front end is developed using the PHP language.

Question 4

What language is the Zabbix Java gateway developed in?

Answer 4

The Zabbix Java gateway is developed in Java.

Question 5

What are the three main Zabbix components?

Answer 5

The three main Zabbix components are:
* Zabbix Server: data collection, problem detection, notification
* Zabbix frontend: configuration and visualisation
* Zabbix database: configuration data, historical values

Question 6

Can the Zabbix components be installed on separate machines?

Answer 6

Yes, all components can be installed on the same or separate machines.

Question 7

What are the additional (optional) Zabbix components?

Answer 7

The additional (optional) Zabbix components are:
* Zabbix Proxy: monitor remote locations, distribute load between proxies
* Zabbix Java gateway: monitor Java applications, can be attached to Zabbix server or Zabbix proxy
* Zabbix web service: generate scheduled reports

Question 8

What component is used to generate scheduled reports?

Answer 8

The Zabbix web service generates scheduled reports.

Question 9

What component can be used to monitor Java applications?

Answer 9

The Zabbix Java gateway monitors Java applications and can be attached to a Zabbix server or Zabbix proxy.

Question 10

What components does the Zabbix server have?

Answer 10

The Zabbix server has:
* Data collectors (pollers, trappers, pingers…)
* Internal processes (history syncer, task manager…)
* Caches (configuration cache, history cache, value cache…)

Question 11

What is passive mode?

Answer 11

In passive mode the Zabbix server connects to the zabbix agent or proxy.

Question 12

What is active mode?

Answer 12

In active mode the zabbix agent or proxy connects to server.

Passive and active modes can work simultaneously.

Question 13

How frequently is data sent to the Zabbix server by a proxy server?

Answer 13

Collected data is sent to the Zabbix server every second by default.

• All data is stored into a local proxy database for a limited amount of time.
• The data is still collected by the proxy in case of network issues between the server and proxy

Question 14

What process collects data from the Zabbix passive agent?

Answer 14

The poller process collects data from the Zabbix passive agent.

Zabbix active agent vs passive agent

Question 15

What process accepts data from a Zabbix active agent?

Answer 15

The trapper process accepts data from the Zabbix active agent.

Zabbix active agent vs passive agent

Question 16

How many instances of the trapper processes can be started?

Answer 16

The active Zabbix agent can be configured to have between 0-1000 trapper instances.

Question 17

What are the two most important parts of the Zabbix active configuration?

Answer 17

The two most important parts of the Zabbix active configuration are:
* Hostname
* ServerActive

Question 18

What Zabbix components can perform pre-processing?

Answer 18

The Zabbix server and proxies can carry out pre-processing.

device > collected data > preprocessing > transfformed data > database

Question 19

What are the scenarios related to a failed pre-processing step?

Answer 19

Either error handling can be introduced using “custom on fail” scenarios or the item will become unsupported and further steps will not be processed.

Question 20

How are problems detected?

Answer 20

Problems are detected based on collected data using items and evaluation of collected data using triggers.

Question 21

How are problems raised?

Answer 21

Problems are raised based on the result of a trigger expression:
Problem: trigger expression is TRUE
OK: trigger expression is FALSE

Question 22

What types of events are created by Triggers?

Answer 22

Triggers create Problem and Recovery events.
Problem - create a problem
Recovery - resolve the problem

Question 23

How many Zabbix event generation modes does zabbix support?

Answer 23

Zabbix supports two event generation modes:
1. Single: only one event is generated when a trigger goes into the problem state
2. Multiple: a new event is generated upon every evaluation of the trigger e.g. used in log files and SNMP traps.

Avoid multiple problem generation unless their is a specific need.

Question 24

Where are notifications generated and sent from?

Answer 24

Notifications are generated and sent only by the Zabbix server.

Question 25

What delivery channels (media) are supported by Zabbix?

Answer 25

* Email * SMS * Webhook * Custom alert scripts

Question 26

What zabbix component sends messages?

Answer 26

The **alerter process** sends messages

Question 27

What is an **action**?

Answer 27

An **action** is a **set of conditions** followed by an automatically executed **set of operations**.

Question 28

What functionality is provided by **actions**?

Answer 28

**Notify users with different messages**: * For problem detection, updates and resolved problems * For acknowledged and unacknowledged problems **Execute remote commands**: - On Zabbix server, proxy and agent - Via SSH and Telnet - Via IPMI **Escalate to other users or user groups**: * Inform different teams if a problem is not resolved for significant amount of time * Unlimited number of escalation steps is supported **Run global scripts and custom scripts**

Question 29

What types of operations are supported for trigger and service actions?

Answer 29

* **Operations**: Executed during the problem * **Recovery operations**: Executed when the problem is resolved * **Update operations**: Executed when the problem is updated (acknowledged, etc.)

Question 30

What causes "internal events"?

Answer 30

Internal events are generated by problems in the configuration: * Not supported items * Not supported low-level discovery rules * Unknown triggers

Question 31

What is the severity classification of **Internal events**?

Answer 31

Internal events have "**Not classified**" severity: User media filters must include this severity, otherwise the messages will not be sent.

Question 32

Do internal events use the same actions are trigger actions?

Answer 32

No, internal events use "internal actions": * Event type (items, triggers or LLD rules) * Templates, hosts and host groups * Tag names and values