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#141 Programmatic Configuration with Ruby

Configuring zabbix via the API, with examples using zabbix-client ruby gem.

Notes

The Zabbix API uses the JSON-RPC 2.0 protocol, and exposes most/all(?) of zabbix functionality for programmatic management.

The examples below use API methods to perform the following configuration tasks:

  • create a host group
  • create a template with a basic ping test item and trigger
  • create a host with the template applied

Test Setup

All these tests are running against a plain vanilla Zabbix Appliance running in Docker on the localhost - see zabbix/dockerized for more info.

All the test scripts will pickup configuration from the environment:

export ZABBIX_API_URL=http://0.0.0.0:80/api_jsonrpc.php
export ZABBIX_API_USERNAME=Admin
export ZABBIX_API_PASSWORD=zabbix
export ZABBIX_API_TOKEN=existing-token # not required, will be set based on username and password if not provided

Installation:

gem install bundler && bundle install

Running the Examples

Setting a Persistent Token

To re-use a token for subsequent requests, make one query then set the ZABBIX_API_TOKEN environment variable accordingly. For example:

$ bundle exec ruby manage.rb hostgroup list
Connecting with username/password
API version: 4.4.5. Connected with token: 447fc37363a0716ee275cce228b29766
{"groupid"=>"1", "name"=>"Templates", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}
{"groupid"=>"2", "name"=>"Linux servers", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}
{"groupid"=>"4", "name"=>"Zabbix servers", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}
...etc...
$ export ZABBIX_API_TOKEN=447fc37363a0716ee275cce228b29766
$ bundle exec ruby manage.rb hostgroup list
Connecting with auth token
API version: 4.4.5. Connected with token: 447fc37363a0716ee275cce228b29766
{"groupid"=>"1", "name"=>"Templates", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}
{"groupid"=>"2", "name"=>"Linux servers", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}
{"groupid"=>"4", "name"=>"Zabbix servers", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}
...etc...

Host Group

All hosts must belong to a host group.

The example demonstrates list, create and delete host groups. A gorup called lck-hostgroup is created for the purposes of the demo:

$ bundle exec ruby manage.rb hostgroup create
Connecting with auth token
API version: 4.4.5. Connected with token: 447fc37363a0716ee275cce228b29766
{"groupid"=>"18", "name"=>"lck-hostgroup", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}

$ bundle exec ruby manage.rb hostgroup list
Connecting with auth token
API version: 4.4.5. Connected with token: 447fc37363a0716ee275cce228b29766
{"groupid"=>"1", "name"=>"Templates", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}
{"groupid"=>"2", "name"=>"Linux servers", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}
{"groupid"=>"4", "name"=>"Zabbix servers", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}
{"groupid"=>"5", "name"=>"Discovered hosts", "internal"=>"1", "flags"=>"0"}
{"groupid"=>"6", "name"=>"Virtual machines", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}
{"groupid"=>"7", "name"=>"Hypervisors", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}
{"groupid"=>"8", "name"=>"Templates/Modules", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}
{"groupid"=>"9", "name"=>"Templates/Network devices", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}
{"groupid"=>"10", "name"=>"Templates/Operating systems", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}
{"groupid"=>"11", "name"=>"Templates/Server hardware", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}
{"groupid"=>"12", "name"=>"Templates/Applications", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}
{"groupid"=>"13", "name"=>"Templates/Databases", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}
{"groupid"=>"14", "name"=>"Templates/Virtualization", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}
{"groupid"=>"18", "name"=>"lck-hostgroup", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}

$ bundle exec ruby manage.rb hostgroup delete
Connecting with auth token
API version: 4.4.5. Connected with token: 447fc37363a0716ee275cce228b29766
deleting {"groupid"=>"18", "name"=>"lck-hostgroup", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}

$ bundle exec ruby manage.rb hostgroup list
Connecting with auth token
API version: 4.4.5. Connected with token: 447fc37363a0716ee275cce228b29766
{"groupid"=>"1", "name"=>"Templates", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}
{"groupid"=>"2", "name"=>"Linux servers", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}
{"groupid"=>"4", "name"=>"Zabbix servers", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}
{"groupid"=>"5", "name"=>"Discovered hosts", "internal"=>"1", "flags"=>"0"}
{"groupid"=>"6", "name"=>"Virtual machines", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}
{"groupid"=>"7", "name"=>"Hypervisors", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}
{"groupid"=>"8", "name"=>"Templates/Modules", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}
{"groupid"=>"9", "name"=>"Templates/Network devices", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}
{"groupid"=>"10", "name"=>"Templates/Operating systems", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}
{"groupid"=>"11", "name"=>"Templates/Server hardware", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}
{"groupid"=>"12", "name"=>"Templates/Applications", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}
{"groupid"=>"13", "name"=>"Templates/Databases", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}
{"groupid"=>"14", "name"=>"Templates/Virtualization", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}

$ bundle exec ruby manage.rb hostgroup create
Connecting with auth token
API version: 4.4.5. Connected with token: 447fc37363a0716ee275cce228b29766
{"groupid"=>"19", "name"=>"lck-hostgroup", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}

Templates

Templates are sets of entities that can be conveniently applied to multiple hosts. Entities may be:

The entities may be:

  • items
  • triggers
  • graphs
  • applications
  • screens (since Zabbix 2.0)
  • low-level discovery rules (since Zabbix 2.0)
  • web scenarios (since Zabbix 2.2)

Creating a basic template:

$ bundle exec ruby manage.rb template create
Connecting with auth token
API version: 4.4.5. Connected with token: 447fc37363a0716ee275cce228b29766
{"groupid"=>"19", "name"=>"lck-hostgroup", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}
{"proxy_hostid"=>"0", "host"=>"lck-ping-template", "status"=>"3", "disable_until"=>"0", "error"=>"", "available"=>"0", "errors_from"=>"0", "lastaccess"=>"0", "ipmi_authtype"=>"-1", "ipmi_privilege"=>"2", "ipmi_username"=>"", "ipmi_password"=>"", "ipmi_disable_until"=>"0", "ipmi_available"=>"0", "snmp_disable_until"=>"0", "snmp_available"=>"0", "maintenanceid"=>"0", "maintenance_status"=>"0", "maintenance_type"=>"0", "maintenance_from"=>"0", "ipmi_errors_from"=>"0", "snmp_errors_from"=>"0", "ipmi_error"=>"", "snmp_error"=>"", "jmx_disable_until"=>"0", "jmx_available"=>"0", "jmx_errors_from"=>"0", "jmx_error"=>"", "name"=>"lck-ping-template", "flags"=>"0", "templateid"=>"10323", "description"=>"", "tls_connect"=>"1", "tls_accept"=>"1", "tls_issuer"=>"", "tls_subject"=>"", "tls_psk_identity"=>"", "tls_psk"=>"", "proxy_address"=>"", "auto_compress"=>"1"}

Applications

Applications are used to group services by application

Creating an example application and adding it to the template (using the template id as the applicaiton host id):

$ bundle exec ruby manage.rb application create
Connecting with auth token
API version: 4.4.5. Connected with token: 447fc37363a0716ee275cce228b29766
{"proxy_hostid"=>"0", "host"=>"lck-ping-template", "status"=>"3", "disable_until"=>"0", "error"=>"", "available"=>"0", "errors_from"=>"0", "lastaccess"=>"0", "ipmi_authtype"=>"-1", "ipmi_privilege"=>"2", "ipmi_username"=>"", "ipmi_password"=>"", "ipmi_disable_until"=>"0", "ipmi_available"=>"0", "snmp_disable_until"=>"0", "snmp_available"=>"0", "maintenanceid"=>"0", "maintenance_status"=>"0", "maintenance_type"=>"0", "maintenance_from"=>"0", "ipmi_errors_from"=>"0", "snmp_errors_from"=>"0", "ipmi_error"=>"", "snmp_error"=>"", "jmx_disable_until"=>"0", "jmx_available"=>"0", "jmx_errors_from"=>"0", "jmx_error"=>"", "name"=>"lck-ping-template", "flags"=>"0", "templateid"=>"10323", "description"=>"", "tls_connect"=>"1", "tls_accept"=>"1", "tls_issuer"=>"", "tls_subject"=>"", "tls_psk_identity"=>"", "tls_psk"=>"", "proxy_address"=>"", "auto_compress"=>"1"}
{"applicationid"=>"1328", "hostid"=>"10323", "name"=>"lck-status", "flags"=>"0", "templateids"=>[]}

Now the application is included in template details:

$ bundle exec ruby manage.rb template get 10323
Connecting with auth token
API version: 4.4.5. Connected with token: 447fc37363a0716ee275cce228b29766
{"proxy_hostid"=>"0", "host"=>"lck-ping-template", "status"=>"3", "disable_until"=>"0", "error"=>"", "available"=>"0", "errors_from"=>"0", "lastaccess"=>"0", "ipmi_authtype"=>"-1", "ipmi_privilege"=>"2", "ipmi_username"=>"", "ipmi_password"=>"", "ipmi_disable_until"=>"0", "ipmi_available"=>"0", "snmp_disable_until"=>"0", "snmp_available"=>"0", "maintenanceid"=>"0", "maintenance_status"=>"0", "maintenance_type"=>"0", "maintenance_from"=>"0", "ipmi_errors_from"=>"0", "snmp_errors_from"=>"0", "ipmi_error"=>"", "snmp_error"=>"", "jmx_disable_until"=>"0", "jmx_available"=>"0", "jmx_errors_from"=>"0", "jmx_error"=>"", "name"=>"lck-ping-template", "flags"=>"0", "templateid"=>"10323", "description"=>"", "tls_connect"=>"1", "tls_accept"=>"1", "tls_issuer"=>"", "tls_subject"=>"", "tls_psk_identity"=>"", "tls_psk"=>"", "proxy_address"=>"", "auto_compress"=>"1", "items"=>[], "triggers"=>[], "applications"=>[{"applicationid"=>"1328"}]}

Items

Items define individual metrics that are actually collected.

Creating an example ping item and adding it to the template:

$ bundle exec ruby manage.rb item create
Connecting with auth token
API version: 4.4.5. Connected with token: 447fc37363a0716ee275cce228b29766
{"proxy_hostid"=>"0", "host"=>"lck-ping-template", "status"=>"3", "disable_until"=>"0", "error"=>"", "available"=>"0", "errors_from"=>"0", "lastaccess"=>"0", "ipmi_authtype"=>"-1", "ipmi_privilege"=>"2", "ipmi_username"=>"", "ipmi_password"=>"", "ipmi_disable_until"=>"0", "ipmi_available"=>"0", "snmp_disable_until"=>"0", "snmp_available"=>"0", "maintenanceid"=>"0", "maintenance_status"=>"0", "maintenance_type"=>"0", "maintenance_from"=>"0", "ipmi_errors_from"=>"0", "snmp_errors_from"=>"0", "ipmi_error"=>"", "snmp_error"=>"", "jmx_disable_until"=>"0", "jmx_available"=>"0", "jmx_errors_from"=>"0", "jmx_error"=>"", "name"=>"lck-ping-template", "flags"=>"0", "templateid"=>"10323", "description"=>"", "tls_connect"=>"1", "tls_accept"=>"1", "tls_issuer"=>"", "tls_subject"=>"", "tls_psk_identity"=>"", "tls_psk"=>"", "proxy_address"=>"", "auto_compress"=>"1"}
{"proxy_hostid"=>"0", "host"=>"lck-ping-template", "status"=>"3", "disable_until"=>"0", "error"=>"", "available"=>"0", "errors_from"=>"0", "lastaccess"=>"0", "ipmi_authtype"=>"-1", "ipmi_privilege"=>"2", "ipmi_username"=>"", "ipmi_password"=>"", "ipmi_disable_until"=>"0", "ipmi_available"=>"0", "snmp_disable_until"=>"0", "snmp_available"=>"0", "maintenanceid"=>"0", "maintenance_status"=>"0", "maintenance_type"=>"0", "maintenance_from"=>"0", "ipmi_errors_from"=>"0", "snmp_errors_from"=>"0", "ipmi_error"=>"", "snmp_error"=>"", "jmx_disable_until"=>"0", "jmx_available"=>"0", "jmx_errors_from"=>"0", "jmx_error"=>"", "name"=>"lck-ping-template", "flags"=>"0", "templateid"=>"10323", "description"=>"", "tls_connect"=>"1", "tls_accept"=>"1", "tls_issuer"=>"", "tls_subject"=>"", "tls_psk_identity"=>"", "tls_psk"=>"", "proxy_address"=>"", "auto_compress"=>"1"}
{"applicationid"=>"1328", "hostid"=>"10323", "name"=>"lck-status", "flags"=>"0", "templateids"=>[]}
{"itemid"=>"30474", "type"=>"3", "snmp_community"=>"", "snmp_oid"=>"", "hostid"=>"10323", "name"=>"lck-ping", "key_"=>"icmpping", "delay"=>"30s", "history"=>"90d", "trends"=>"365d", "status"=>"0", "value_type"=>"3", "trapper_hosts"=>"", "units"=>"", "snmpv3_securityname"=>"", "snmpv3_securitylevel"=>"0", "snmpv3_authpassphrase"=>"", "snmpv3_privpassphrase"=>"", "formula"=>"", "logtimefmt"=>"", "templateid"=>"0", "valuemapid"=>"1", "params"=>"", "ipmi_sensor"=>"", "authtype"=>"0", "username"=>"", "password"=>"", "publickey"=>"", "privatekey"=>"", "flags"=>"0", "interfaceid"=>"0", "port"=>"", "description"=>"", "inventory_link"=>"0", "lifetime"=>"30d", "snmpv3_authprotocol"=>"0", "snmpv3_privprotocol"=>"0", "snmpv3_contextname"=>"", "evaltype"=>"0", "jmx_endpoint"=>"", "master_itemid"=>"0", "timeout"=>"3s", "url"=>"", "query_fields"=>[], "posts"=>"", "status_codes"=>"200", "follow_redirects"=>"1", "post_type"=>"0", "http_proxy"=>"", "headers"=>[], "retrieve_mode"=>"0", "request_method"=>"0", "output_format"=>"0", "ssl_cert_file"=>"", "ssl_key_file"=>"", "ssl_key_password"=>"", "verify_peer"=>"0", "verify_host"=>"0", "allow_traps"=>"0", "state"=>"0", "error"=>"", "lastclock"=>"0", "lastns"=>"0", "lastvalue"=>"0", "prevvalue"=>"0"}

Triggers

Triggers are logical expressions that evaluate data gathered by items

Creating an example ping trigger and adding it to the template:

$ bundle exec ruby manage.rb trigger create
Connecting with auth token
API version: 4.4.5. Connected with token: 447fc37363a0716ee275cce228b29766
{"proxy_hostid"=>"0", "host"=>"lck-ping-template", "status"=>"3", "disable_until"=>"0", "error"=>"", "available"=>"0", "errors_from"=>"0", "lastaccess"=>"0", "ipmi_authtype"=>"-1", "ipmi_privilege"=>"2", "ipmi_username"=>"", "ipmi_password"=>"", "ipmi_disable_until"=>"0", "ipmi_available"=>"0", "snmp_disable_until"=>"0", "snmp_available"=>"0", "maintenanceid"=>"0", "maintenance_status"=>"0", "maintenance_type"=>"0", "maintenance_from"=>"0", "ipmi_errors_from"=>"0", "snmp_errors_from"=>"0", "ipmi_error"=>"", "snmp_error"=>"", "jmx_disable_until"=>"0", "jmx_available"=>"0", "jmx_errors_from"=>"0", "jmx_error"=>"", "name"=>"lck-ping-template", "flags"=>"0", "templateid"=>"10323", "description"=>"", "tls_connect"=>"1", "tls_accept"=>"1", "tls_issuer"=>"", "tls_subject"=>"", "tls_psk_identity"=>"", "tls_psk"=>"", "proxy_address"=>"", "auto_compress"=>"1"}
{"triggerid"=>"16749", "expression"=>"{19619}=0", "description"=>"lck-ping-status", "url"=>"", "status"=>"0", "value"=>"0", "priority"=>"4", "lastchange"=>"0", "comments"=>"Last three attempts returned timeout. Please check device connectivity.", "error"=>"", "templateid"=>"0", "type"=>"0", "state"=>"0", "flags"=>"0", "recovery_mode"=>"0", "recovery_expression"=>"", "correlation_mode"=>"0", "correlation_tag"=>"", "manual_close"=>"0", "opdata"=>""}

Now we have a basic template with a ping trigger:

$ bundle exec ruby manage.rb template get 10323
Connecting with auth token
API version: 4.4.5. Connected with token: 447fc37363a0716ee275cce228b29766
{"proxy_hostid"=>"0", "host"=>"lck-ping-template", "status"=>"3", "disable_until"=>"0", "error"=>"", "available"=>"0", "errors_from"=>"0", "lastaccess"=>"0", "ipmi_authtype"=>"-1", "ipmi_privilege"=>"2", "ipmi_username"=>"", "ipmi_password"=>"", "ipmi_disable_until"=>"0", "ipmi_available"=>"0", "snmp_disable_until"=>"0", "snmp_available"=>"0", "maintenanceid"=>"0", "maintenance_status"=>"0", "maintenance_type"=>"0", "maintenance_from"=>"0", "ipmi_errors_from"=>"0", "snmp_errors_from"=>"0", "ipmi_error"=>"", "snmp_error"=>"", "jmx_disable_until"=>"0", "jmx_available"=>"0", "jmx_errors_from"=>"0", "jmx_error"=>"", "name"=>"lck-ping-template", "flags"=>"0", "templateid"=>"10323", "description"=>"", "tls_connect"=>"1", "tls_accept"=>"1", "tls_issuer"=>"", "tls_subject"=>"", "tls_psk_identity"=>"", "tls_psk"=>"", "proxy_address"=>"", "auto_compress"=>"1", "items"=>[{"itemid"=>"30474"}], "triggers"=>[{"triggerid"=>"16749"}], "applications"=>[{"applicationid"=>"1328"}]}

Host

Hosts are the devices you wish to monitor.

Creating an example host (codingkata.tardate.com) and applying the lck-ping-template:

$ bundle exec ruby manage.rb host create
Connecting with auth token
API version: 4.4.5. Connected with token: 447fc37363a0716ee275cce228b29766
{"groupid"=>"19", "name"=>"lck-hostgroup", "internal"=>"0", "flags"=>"0"}
{"proxy_hostid"=>"0", "host"=>"lck-ping-template", "status"=>"3", "disable_until"=>"0", "error"=>"", "available"=>"0", "errors_from"=>"0", "lastaccess"=>"0", "ipmi_authtype"=>"-1", "ipmi_privilege"=>"2", "ipmi_username"=>"", "ipmi_password"=>"", "ipmi_disable_until"=>"0", "ipmi_available"=>"0", "snmp_disable_until"=>"0", "snmp_available"=>"0", "maintenanceid"=>"0", "maintenance_status"=>"0", "maintenance_type"=>"0", "maintenance_from"=>"0", "ipmi_errors_from"=>"0", "snmp_errors_from"=>"0", "ipmi_error"=>"", "snmp_error"=>"", "jmx_disable_until"=>"0", "jmx_available"=>"0", "jmx_errors_from"=>"0", "jmx_error"=>"", "name"=>"lck-ping-template", "flags"=>"0", "templateid"=>"10323", "description"=>"", "tls_connect"=>"1", "tls_accept"=>"1", "tls_issuer"=>"", "tls_subject"=>"", "tls_psk_identity"=>"", "tls_psk"=>"", "proxy_address"=>"", "auto_compress"=>"1"}
{"hostid"=>"10324", "proxy_hostid"=>"0", "host"=>"codingkata.tardate.com", "status"=>"0", "disable_until"=>"0", "error"=>"", "available"=>"0", "errors_from"=>"0", "lastaccess"=>"0", "ipmi_authtype"=>"-1", "ipmi_privilege"=>"2", "ipmi_username"=>"", "ipmi_password"=>"", "ipmi_disable_until"=>"0", "ipmi_available"=>"0", "snmp_disable_until"=>"0", "snmp_available"=>"0", "maintenanceid"=>"0", "maintenance_status"=>"0", "maintenance_type"=>"0", "maintenance_from"=>"0", "ipmi_errors_from"=>"0", "snmp_errors_from"=>"0", "ipmi_error"=>"", "snmp_error"=>"", "jmx_disable_until"=>"0", "jmx_available"=>"0", "jmx_errors_from"=>"0", "jmx_error"=>"", "name"=>"codingkata.tardate.com", "flags"=>"0", "templateid"=>"0", "description"=>"", "tls_connect"=>"1", "tls_accept"=>"1", "tls_issuer"=>"", "tls_subject"=>"", "tls_psk_identity"=>"", "tls_psk"=>"", "proxy_address"=>"", "auto_compress"=>"1", "inventory_mode"=>"-1"}

Now we have basic ping monitoring running for the host:

lck-ping-graph

Credits and References

About LCK#141 infrastructurezabbixruby
Project Source on GitHub Return to the Project Catalog

LittleCodingKata is my collection of programming exercises, research and code toys broadly spanning things that relate to programming and software development (languages, frameworks and tools).

These range from the trivial to the complex and serious. Many are inspired by existing work and I'll note credits and references where applicable. The focus is quite scattered, as I variously work on things new and important in the moment, or go back to revisit things from the past.

This is primarily a personal collection for my own edification and learning, but anyone who stumbles by is welcome to borrow, steal or reference the work here. And if you spot errors or issues I'd really appreciate some feedback - create an issue, send me an email or even send a pull-request.

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