Free Network Monitoring

[Deanuk]

I've seen a few posts on here asking about network monitoring and ways in which you can do it. I have looked at many solutions but some didn't fit with what I needed or were too expensive for my budget. So, I started to look down the free and open-source routes. ]

 

I know what I am about to suggest has been posted by others before but I wanted to highlight what you can do with a bit of time, effort and spare kit at no costing to your budget.

 

The system I chose to use is Zabbix, you can find it here: https://www.zabbix.com/ You can download this as a virtual appliance, Linux box, raspberry pi image etc. There are plenty of different ways to install, they just don't do Windows, but don't let that put you off. the raspberry pi method is very easy if you do not know Linux.

 

Download link is here: https://www.zabbix.com/download just pick your flavour of platform.

 

Personally, I am not a Linux person and chose to install on a Raspberry Pi, here is the model of Pi I used: https://thepihut.com/products/raspberry-pi-4-model-b?variant=31994565689406&currency=GBP&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gclid=CjwKCAjwh5qLBhALEiwAioods-g4G78j83UddBBB4V34uMX6aAwcEBxlzjeOvq38xP2_CWDvl14mrBoCHjIQAvD_BwE. I used this with a 64GB SD card.

 

To install the raspberry pi image onto your SD card follow the instructions here: https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/ will transfer the iso from your computer to the SD card which you will then insert into your Raspberry Pi.

 

You will then need to configure DHCP etc. which I am sure you are capable to do through the UI.

 

Installing Zabbix on top of the OS is very easy, full instructions can be found here: https://bestmonitoringtools.com/how-to-install-zabbix-on-raspberry-pi-raspbian/

 

If you are struggling with the whole process there are YouTube videos that walk you through the whole process for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy9xis0IrpM

 

How to monitor ESXi hosts etc can be found here: https://techexpert.tips/zabbix/zabbix-monitor-vmware-esxi/ this includes videos.

 

From there onwards it's pretty easy to find devices to monitor, there are agents you can install on windows servers that will feedback to Zabbix etc. Plenty of things you can monitor, a list of plugins can be found here: https://www.zabbix.com/integrations?cat=official_templates I would stick with the official integrations but there are hundreds of custom ones created by other users.

 

Once you have the hang of the system you can install Grafana on top to create really good quick views of your system and an easy monitoring tool for all https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlT7EDcCQsY

 

Here is how I have our system set up:

 

 

 

 

We also have ours displaying on a 48" tv on our office wall cycling through a variety of views. My plan is to have this monitoring all of our switches but we are in the midst of replacing them so I finish this off once complete.

 

 

Any questions just reply here and I'll try and help.

[robyholmes]

This needs to go on my 'ToDo' list. Thank you very much!

[TechMonkey]

We do similar with PRTG free, which will run on Windows and allows 100 sensors. You can also script sensors using PowerShell.

We have sensors for all switches responsive, SAN enclosure, Appliances are responsive, Google is contactable, our website is contactable, SIP trunk is available, Number of Domain and Local admin group members, core service servers are responsive, file share disk space, and currently trying to link our Veeam backup to let us know if it goes wrong.

Our board has a rotating map of our network map and cool looking radial graph, which looks impressive but really just shows everything is green unless something goes wrong!

[Jaan]

I've seen a few posts on here asking about network monitoring and ways in which you can do it. I have looked at many solutions but some didn't fit with what I needed or were too expensive for my budget. So, I started to look down the free and open-source routes.

 

I've just bought a raspberry on the back end of your post.

 

Any are you able to share your layouts?

 

thanks for the inspiration!

[Davit2005]

Tried Zabbix but it broke for no apparent reason and building on a Pi was not great as difficult to backup so could not be bothered to build again. I like PRTG but can quickly run out of sensors on the free version. Currently got PRTG running at home and some maps are setup in Home automation software. Edited November 3, 2021 by Davit2005

[jthompson]

My plan is to have this monitoring all of our switches but we are in the midst of replacing them so I finish this off once complete.

 

Monitoring the uptime of switches and APs was one of the best things I did when I started here. It turned out that quite a few devices were restarting themselves frequently, but would often only ever appear as 'UP' because they'd have completed a reboot before the next check. An alert for anything with an uptime of less than 10 minutes, for instance, can be really useful.

 

Logging and graphing of performance data is probably more useful than the instantaneous status. Being able to drill into how stuff like storage volume usage or SQL db size is trending over days/months/years is where this stuff becomes really handy.

[gumbygaz]

@Deanuk

 

Just wondering, I've given this to our Apprentice as a fun little project and he's got it up and running monitoring a couple devices via the browser on his PC. We're just wondering, is the Pi directly connected to the TV or is your TV connected to another PC accessing the Zabbix. Just the lite CLI version doesn't have a browser & think we broke it trying to install chromium on it! Does your Pi also run the TV dashboard display? Cheers

[Deanuk]

@Deanuk

 

Just wondering, I've given this to our Apprentice as a fun little project and he's got it up and running monitoring a couple devices via the browser on his PC. We're just wondering, is the Pi directly connected to the TV or is your TV connected to another PC accessing the Zabbix. Just the lite CLI version doesn't have a browser & think we broke it trying to install chromium on it! Does your Pi also run the TV dashboard display? Cheers

 

My pi runs everything in one system so I have the raspberry pi with Pi OS, Zabbix and Grafana then run a TV plugged directly into it too. Any changes I need to make I use Real VNC. Handy to have it in one box keeps it simple.

[gumbygaz]

My pi runs everything in one system so I have the raspberry pi with Pi OS, Zabbix and Grafana then run a TV plugged directly into it too. Any changes I need to make I use Real VNC. Handy to have it in one box keeps it simple.

 

Ok cheers, so I think installing the Lite version was our undoing. We'll start again with the full Pi OS Cheers @Deakuk

[Deanuk]

Ok cheers, so I think installing the Lite version was our undoing. We'll start again with the full Pi OS Cheers @Deakuk

 

No worries, I imagine it will work whichever Linux OS you use, I'm not massive on Linux to chose the baby version

[DalekSec]

Just went to look at this, anyone else getting a Rate Limiting cloudflare message pop up when you go to Zabbix.com?

[willtech]

Not loading for me at the moment.

[robyholmes]

Just went to look at this, anyone else getting a Rate Limiting cloudflare message pop up when you go to Zabbix.com?

 

Yes same here. I've got Zabbix setup for a second time (Had a play years ago but never got far) but stuck on trying to monitor my first server. Zabbix agent can't connect to Zabbix. Forum is down as well.

Edited November 22, 2021 by robyholmes

[Davit2005]

Just went to look at this, anyone else getting a Rate Limiting cloudflare message pop up when you go to Zabbix.com?

 

Yes I am

[ITGURU]

I have 'The dude' up showing network topology over all sites i manage, of the main infrastructure!

[the_quick]

It Looks like a brilliant software. The vmware discovery has found my VMs, but I can't see any monitoring data.

I have installed agent on my machine and one Windows Server - no data coming through either. Not sure what is going wrong.

 

Update: Got it all working !

 

Now playing with dashboard

Edited November 24, 2021 by the_quick

[fiza]

@Deanuk - Which Grafana panel did you use to show the status of the hypervisors? I want to show the "UP" or "DOWN" status as you have in the photos you uploaded for my HyperV hosts.

[Jaan]

Wanted to give this ago, but i'm on my 3rd attempt. as i type this i'm installing the pi OS........... i cant get even get zabbix installed!

 

Edited April 10, 2024 by Jaan

[Jaan]

Yeah having the same issue.... anybody any ideas what this means? i've had a quick Google. I've tried all the default passwords i can think, as well as leaving it blank.

 

This is after a fresh install of pie OS and following this guide:

 

https://www.zabbix.com/download?zabbix=6.0&os_distribution=raspberry_pi_os&os_version=12&components=server_frontend_agent&db=mysql&ws=apache

[dmj]

Yeah having the same issue.... anybody any ideas what this means?

 

You didn't post the log @Jaan

[Jaan]

You didn't post the log @Jaan

 

i don't even know where to find this.

[Jaan]

i did forget the picture though!

 

[tdk1069]

ridiculously obvious question, sql is running and the socket is available isn't it? (i've been there!)

[Jaan]

ridiculously obvious question, sql is running and the socket is available isn't it? (i've been there!)

 

I'm a total newbie to Linux, i just been copying to commands from the guide and assumed everything would be taken care of

 

My very limited linux terminal inputs gives this...... which i feel is giving me a clue, buts its going straight over my head!

 

[dmj]

[color=#0C0D0E][font=inherit]sudo cat [/font][/color][color=#0C0D0E][font=inherit]/[/font][/color][color=#0C0D0E][font=inherit]etc[/font][/color][color=#0C0D0E][font=inherit]/[/font][/color][color=#0C0D0E][font=inherit]mysql[/font][/color][color=#0C0D0E][font=inherit]/[/font][/color][color=#0C0D0E][font=inherit]debian.cnf[/font][/color]

 

or have a look in

 

 ls /etc/mysql