I'm using with satisfaction Groundwork for 2 yeas but now I would try to switch
to Zenoss because in Groundwork there are some important missing future and
Zenoss seems to be just a little bit more complete.
Before to proceed (and spend lot of time...) I need some specific informations
about the way Zenoss handle some topics:
1) WMI - Monitor windows servers (domain member)
With groundwork/nagios I need a wmi_proxy that, to sum up, is a windows machine
with "nrpe_nt service" running as a specific user with local admin rights on
remote servers.
So the workflow is:
groundwork-->nrpe_nt-->wmi_query_to_remote_server
About the user running nrpe_nt there are 3 choices:
- use a "domain admin user" that is local administrator of all member
servers(as default). No manual configurations are required on remote server but
running a service as "domain admin" is not a good choise for security reasons.
- use a "domain user" that manually have to be placed in the "local
administrator group" of all servers. This is more secure but requires manual
configuration
- use a local administrator (some for all servers)
Obviously a standard "domain user" is better but there is a problem with domain
controllers because dc don't have a local administrator so it isn't possible to
query a dc without a domain user. I tried some tips about wmi configuration on
remote servers but never worked. So...I have been forced to use a domain admin
in order to speed my configuration although I could use a passive check; in
this case is the dc that contacts groundwork and not viceversa.
Now I just tried Zenoss core with WMIPerformanceMonitor.zip and I see that it
seems to be able to connect to remote machines using wmi but without a
wmi_proxy. It requires only to specify an user in zProperties tab.
So...the question about Zenoss and wmi are:
a) How zenoss is able to directly query remote servers using wmi? I mean:
zenoss is linux based so I don't understand how it is possible.
b) Is the password sent by Zenoss on the network encrypted? This question is
strictly related to the security problem I just exposed because I'm trying a
product that could satisfy high security levels.
c) I suppose that with Zenoss would be there the same problem about the user's
rights so...a possible workaround could be use an agent (passive check) only on
the domain controllers (insted wmi query). Is it possible?
2) Recurring Scheduled downtime
One of the missing future of groundwork/nagios is the ability to schedule
recurring downtime. Does Zenoss provide this future?
3) Scheduled downtime and Availability reports
Creating a "service" or "host" report, Groundwork shows for each main status
(OK,CRITICAL,WARNING,UNKNOWN):
total
scheduled
unscheduled
This is very important because I need to distinguish between "scheduled and
unscheduled". Does Zenoss works in this way?
4) RRD files management
Groundwork has 2 big limit with rrd files management.
a) rrd files creation
It create the rrd file in this way:
host_servicename
When you rename an host or a service you lost statistics. Really is possible to
restore them but you must manually change some entries in the database, rename
the files etc..
This is not so easy, takes a long time and cause a small "hole" in the graph.
Is Zenoss afflicted by this problem or does it handle this problem a little
better?
b) Dynamic Performance graph creation
With Groundwork you can create a template for each service or host but there is
a problem:
supposing yours windows or linux servers have not the same configuration (for
exmaple you have some linux servers with /xxx and others with /yyy) you must
arrange the template. To sum up the performance graph creations is not really
dynamic.
Does Zenoss work in the same way?
5) High availability package module
In the "product comparison" I saw that Zenoss Enterprise has an "High
Availability Package" but I have not understood how it works.
Is it an "out of the box solution" and is it simple to configure or does it
require external packages? How does it work?
6) Custom email notification for each service
Groundwork send a specific email for each service but it use a template with
some variables so the email contains just the "Hostname", the "servicename" and
the status (warning,critical etc..). I would like to send some additional
informations in the body for each service. Is possible with Zenoss? Or does it
works in the same way of nagios?
7) Monitor *unix servers with ssh
With groundwork it is quite simple:
the first time is necessary to create ssh key and copy it on remote hosts. Then
you need to configure ssh on remote hosts ("PubkeyAuthentication") and copy
some plugions from nagios/libexec.
How does it work with Zenoss?
8) Tools like Nagvis, webinject and Network Whatermap
Groundwork incluse these wonderful tools.
While you can live without Nagvis and Network Whatermap, in my opinion
WEBINJECT is absolutely necessary in order to test web applications and to
create performance graphs.
Does Zenoss provide these tools?
9) Performance comparison
Because groundwork is based on nagios (now nagios 3) you can find some
performance tests. Is there a Zenoss comparison? I mean: Nagios 3.0 claims a
30/50 % increase in performance so...for example with a 3.0 ghz cpu you can
monitor more than...
Is there a Zenoss test like this?
10) Active and passive checks.
Groundwork suggest to NOT use active checks (wmi is an active check) if you
have hundreds of devices but instead to use passive checks (the agent installed
on remote hosts)
What does Zenoss suggest about this?
I apologize for this long questions but I think a kind reply would be
appreciated by all Zenoss's newbie like me and people that would like to have a
summary of the main difference between Zenoss and Nagios
Thanks
-------------------- m2f --------------------
Read this topic online here:
http://forums.zenoss.com/viewtopic.php?p=32722#32722
-------------------- m2f --------------------
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