This chapter will help you quickly walk through several basic tasks that demonstrate the system's capabilities. After completing initial setup, you will learn how to:
Add a device, and then view its status and performance details
Set up, observe, and acknowledge an alert
The remaining guide chapters dive a little deeper into interface and system features, and show you how to:
This guide assumes that you have installed the Zenoss software. If you have not, then follow the instructions in the Installation Guide (located at community/documentation) to install your Zenoss instance.
To complete all the steps in this guide, you will need:
One or more monitored targets, such as:
Windows Server (2000, 2003, 2008), Windows XP, Windows Vista®, Windows 7
Linux or other UNIX® server
Tomcat or other Java/JMX server
Any SNMP or SSH-enabled device
For each system that will access Zenoss through a Web browser:
Adobe® Flash® Player
Firefox 3.x, or Internet Explorer 7, 8
SSH client to facilitate command line tasks
After installing, access Zenoss from your Web browser. Depending on your installation method, browse to:
Server where Zenoss is installed, to http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8080
URL provided in the command window (VMware installation)
The setup wizard appears.
Using this wizard, you will:
Change the admin password
Set up an initial user
Add some devices to the system
From the first panel of the wizard, click Get Started! to begin.
The Step 1: Set up Initial Users panel appears.
Follow these steps to select a password for the admin account and create your user account.
In the Set admin password area, enter and confirm a new admin password. You must enter a password value to continue.
Note
The Zenoss admin account has extended privileges, and its use should be limited. Be sure to record the admin password and store it securely.
In the Create your account area, set up your Zenoss user account. Most of the time, you will use this account to perform management tasks in Zenoss. Enter a unique user name, password, and email address.
Click Submit.
The Step 2: Specify or Discover Devices to Monitor panel appears.
You can add devices manually, or give Zenoss network or IP address range information so it can discover your devices.
Follow these steps to manually add devices to the system. For each device you want to add:
Enter a fully qualified domain name or IP address
In the Details area, select a device type from the list. If your device type is not listed, then use the default selection. (You can change device classes for a device later, as well as add device classes.)
Enter the appropriate credentials used to authenticate against the device.
Note
For more information about setting credentials, refer to Zenoss Administration.
To add the devices, click Submit.
Zenoss models the devices in the background.
Note
You can bypass device addition through the wizard. Click Skip to the dashboard to go directly to the Zenoss Dashboard. Later, you can add devices by following the steps outlined in the section titled "Add and View a Device."
To discover devices:
Select the Autodiscover devices option.
For each network or IP range in which you want Zenoss to discover devices, enter an address or range. For example, you might enter a network address in CIDR notation:
10.175.211.0/24
or as a range of IP addresses:
10.175.211.1-50
If you want to enter multiple addresses or ranges, click +. For each network, you must enter a netmask or IP range.
For each network or IP range, specify the Windows, SSH, or SNMP credentials you want Zenoss to use on the devices it discovers. You can enter only one of each. Zenoss attempts to use the same credentials on each device it discovers within the networks or IP ranges specified.
Click Discover.
Zenoss schedules jobs to discover devices in the networks and IP ranges you specified. (To see job status, navigate to Advanced > Settings, and then select Jobs in the left panel.)
When discovery completes, a notification message appears in the Messages portlet on the Dashboard.
Note
You can bypass device discovery through the wizard. Click Skip to the dashboard to go directly to the Zenoss Dashboard. Later, you can discover devices by following the steps outlined in the section titled “Device Auto-Discovery.”
If you skipped initial device addition through the Setup Wizard, or want to add more devices through Zenoss’ more advanced device addition page, then follow these steps.
To add a device, follow these steps:
Navigate to Infrastructure > Devices.
The device list appears.
From
, select Add a Single Device.The Add a Single Device dialog appears.
In the dialog, click More to display all available fields and selections.
Enter the following information or make selections in the dialog:
Name or IP - Enter the fully qualified domain name or IP address of a device on your network.
Device Class - For a Windows server, select /Server/Windows/WMI. For a Linux server, select /Server/SSH/Linux.
SNMP Community - Enter the SNMP community string for this device. (Setting SNMP community strings globally is discussed later in this guide, in the section titled "Setting SNMP Community Strings Globally.")
Click Add.
Zenoss discovers the device, adds it to the list of devices, and then gathers additional details about the device to create the device model.
Note
You also can set up WMI monitoring of your Windows devices. Refer to Zenoss Administration for more information.
To view the newly added device:
Navigate to Infrastructure > Devices.
The device list appears.
In the search area at the top of the Device column, type part or all of the device name.
The system filters the list to display only those names that match the characters you enter.
Click the device name.
The device overview appears.
From here, you can view basic information about the device, or make a selection from the left panel to see more detailed information.
Select Graphs from the left panel to see the type of performance data that Zenoss will collect for this device. Graphs are defined at the device class level, and differ depending on the device class to which the device is assigned.
Zenoss alerts are tied to user accounts or user groups, and occur when triggered by an event.
When an event is detected by the system, Zenoss categorizes it. Zenoss then examines defined alerting rules to determine if the event matches any filters that would create an alert.
To create an alerting rule:
From the navigation bar, select Advanced.
The Settings page appears.
Select Users from the left panel.
In the list of Users, click your currently logged in user name (admin).
Select Alerting Rules from the left panel.
From the Action menu, select Add Alerting Rule.
Enter a name for the alerting rule, and then click OK. The newly created alerting rule appears in the list.
Note
Zenoss recommends a descriptive naming convention for alerting rules, as multiple rules may be active at one time. For example: "Send email on error or worse."
Click the new rule in the list. The rule edit page appears.
Enter or select criteria for the rule:
Delay - Enter a value of 0.
Enabled - Select a value of True.
Action - Select email to email the alert.
Address - Optionally, enter an override email address to receive alerts. By default, Zenoss will email alerts to the address associated with your account.
Where - Use the default information in this area:
Production State = Production - This rule applies only to devices in "Production." A device in any other state will not trigger an alert.
Severity >= Error - This rule applies only to events of severity "Error" or worse.
Event State = New - This rule applies only to new events.
Click Save.
Note
Refer to the Zenoss Administration guide for complete information about alerting rules, including editing alert messages and alert schedules.
To test an alerting rule, create a "dummy" event in the system to trigger it. To do this:
From the navigation bar, select Events.
Click
to add an event.The Create Event dialog appears.
Complete these dialog fields:
Summary - Enter a text summary. This summary will appear in the event console.
Device - Enter the name of the device you added. The event will assert against this device.
Severity - Select Critical.
Click Submit.
The newly created event appears in the list of events in the event console.
Note
You must set up email before you can view email alerts. See the section titled Managing Zenoss Users for more information.
Check your email (either the address associated with your account, or the additional address you specified) to see notification of the event triggered by the alerting rule.
Acknowledging an event indicates that you are aware that the event has occurred. To acknowledge an event:
