Quick Start Guide

For Zenoss Version 2.0

September 26, 2007

Zenoss Quick Start Guide 2.0

Table of Contents
1 Overview.......................................................................................................4
1.1 Introduction to Zenoss Core ............................................................................ 4
1.2 Additional Resources....................................................................................... 4
2 Getting Started.............................................................................................6
2.1 Installing Zenoss Core Using RPM Packages.................................................. 6
2.2 Installing Zenoss Core Using Source Code ..................................................... 7
2.3 Installing Zenoss VM Appliance Using VM Player............................................ 7
2.4 Logging On...................................................................................................... 8
3 Defining Your Environment ........................................................................9
3.1 Basics Settings ................................................................................................ 9
3.1.1 Configure the SMTP Server............................................................................................9
3.1.2 Configure your SNMP Community Strings ....................................................................9
3.1.3 Create Your Windows Administrator Settings .............................................................10
3.2 Create Your Logical Groupings...................................................................... 10
3.2.1 Create Your Locations ..................................................................................................10
3.2.2 Create Your Systems ....................................................................................................11
3.2.3 Create Your Groups ......................................................................................................11
3.3 Define a Monitored Processes....................................................................... 12
4 Discovering Your Environment ................................................................13
4.1 Add a Device ................................................................................................. 13
4.2 Add a Network ............................................................................................... 14
4.3 Discover Networks......................................................................................... 14
5 Monitoring Your Environment ..................................................................15
5.1 Viewing Your Managed Resources................................................................ 15
5.2 Viewing Your Events ..................................................................................... 16
5.3 Viewing Reports ............................................................................................ 17
5.4 Custom Monitoring ........................................................................................ 17
5.4.1 Adding a Community ZenPack .....................................................................................17
6 Managing Your Environment....................................................................18
6.1 Adding Zenoss Users .................................................................................... 18
6.1.1 Adding a Zenoss User...................................................................................................18
6.1.2 Creating an Alerting Rule ..............................................................................................19
6.1.3 Creating an Alerting Rule Schedule .............................................................................20
7 Notes...........................................................................................................21

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List of Figures
Figure 2-1 - Zenoss Login Screen ........................................................................................................8
Figure 3-1 Zenoss Settings Tab............................................................................................................9
Figure 3-2 Configuring SNMP Community Strings ............................................................................10
Figure 3-3 Adding a New Location......................................................................................................11
Figure 3-4 Defining a Monitored Process ...........................................................................................12
Figure 4-1 Adding a Device .................................................................................................................13
Figure 4-2 Adding a Network...............................................................................................................14
Figure 4-3 Discovering Networks ........................................................................................................14
Figure 5-1 Zenoss Device List.............................................................................................................15
Figure 5-2 Device Status page............................................................................................................15
Figure 5-3 Zenoss Event Console ......................................................................................................16
Figure 5-4 Zenoss Reports..................................................................................................................17
Figure 6-1 Adding a New User ............................................................................................................18
Figure 6-2 Configuring a User .............................................................................................................18
Figure 6-3 Creating an Alerting Rule ..................................................................................................19
Figure 6-4 Configuring an Alerting Rule .............................................................................................19
Figure 6-5 Creating a Rule Window....................................................................................................20
Figure 6-6 Configuring a Rule Window...............................................................................................20

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1 Overview
This purpose of this document is to get you up and running using the Zenoss Core software and
show you how do perform basic tasks such as:
• Installing the Zenoss Core software.
• Defining your environment with Zenoss Core
• Discovering devices with Zenoss Core
• Monitoring your environment with Zenoss Core
• Managing your environment with Zenoss Core

1.1 Introduction to Zenoss Core

Zenoss Core – the most downloaded enterprise open source IT management software product –
is an integrated IT monitoring software package that allows IT administrators to manage the
status and health of their infrastructures through a single, web-based console. Zenoss Core is an
open source network and systems management software and is the intellectual property of
Zenoss Incorporated, a privately held company headquartered in Annapolis, MD.
The power of Zenoss Core starts with an in-depth Inventory and Configuration Management
Database (CMDB) created by discovering managed resources (such as servers, networks, and
other infrastructure devices) in your IT environment. The Zenoss-created model of the
environment provides a complete inventory of the key systems down to the resource component
level (interfaces, services and process, installed software etc.) With the model built, you can
begin monitoring and reporting on all aspects of the IT infrastructure using the Zenoss Core’s
integrated availability and performance monitoring capabilities. Zenoss also provides an events
and fault management system that ties in to the CMDB to help drive operational efficiency and
productivity by automating many of the notification, alerting, escalation and remediation tasks
performed by everyday IT Operational staff.

1.2 Additional Resources

If you need additional help, or have some troubleshooting questions, see the Zenoss website for:
• Zenoss Installation Instructions
o http://www.zenoss.com/community/docs/install-guides/
• Zenoss Admin Guide and other documents
o http://www.zenoss.com/community/docs
• Zenoss Wiki
o http://www.zenoss.com/community/wiki
• Zenoss FAQ
o http://www.zenoss.com/community/docs/faqs
• Zenoss Users Mailing Lists
o http://www.zenoss.com/community/discuss/lists
• Zenoss User Forum
o http://community.zenoss.com/forums/
• Zenoss Blog
o http://blog.zenoss.com/

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If you have comments or questions about this document, please direct them to:
feedback@zenoss.com

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2 Getting Started
Zenoss Core can be downloaded via the Zenoss website:
http://www.zenoss.com/download
Or from the Zenoss Sourceforge project web page:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/zenoss

Zenoss Core can be run on most LINUX and UNIX based platforms; however, we recommend
installing Zenoss Core on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) platform or any RHEL derivative
platform (e.g. Centos or Fedora).
Zenoss Core is also available as a virtual appliance that can be installed on Windows and Linux
platforms using a VMware Player or VMware Server.
Zenoss Core is a monitoring solution that can be accessed via a web browser. Supported web
browsers are Firefox and Internet Explorer 7. Zenoss Core partially supports Safari and Opera
web browsers.

2.1 Installing Zenoss Core Using RPM Packages

Please access Zenoss Core RPM installation instructions for the following platforms:
• Installation instructions for RHEL 4/Centos 4 Platforms
o http://www.zenoss.com/community/docs/install-guides/install-on-centos/
• Installation instructions for RHEL 5/Centos 5 Platforms
o http://www.zenoss.com/community/docs/install-guides/install-on-redhat-
enterprise-linux/
• Installation instructions for Fedora 6
o http://www.zenoss.com/community/docs/install-guides/install-on-fedora-core-6/
• Installation instructions for SUSE Enterprise Linux 10 (SLES 10)
o http://www.zenoss.com/community/docs/install-guides/install-zenoss-on-suse-
enterprise-linux-10/

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2.2 Installing Zenoss Core Using Source Code

Zenoss Core can be built and installed on Linux and UNIX based platforms using the source
code. The Zenoss Core source code can be downloaded either from the source tar ball or via
Subversion.
Generic source code installation instructions can be accessed at the link below:
http://www.zenoss.com/community/docs/install-guides/install-from-source/
Below is specific installation or prerequisite configuration instructions for Zenoss Core source
code installation for the following platforms:
• Installation instructions for Ubuntu 6.10 Platforms
o http://www.zenoss.com/community/docs/install-guides/installing-zenoss-on-
ubuntu/
• Installation instructions for Ubuntu 7 (Feisty Fawn) Platforms
o http://www.zenoss.com/community/docs/install-guides/installing-zenoss-on-
ubuntu-7-04-feisty-fawn/
• Installation instructions for FreeBSD 6.1 Platforms
o http://www.zenoss.com/community/docs/install-guides/install-on-freebsd-1/
• Installation instructions for FreeBSD 6.1 Platforms
o http://www.zenoss.com/community/docs/install-guides/install-on-freebsd-6.2-1/

2.3 Installing Zenoss VM Appliance Using VM Player

A free VMware Player can be downloaded at the VMware site below:
http://www.vmware.com/download/player/
A typical host system used for a VMware installation should have the following specifications:
• Processor: 500MHz or greater
• RAM: 512 MB RAM or greater
To effectively run a Zenoss VM Appliance (or any guest operating system), the host server must
have enough resource to allocate a minimum of 256MB RAM and 1GB disk space to the Zenoss
Core Virtual Appliance image. The VMware Player software requires approximately 150 MB of
disk space to install the application.
Once the VMware Player is installed on the host server, download the Zenoss VMware Appliance
image onto the host server as well. The VMware image is packages as a Zip (*.zip) file. Unzip the
Zenoss VM Appliance into the appropriate folder according to the VMware Player instructions. At
the VMware Player Console, navigate to the VM images folder and load the Zenoss VM
Appliance image.

When prompted for a local host login, enter “root” to gain access to the Zenoss Appliance
command line
Local host login: root

The Zenoss VM Appliance is configured for DHCP addressing by default. If your network is not
configured for DHCP, assign a static IP address to the server and verify that the server can
communicate with your network.

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Verify the IP Address of the Zenoss VM Appliance server

zenossserver ~#ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:50:56:A9:73:4B
inet addr:xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx Bcast:xxx.xxx.xxx.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::250:56ff:fea9:734b/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:26819795 errors:2 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:26720599 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:395109646 (376.8 MiB) TX bytes:2753868547 (2.5 GiB)
Interrupt:177 Base address:0x1400

2.4 Logging On
At a web browser access the Zenoss web UI via the URL below:
http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8080

The IP address used should be that of the server that the Zenoss Core software is installed upon.
For Zenoss VM Appliances, the IP address used should be that of the Zenoss VM Appliance (and
not of the host server).

Figure 2-1 - Zenoss Login Screen

When the login prompt of the web UI appears, log in as:
User: admin
Password: zenoss
and Click ‘Submit’.

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3 Defining Your Environment

Zenoss Core is a complete enterprise monitoring solution and provides you with the tools to
effectively manage and monitor your IT infrastructure. Since no two environments are the same,
Zenoss enables you to define your environment any way you choose. Here are a few things you
should define or configure to get you started:

3.1 Basics Settings

3.1.1 Configure the SMTP Server
Below are basic steps to follow while setting up your SMTP server.
1. From the left navigation menu, click Settings.
2. From the Settings tab, set the ‘SMTP Host’ field for your preferred SMTP server.
3. Set the ‘SMTP User’ and ‘SMTP Password’ fields (if necessary for the SMTP server you
want to use).
4. Click the ‘Save’ button.

Figure 3-1 Zenoss Settings Tab

Note: The default setting for this parameter is ‘localhost’ which is an internal SMTP server. The
Settings tab can be also be used to configure other system settings such as your preferred SNPP
Host.
3.1.2 Configure your SNMP Community Strings
SNMP Community Strings can be configured at the ‘zSnmpCommunity’ parameter of the
ZProperties tab. This can be configured at any level of the device object tree. For instance the
‘ZSnmpCommunity’ field can be configured at the ZProperties tab of a Device Class or at that of
an individual device.
For automated discovery of devices, Zenoss provides an advantage in configuring a list of valid
community string that is valid in your environment where by Zenoss can use this list during the
network discovery and modeling of your entire environment.
Below are basic steps to follow while setting up your SNMP community list.
1. From the left navigation menu, select Devices .
2. Navigate to the zProperties Tab on the Devices Class page.
3. Add any applicable SNMP strings to the ‘ZSnmpCommunities’ text area.

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Figure 3-2 Configuring SNMP Community Strings

Note: Modifying the ‘zSnmpCommunities’ parameter can be done at any level of the device tree
and this would override parameters inherited from the parent device class.

3.1.3 Create Your Windows Administrator Settings

For Zenoss to access and leverage the Windows WMI framework, your Zenoss server must have
Administrator level access to your Windows devices.
Below are basic steps to follow while configuring Windows Administrator settings:
1. From the left navigation menu, select Devices.
2. Drill down to the Server link, and the Windows link to open to the Windows device class
page.
3. From the Windows Class page, click the zProperties Tab.
4. At the zProperties tab, set the ‘zWinUser’ field (default: Adminsitrator)
5. Also set the ‘zWinPassword’ field.
Note: Modifying the ‘zWinUser’ and ‘ZWinPassword’ parameters can be done at any level of the
device tree and this would override parameters inherited from the parent device class.

3.2 Create Your Logical Groupings

You can configure logical groupings to manage the different views of your environment that you
wish to see. The types of logical groupings you create are entirely up to you, and it’s best that the
groups and sub groups you create make sense to your IT organization.
3.2.1 Create Your Locations
Below are basic steps to follow while you create a Locations group or sub-group.
1. From the left navigation menu, select Locations.
2. Click on the drop-down table-menu of the Sub-Locations table and select ‘Add New
Organizer’.

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Figure 3-3 Adding a New Location

3. Add the new location to the ‘ID’ field.
4. Click the ‘OK button to save the new Location.
These steps can be used to create sub-locations under existing Locations groupings as well.

3.2.2 Create Your Systems

Below are basic steps to follow while you create a Locations group or sub-group.
1. From the left navigation menu, click Systems .
2. Click the drop-down table-menu of the Sub-Systems table and select ‘Add New
Organizer’.
3. Add the new location to the ‘ID’ field.
4. Click the ‘OK button to save the new Systems grouping.
These steps can be used to create sub-locations under existing Systems groupings as well.

3.2.3 Create Your Groups

Below are basic steps to follow while creating a Locations group or sub group.
1. From the left navigation menu, click Groups.
2. Click the drop-down table-menu from the Sub-Groups table and select ‘Add New
Organizer’.
3. Add the new location to the ‘ID’ field
4. Click the ‘OK button to save the new Groups grouping.
These steps can be used to create sub locations under existing Groups groupings as well..

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3.3 Define a Monitored Processes

Zenoss allows you to define the processes you want to monitor across your network. During the
modeling process, Zenoss checks your list of defined processes against processes running on
the managed resources, and automatically models and monitors the matched processes on your
devices. Below are basic steps to follow to define a process you want to monitor in Zenoss.
1. From the left navigation menu, click Processes.
2. From the drop-down table-menu of the Processes table, select ‘Add Process’.

Figure 3-4 Defining a Monitored Process

3. Add the new process identifier to the ‘ID’ field.
4. Click the ‘OK button to save the new network address.\
Note: Regular Expressions can be applied to define the process identifier and zenoss would
model successful matches accordingly.

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4 Discovering Your Environment

4.1 Add a Device

Devices to be monitored can be added to the Zenoss System individually. Below are basic steps
to follow while modeling a device via SNMP.
1. From the left navigation menu, select Add a Device.
2. From the Add a Device page, in the ‘Device Name’ field, enter a qualified domain name
or IP address for the device to be modeled and monitored.
3. Set the ‘SNMP Community‘ field (if necessary).
4. From the ‘Device Class Path’ dropdown menu, select the device class to be associated
with the device to be modeled and monitored.
5. Select any applicable parameters from the ‘Location Path’ field, ‘Systems’ field, and
‘Groups’ field (if you have previously defined any logical groupings).
6. Click the ‘Add device’ button to auto-discover and model the device.

Figure 4-1 Adding a Device

Once the modeling process is complete, you can navigate to the device via the device link.

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4.2 Add a Network

You can add Networks to the Zenoss System individually. Below are basic steps to follow while
adding a network.
1. From the left navigational menu, select Networks.
2. From the Overview tab, click the drop-down table menu from the Subnetworks table
and select ‘Add Network’.

Figure 4-2 Adding a Network

3. Add the new network and subnet mask to the ‘ID’ field using the CIDR format (For
example, enter 192.168.1.0/24).
4. Click the ‘OK button to save the new network address.
Note: These steps can be used to add sub networks at any level of the network tree.

4.3 Discover Networks

You can use Zenoss to discover and perform basic modeling functions on devices available on
networks in the Zenoss system. Below are basic steps to follow while performing a network
discovery.
1. From the left navigation menu, select Networks.
2. Click the drop-down table menu for the Sub-networks table and select ‘Discover
Devices’.

Figure 4-3 Discovering Networks

Note: These steps can be used to discover devices on sub-networks at any level of the network
tree.

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5 Monitoring Your Environment

5.1 Viewing Your Managed Resources

With Zenoss Core, you can navigate to your managed resources using various links throughout
the system. The easiest way to get to a device is via the Device List link from the left navigation
menu. The Device List table provides a full list of the devices in your infrastructure (discovered or
added) within the Zenoss Core system and some basic information about them.

Figure 5-1 Zenoss Device List

Clicking a device name in the Device Id column will take you to the Status page for the device
selected.

Figure 5-2 Device Status page

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You can also perform a quick search for a device using the Device/IP Search field located in the
top right corner of the Zenoss window.

5.2 Viewing Your Events

You can also view events occurring in the IT environment by navigating to the Zenoss Event
Console. To open the Event Console, from the left navigation menu, click Events Console

Figure 5-3 Zenoss Event Console

The Event Console provides a list of active events occurring within an IT infrastructure. You can
use the Zenoss Event Management Console to:
• drill in and view details of events
• acknowledge events
• configure basic and advanced notification policies
• update event troubleshooting logs
• classify and correlate events
• archive events into a historical database

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5.3 Viewing Reports

You can also use Zenoss to generate predefined and custom reports by clicking Reports from
the left navigation menu. Zenoss pre-defined reports provide users with industry standard reports
to measure network health statistics and SLAs across their environment.

Figure 5-4 Zenoss Reports

5.4 Custom Monitoring

Zenoss is capable of performing custom collections ‘ZenCommand’ feature leveraging multiple
protocols such as SSH and XML-RPC. You can perform custom monitoring by executing custom
scripts locally on the Zenoss box as well as executing custom reports remotely on a target device.
Zenoss can also Zenoss plugins ZenPacks) as well as external plugins to perform custom
collections for your monitoring needs. For more details, please see the Zenoss Administrator
Guide.

5.4.1 Adding a Community ZenPack

Zenoss certified community ZenPacks are available for custom monitoring on Zenoss Core.
Below are basic steps to follow to install a community ZenPack on your Zenoss instance. In this
exercise, we will describe the steps in adding the HTTPMonitor community ZenPack
1. From the server where you are running your Zenoss instance, download the HttpMonitor
ZenPack from:
http://www.zenoss.com/download/zenpacks/HttpMonitor.zip
2. On the Zenoss server, navigate to the folder where you downloaded the zenpack.
3. While logged into the server as the zenoss user, execute the command below to install
the Zenpack. (Note that the xxx is used as the filename in this example.)

zenossserver ~# zenpack run –install HttpMonitor.zip

4. To create some data sources for custom monitoring, please refer to the Zenoss
Administration Guide.

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6 Managing Your Environment

6.1 Adding Zenoss Users

Zenoss allows you to create user accounts and define their roles within the Zenoss system.
Zenoss also performs change tracking functions and you can define advanced notification and
alerting rules for users.

6.1.1 Adding a Zenoss User

Below are basic steps to follow to create a new user in the Zenoss system.
1. From the left navigation menu, select Settings.
2. Click the Users tab to show the User Folder list.
3. Click the drop-down table menu of the User Folder, and select ‘Add New User’.

Figure 6-1 Adding a New User

4. In the ‘Username’ field, enter a new user name, and add the user’s email address to the
‘Email’ field.
5. Click the ‘OK button to save the new user profile.
6. From the User Folder table, click the user link at the ‘UserId’ column for additional
configuration.

Figure 6-2 Configuring a User

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7. From the Edit tab, in the ‘Password’ fields, enter a password (twice)for this user to use
user password.
8. From the the ‘Roles’ selection box, select the role for this user.

Note: User names should be in all lowercase and not contain any spaces..

6.1.2 Creating an Alerting Rule

Below are basic steps to follow to create an alerting rule for a user within Zenoss.
1. From the User Folder table, click the user link at the ‘UserId’ column that you want to
configure
2. Click the Alerting Rules tab to show the Alerting Rules list.
3. Click the drop-down table menu for the Alerting Rules table and select ‘Add New User.’

Figure 6-3 Creating an Alerting Rule

4. In the ‘ID’ field, enter a name for the new rule.

5. Click the ‘OK button to save the new alerting rule.
6. From the Alerting Rule table, click the name of the rule you just created to add additional
information and definition to this rule.

Figure 6-4 Configuring an Alerting Rule

7. From the Edit tab, change the ‘Enabled’ drop down menu to True.
8. Select the mode of notification for this rule from the ‘Action’ drop down menu (email or
page).

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9. Modify or add to the ‘Where’ drop down menus to create a filter for the notifications to be
sent to the user. The default conditions of this where clause send an alert any time an
event of severity greater than error is generated from the system. You can make this rule
as broad or as narrow as necessary using the Where clauses defined here.

6.1.3 Creating an Alerting Rule Schedule

Below are basic steps to follow to create a schedule for a user’s alerting rule within Zenoss.
1. From the Alerting Rule table of the user, click on the link of the rule to be modifired at
the ‘Name’ column
2. Click the Schedule tab to show the Active Periods table.
3. Click the drop-down table menu of the Active Periods table and select ‘Add Rule
Window’.

Figure 6-5 Creating a Rule Window

4. Add the name of the new rule window to the ‘ID’ field.
5. Click the ‘OK button to save the new active period.
6. From the Active Period table, click the new rule window link from the ‘Name’ column to
define additional configuration information.

Figure 6-6 Configuring a Rule Window

7. From the Status tab, change the ‘Enabled’ drop down menu to True.
8. Configure the start date and time from the ‘Start’ drop down menus.
9. Configure the length of the rule window in the ‘Duration’ fields
Set the recurrence of the rule window in the ‘Repeat’ drop down menus.

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7 Notes

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