Monitoring Templates & Threshold Creation

[Shane Ketterman]

Shane Ketterman [http://community.zenoss.org/people/shaneketterman] created the discussion

"Monitoring Templates & Threshold Creation"

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Hi all,

I'm fairly new to Zenoss and we are a NOC with over 800 devices.  We are currently using Nagios but my task is to move us over to Zenoss fully.  I definitely have some questions and I hope it's ok to ask from a newbie to Zenoss!  What I will do is ask each one in a new discussion so it helps other newbies seeking the same help :)


I see that each class has monitoring templates and some have more than others depending on the device.  Most of them, however, don't have any thresholds. In order to have a threshold as opposed to getting a trap (polling vs. trapping), how does one set up the various thresholds because it seems fairly cryptic.  Is there a good tutorial on creating various thresholds?  I am thinking of things like increasing interface errors on switches/routers or various ones for windows devices.  I know that there are folders of data sources in the monitoring template so I'm assuming I need to have these OID's as a data source in order to monitor for thresholds or is that incorrect?

We rely mostly on traps and thresholds and we are trying to be as proactive vs. reactive as possible that's why this is so important to know.

Thanks for any help!
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[jmp242]

jmp242 [http://community.zenoss.org/people/jmp242] created the discussion

"Re: Monitoring Templates & Threshold Creation"

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No problem asking questions, that's why we're here. I will say you may get a little RTM. Are you planning to use Core or to purchase Service Dynamics? If you're using either, are you planning on building it all yourself, or wanting to get Zenoss inc or consultant support? The reason I ask is that if you're doing it yourself, you should look over the Admin Guide. Section 6.2.7 of the PDF from the community.zenoss.org site. Also, check out the FAQs at zcaportal.org and get back to us if you have more specific questions.

--
James Pulver
ZCA Member
CLASSE Computer Group
Cornell University
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[Shane Ketterman]

Shane Ketterman [http://community.zenoss.org/people/shaneketterman] created the discussion

"Re: Monitoring Templates & Threshold Creation"

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Hey James,

Thanks.  Yeah I've definitely dove into the manuals and perhaps I'm missing a few things since I keep running into questions I feel are specific to how I'm thinking I want it to work ;)

We are using Core and I wanted to purchase consulting hours but they won't let Core users do that so I may take one of the classes but I'd prefer consulting as I work better one on one.  I stepped into it kind of mid-way so it's already been semi-deployed and my task is to begin managing it and make it work for our needs as a NOC.

I'll check out that section in the Admin Guide and definitely will check out zcaportal.org.  Thanks!
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[jmp242]

jmp242 [http://community.zenoss.org/people/jmp242] created the discussion

"Re: Monitoring Templates & Threshold Creation"

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So, there are some great community consultants that work with the ZCA who will let you purchase hours on Core. I'll get some to contact you with a few ideas to see if that can help you out in getting the deployment done.

--
James Pulver
ZCA Member
CLASSE Computer Group
Cornell University
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[Shane Ketterman]

Shane Ketterman [http://community.zenoss.org/people/shaneketterman] created the discussion

"Re: Monitoring Templates & Threshold Creation"

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James,

I would really appreciate that! Thanks much!!!
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[dhopp]

dhopp [http://community.zenoss.org/people/dhopp] created the discussion

"Re: Monitoring Templates & Threshold Creation"

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Shane -

What exactly are you looking for in the form of help?  Someone to essentially do the deploy or someone that can answer your questions and guide you (i.e. more of a training)?

As far as thresholds/templates go it can be confusing at first but once you understand it you'll see it's actually rather easy and extremely powerful. 

For example there is a 'Device' template applied to most device classes.  What is in that template depends on what class it is in (The SNMP Oid to monitor CPU on Linux is different than Windows).  If you modify the Device template that is under /Server/Linux then you affect (by default) all devices under /Server/Linux.  So you can create a threshold in one place and affect a lot of different devices.  That can be kind of a pain as you might want your mail server to have a lower threshold than your web server for example as you would need to override the template on the device.  There are ways around that using custom properties and referencing those in your template.

Sometimes it's easier to ask a specific type of question like "I need to create a threshold for x on my Linux servers" and then we can usually give a more precise answer which generally can be applied to other devices/thresholds.

--Dennis
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[Shane Ketterman]

Shane Ketterman [http://community.zenoss.org/people/shaneketterman] created the discussion

"Re: Monitoring Templates & Threshold Creation"

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Dennis,

Thank you very much.  I see what you are saying.  I was thinking more along the lines of creating Thresholds in general and if there were any good guides to the creation of them because when I look at one or try to create one, it's not very clear how to actually make one. I do see some in there by default but I would like to create, for example, a threshold on increasing inferface errors for all my cisco switch ports.

I notice that in the devices under networks and switches....the defualt monitoring template is "/Devices" which is not specific to a network switch at all.  Thus I feel my first step is to have a monitoring template specifically for Cisco Switches or am I thinking wrong?
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[dhopp]

dhopp [http://community.zenoss.org/people/dhopp] created the discussion

"Re: Monitoring Templates & Threshold Creation"

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There is a monitoring template applied to the Interface.  If you click on an interface on the right side in the middle of the display you will see a drop down.  Click that and choose "Templates" to see the template that is assigned to the Interface.

Components (interfaces, filesystems, etc.) are discovered at modeling time and the appropriate template is automatically bound to them.  Component templates are easily distinguished becase they have a 'snow flake' icon next to them.  Those templates you do not bind yourself and Zenoss handles it during the modeling process.

You would need to modify the interface template to add the threshold you are looking for.  Most likely you have a template that is defined at /Devices that got attached to that component.  If you wanted that template to affect only your Cisco switches you could override that template at the Device class level and then modify that template.

You can go to Advanced -> Monitoring Templates and find the template (look at the template that was attached using the instructions in my first paragraph).  You can then click the "Gear Menu" and choose "Override/Copy Template" and choose the Device class that you have your cisco switches in (/Network/Switches/Cisco for example).

Now any device that you add to that Device class will use this interface template for it's interfaces (assuming its interfaces are discovered to be the same type).

--Dennis
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[Shane Ketterman]

Shane Ketterman [http://community.zenoss.org/people/shaneketterman] created the discussion

"Re: Monitoring Templates & Threshold Creation"

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Thanks a ton Dennis!  It makes sense and in all honesty I had not seen the specific templates bound to the components but now I see there are actually many depending on the device class.

I have to say, there are tons of little places in Zenoss where you find things and that's the challenge because it's hard to get a big picture of how it all fits in terms of best practice.  I'd love to see somoene write a book just detailing best practices and detailed examples based on experience in real environments :)

-Shane
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