Zenoss, Inc.

www.zenoss.com
Copyright © 2009 Zenoss, Inc., 275 West St. Suite 204, Annapolis, MD 21401, U.S.A. All rights reserved.
The Zenoss logo is a registered trademark of Zenoss, Inc. Zenoss and Open Enterprise Management
are trademarks of Zenoss, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 License. To view a copy of
this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/; or send a letter to Creative Commons,
171 2nd Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

Flash is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated.

Java is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
SNMP Informant is a trademark of Garth K. Williams (Informant Systems, Inc.).
Tomcat is a trademark of the Apache Software Foundation.
Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries.

All other companies and products mentioned are trademarks and property of their respective owners.

Getting Started with Zenoss

Part Number01-102009-2.5-v01

Getting Started with Zenoss

Introduction
Welcome to Zenoss! This guide will help you become familiar with the Zenoss interface and introduce
some basic tasks.

About Zenoss
Zenoss is today's premier open source IT management solution. Through integrated monitoring, it
enables you to manage the status and health of your infrastructure through a single, Web-based
console.

The power of Zenoss starts with its in-depth Inventory and Configuration Management Database
(CMDB). Zenoss creates this database by discovering managed resources—servers, networks, and other
devices—in your IT environment. The resulting environment model provides a complete inventory of
your key systems, down to the level of resource components (interfaces, services, and processes, and
installed software.)

With the model built, you can use Zenoss' integrated availability and performance monitoring features
to monitor and report on all aspects of your IT infrastructure. Zenoss also provides events and fault
management features that tie into the CMDB. These features help drive operational efficiency and
productivity by automating many of the notification, alerts, escalation, and remediation tasks you
perform each day.

Getting Started with Zenoss 1

Quick Start
This section is designed to help you quickly walk through several basic tasks that help demonstrate
Zenoss’ capabilities. After completing initial setup, you will learn how to:
• Add a device from the Zenoss Dashboard, and then view its status and performance details
• Set up, observe, and acknowledge an alert

The remaining guide sections dive a little deeper into interface and system features, and show you
how to:

• Configure your network for Zenoss

• Add devices to Zenoss through discovery, and then use device classes to monitor them
• Monitor devices and servers, using predictive thresholds for performance event generation
• Create and manage user accounts

Before You Begin

This guide assumes that you have installed Zenoss. If you have not, then follow the instructions in the
Zenoss Installation Guide (located at http://community.zenoss.org/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, and Windows Vista®
• Linux or other UNIX® server
• VMware ESX Infrastructure
• 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 2.x, Firefox 3.x, or Internet Explorer 7
• SSH client to facilitate command line tasks

2 Getting Started with Zenoss

Perform Initial Setup
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)

NOTE
For VM appliances, use the IP address of the Zenoss VM appliance, rather than
the hostname.

The setup wizard appears.

Figure 1: Setup Wizard

Using this wizard, you will:
• Change the admin password
• Set up an initial user
• Add some devices to the system

Getting Started with Zenoss 3

From the first panel of the wizard, click Get Started! to begin.

The Step 1: Set up Initial Users panel appears.

Figure 2: Setup Wizard: Step 1

Change the admin Password and Create a User

1. 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 (root) account has extended privileges, and its use should be
limited. Be sure to record the admin password and store it securely.

2. 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.
3. Click Submit.
The Step 2: Specify or Discover Devices to Monitor panel appears.

4 Getting Started with Zenoss

Figure 3: Setup Wizard: Step 2 (Manual Add)

Add Devices
You can add devices manually, or give Zenoss network or IP address range information so it can
discover your devices.

Adding Devices Manually

1. For each device you want to add, enter the fully qualified domain name or IP address of a device
on your network.
2. 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 add different device types later from the Dashboard.
3. Enter the appropriate credentials used to authenticate against the device.

NOTE
For more information about setting credentials, refer to Zenoss Administration.

Getting Started with Zenoss 5

 If you want to add more than one device, click +. Enter one hostname or IP address on each line.
Each device can have only one set of associated credentials.
4. To add the devices, click Submit.
The Dashboard appears, and 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.”

Discovering Devices
1. Select the Autodiscover devices option.

Figure 4: Setup Wizard: Step 2 (Autodiscovery)

6 Getting Started with Zenoss

2. 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 a range of IP addresses:
10.175.211.1-50
3. If you want to enter multiple addresses or ranges, click +. For each network, you must enter a
netmask or IP range.
4. For each network or IP range, specify Windows, SSH, or SNMP credentials you want Zenoss to use
on the devices it discovers. You can enter only one of each. Zenoss will attempt to use the same
credentials on each device it discovers within the networks or IP ranges specified.
5. Click Discover.
The Zenoss Dashboard appears. Zenoss schedules jobs to discover devices in the networks and IP
ranges you specified. (You can see job status by clicking Jobs in the Navigation menu.)
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.”

Getting Started with Zenoss 7

Add and View a Device
If you skipped initial device addition through the Setup Wizard, or want to add more devices through
Zenoss’ more advanced device addition page, follow these steps.

Prerequisites
To add a device, you must have SNMP enabled. See the section titled “Configuring Your Network
Devices to Interact with Zenoss” for more information.

Add the Device

1. In the Management area of the Navigation menu (located at the left side of the screen), click Add
Device.
The Add Device dialog appears.

8 Getting Started with Zenoss

Figure 5: Add Device Dialog

2. Enter the following information or make selections in the dialog:

a Device Name — Enter the fully qualified domain name or IP address of a device on your
network.
b Device Class Path — For a Windows server, select /Server/Windows. For a Linux server, select
/Server/Linux.
c 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.)

Getting Started with Zenoss 9

 NOTE
You also can set up WMI monitoring of your Windows devices. Refer to the Zenoss
Administration guide for more information.

3. Click Add Device.

As illustrated in Figure 6, Zenoss discovers the device, adds it to the list of devices, and then
gathers additional details about the device to create the device model.

Figure 6: Device Discovery

10 Getting Started with Zenoss

View Device Status
4. Use one of these methods to view the newly added device, from the device status page:
• Scroll to the bottom of the device discovery output page, and then click the link to navigate to
the device.

Figure 7: View Device Selection

• Search for the device (by name or IP address) in the Search area that appears at the top right of
the interface.
• Navigate to the device. Select Devices from the Navigation menu, select Server from the Sub-
Devices list, and then select the appropriate device class.

Getting Started with Zenoss 11

 The Status tab for the newly added Windows device appears.

Figure 8: Devices Status Tab

12 Getting Started with Zenoss

View Device OS Information
5. Click the OS tab to see the interfaces, services, file systems, and routes for this device.

Figure 9: Devices OS Tab

Getting Started with Zenoss 13

 View Device Performance Graphs
6. Click the Perf (Performance) tab to see the type of performance data that Zenoss will collect for
this device. Performance graphs are defined at the device class level, and differ depending on the
device class to which the device is assigned.

NOTE
Because your device is new, graphs will not immediately appear, and will contain
less data than those illustrated in Figure 10.

Figure 10: Devices Performance Tab

14 Getting Started with Zenoss

Set Up, View, and Acknowledge an Alert
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.

Create an Alerting Rule

To create an alerting rule:

1. From the Navigation menu, click Settings.

2. Click the Users tab.
3. From the Users list, click your currently logged in user name (admin).
4. Click the Alerting Rules tab.
5. From the Alerting Rules table menu, select Add Alerting Rule.

Figure 11: Add Alerting Rule

The Add Alerting Rule dialog appears.

6. In the ID field, 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.”

Getting Started with Zenoss 15

 7. Click the new rule in the list. The Rules definition tabs appear for the rule.

Figure 12: Edit Alerting Rule

8. Enter or select criteria for the rule:

a Delay — Enter a value of 0.
b Enabled — Select a value of True.
c Action — Select email to email the alert.
d Address — Optionally, enter an override email address to receive alerts. By default, Zenoss will
email alerts to the address associated with your user account.
e Where — Use the default information in this area.
9. Click Save.

NOTE
Refer to the Zenoss Administration guide for complete information about alerting
rules, including editing alert messages and alert schedules.

16 Getting Started with Zenoss

Test an Alerting Rule
To test the alerting rule, create a “dummy” event in Zenoss to trigger it. To do this:
10. In the Classes area of the Navigation menu, click Events.
11. From the Events page menu, select Add Event. The Add Event dialog appears.

Figure 13: Add Event Dialog

12. Complete the dialog fields:

a Message — Enter a text message. This message will appear in the event console.
b Device — Enter the name of the device you added. The event will assert against this device.
c Severity — Select Critical.
d Event Class — Select /.
13. Click OK.
The event console appears. The event you created appears at the top of the list of events.

Getting Started with Zenoss 17

 Figure 14: Event Console

View the Alert Email

NOTE
You must set up email before you can view email alerts. See the section titled
Managing Zenoss Users for more information.

14. Check your email (either the address associated with your account, or the additional address you
specified) to see the event triggered by the alerting rule.

18 Getting Started with Zenoss

Acknowledge the Event
Acknowledging an event indicates that you are aware the event has occurred.
15. To acknowledge an event:
a Select one or more events in the Event Console. (Shift-Click to select more than one event.)
b Click the Acknowledge Event button to acknowledge the event.

Figure 15: Acknowledge Events

Getting Started with Zenoss 19

 Exploring Zenoss
Read this section to learn more about the Zenoss interface and how to customize it for your
preferences.

Zenoss Dashboard

Figure 16: Zenoss Dashboard

The Zenoss Dashboard provides at-a-glance information about the status of your IT infrastructure. It is
the primary window into devices and events that Zenoss enables you to monitor.

20 Getting Started with Zenoss

The Dashboard can show:

• Zenoss information resources and Web pages

• Important error-level device events
• Geographical high-level view
• “Troubled” devices

Key Dashboard and interface areas include:

• Navigation Menu
• Breadcrumbs
• Device/IP Search
• User Information Area
• Portlets

Getting Started with Zenoss 21

 Navigation Menu
The Navigation menu lets you access most of Zenoss’ features. The menu is divided among several
functional areas. Figure 17 illustrates key selections from the Navigation menu.

Figure 17: Navigation Menu

22 Getting Started with Zenoss

Breadcrumbs
The breadcrumbs area shows your current location. Use this trail to keep track of your location and
navigate to previously selected pages in the interface hierarchy.

Figure 18: Breadcrumbs (Navigation)

Device/IP Search
Enter all or part of a device name in the Device/IP Search field to locate a device. Alternatively, you can
enter an IP address to find the device.

User Information Area

Figure 19: User Information Area

The User Information area offers information and selections:

• Login ID — The ID of the user currently logged in to Zenoss appears at the far left of this area.
• Preferences — Click to edit user settings, such as authentication information, roles, and groups.
(You also can access user settings from the Navigation Menu Settings selection.)
From other Preferences tabs, you can manage administered objects, event views, and alerting
rules. Refer to the Zenoss Administration Guide for more information about editing user settings.
• Logout — Click to log out of Zenoss.

Getting Started with Zenoss 23

 • Help — Click to access Zenoss community product documentation, FAQs, and HowTos, at:

http://community.zenoss.org/community/documentation

Portlets
The main content of the dashboard comprises portlets, which provide information about the system
and your infrastructure. Portlets that you can display on the dashboard are:

• Site Window — Initially provides links to Zenoss resources, including product guides, forums, and
training events. (The URL for the default content is http://www2.zenoss.com/in-app-welcome.) You
can customize this portlet to display content from any URL.
• Device Issues — Displays a list of devices, associated with color-coded events of error or critical
severity levels.
• Google Maps (device locations) — Shows configured locations and configured network
connections.
• Zenoss Issues — Contains system self-monitoring information
• Production States — Shows devices assigned to a particular production state
• Top Level (Root) Organizers — Lists status for each grouping in your defined Zenoss hierarchy
• Watch List — Allows the display of high-level status on selected device classes, groups, systems,
event classes, and locations.

Customizing the Zenoss Dashboard

You can customize the Zenoss Dashboard by:

• Selecting the portlets you want to monitor

• Arranging portlets on the screen
• Changing the Dashboard column layout

24 Getting Started with Zenoss

Figure 20: Customize Dashboard

Customizing Portlets
You can customize each portlet that appears on the Dashboard. Customization options vary
depending on the portlet type.

Click * (asterisk), which appears at the top right corner of a portlet, to view and customize display
options. Click Save Settings to save your selections and then return to main portlet content.

Getting Started with Zenoss 25

 Zenoss Menus
Zenoss offers two types of menus from which you make selections:

• Page menus
• Table menus

Page Menus
Page menus extend the tabs that appear at the top of the page. Generally, actions initiated through a
page menu affect the entire object that the page represents. This could be a device, event, or any
grouping of these elements.

As shown in Figure 21, the Page menu is expanded next to the Classes tab.

Figure 21: Page Menu

26 Getting Started with Zenoss

Table Menus
Table menus generally affect objects in a table. Access table menus by clicking the triangle next to a
table title on a page. As shown in Figure 22, the Sub-Devices table menu is expanded.

Figure 22: Table Menu

Getting Started with Zenoss 27

 Configuring Your Network Devices to Interact
with Zenoss
This section offers guidelines on configuring outside and inside network access.

• Configuring Unix-Like Devices

• Configuring Windows Devices

Configuring Unix-Like Devices

Use these steps to make sure your device can communicate with Zenoss via SNMP.

NOTE
Configuration details for your platform may vary. Refer to the SNMP
documentation for your specific system.

1. Install Net-SNMP by using the package management mechanism supported by your Unix
(or Unix-like) system.
2. Make sure snmpd is installed and running.
3. Find the snmpd configuration file. Generally, it is located at /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf.
4. Back up the file by renaming it to snmd.conf-back.
5. Create a new snmpd.conf file in the same location.
6. Edit the new file to contain this single line:
rocommunity public
7. Restart the SNMP agent. As root, enter this command:
/etc/init.d/snmpd restart

Configuring Windows Devices

For Zenoss to gather data from your Windows devices, you must configure SNMP or WMI.

28 Getting Started with Zenoss

Setting Up SNMP for Windows
1. Go to the Windows Services list on the device you want to monitor.
2. Determine whether the target device has an SNMP agent installed and running. If so, then it will
appear in the Windows Services list.

Figure 23: Windows Services

3. Set access permissions to the agent. The current machine’s community string should be public
and allow connections from any host, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 24: SNMP Service Properties

Getting Started with Zenoss 29

 4. Ensure that the Windows Firewall allows incoming connections to the SNMP agent.

Figure 25: Windows Firewall

NOTE
Running the default Microsoft SNMP agent limits the information available to
you. To get the most detailed level of information from your Windows devices,
Zenoss recommends that you use SNMP Informant™.

For more information about installing SNMP remotely on your Windows device, browse to the HowTos
section of the Zenoss Web site, at this location:

http://community.zenoss.org/docs/DOC-2519

30 Getting Started with Zenoss

Setting Up WMI for Windows
Follow these steps to create an account for Zenoss to obtain WMI information from Windows devices.

1. Set up a local Windows Administrator or Domain Administrator account.

You will use the login information for these accounts when setting the zProperties for zWinuser
and zWinPassword, when adding devices to Zenoss.
2. Run one of the following commands in the console to test WMI connectivity to the device:
• If using a Windows Domain user:
winexe -U 'DOMAIN\USERNAME%PASSWORD' //TARGETSYSTEM 'typeperf -qx'
• If using a local Windows user account:
winexe -U '.\USERNAME%PASSWORD' //TARGETSYSTEM 'typeperf -qx'
The system should simulate the way Zenoss collects data and intervals, and should return a list of
available perfmon counters.
If the list does not return, then make sure the user has administrator privileges on the Windows
system. Run this command to list all services on the remote Windows box.
wmic -U ".\USER%PASSWORD" //HOST "SELECT name FROM Win32_Service"

Getting Started with Zenoss 31

 Setting Up Zenoss to Interact with Your Devices
To set up Zenoss to interact with your devices, you must:
• Set up zProperties
• Set up SNMP communities you use in your environment

About zProperties
To set up Zenoss device interaction, you configure properties for each device. Called zProperties, these
properties also are part of the model of the device. Use zProperties to assign a range of device
characteristics, such as:
• Collection methods
• Timeouts
• Access details (such as SSH, SNMP, and WMI)

zProperties can be inherited and defined at different levels of the device class hierarchy, from the
general “/” class to the individual device level. The lowest point in the hierarchy where this is defined is
the zProperty that is assigned to the device.

Accessing zProperties
To access zProperties:

1. Navigate to a device or device organizer.

2. Click the zProperties tab.

NOTE
If you cannot see the zProperties tab (such as at the Device level), select More
from the page menu, and then select zProperties.

32 Getting Started with Zenoss

Figure 26: zProperties Selection

Setting SNMP Community Strings Globally

To set up SNMP communities used in your environment:

1. From the Navigation menu, select Devices.

2. From the Devices area, click zProperties.

Windows zProperties
If you plan to use WMI monitoring, then you must set additional zProperties after the device is added.
This ensures that Zenoss can access all of the modeling information and collect performance data.

To set the Windows user name and password for a device:

1. Navigate to the device in the device list.

2. From the Page menu, select More, and then select zProperties.
3. Scroll down to the zWinPassword and zWinUser properties and enter appropriate data.
4. Click Save.

For more information about zProperties, refer to the Zenoss Administration guide.

Getting Started with Zenoss 33

 Devices and Device Organizers
In Quick Start, you learned how to add a Windows device to Zenoss. Read this section to learn about:
• Adding other device types
• Auto-discovering devices in your network
• Using device classes to optimize available monitoring information for each type of device on your
network

Adding Other Device Types

The information that Zenoss collects differs depending on the device class. Add one or more devices
to see how information is collected for other device types, and how that information differs depending
on the assigned device class. For example, add:
• Linux server in the /Server/Linux device class
• Microsoft Exchange Server in the /Server/Windows/MS-Exchange device class
• Active Directory Server in the /Server/Windows/Active Directory device class
• Microsoft SQL Server in the /Server/Windows/MS-SQL device class

After adding these devices, navigate to each device in Zenoss and view the data being collected on
the Status and Hardware tabs

Device Auto-Discovery
Zenoss can scan a range of IP addresses and discover hosts that respond to SNMP requests. It can then
add all devices at one time to the database. Zenoss accomplishes auto-discovery through the zendisc
daemon.

To add all devices from a given network or sub-network to Zenoss:

1. Click Networks on the Navigation menu.

The Networks Overview page appears.
2. Select the option next to the network for which you want to discover devices. You also can use
the Subnetworks table menu to add a network to the list.

34 Getting Started with Zenoss

3. From the Subnetworks table menu, select Discover Devices.

Figure 27: Discover Devices

The Discover Device page appears and shows the status of all ongoing device collections.

Figure 28: Device Auto-Discovery

Getting Started with Zenoss 35

 During discovery, Zenoss sends out ICMP packets to every IP in a specific network. If an IP responds,
then Zenoss performs more detailed discovery and modeling on the device. It determines whether
SNMP is active, and then collects basic information such as interface and routing tables.

Organizing Devices After Auto-Discovery

After device discovery is complete, Zenoss places devices in the /Discovered device path. You should
subsequently move them to a more specific part of the tree. Servers normally are organized by OS, so
Windows machines might go, for example, to /Server/Windows. You also can use the device Edit tab to
add information to a device, such as its business system or location.

Use the Device List to view devices and then arrange them into different device classes and organizers.
To see the list, click Device List in the Navigation menu.

36 Getting Started with Zenoss

Figure 29: Device List

Creating and Using Organizers

Within Zenoss, you can create organizers. Organizers let you monitor devices in logical groups.
Organizers you can create are:

• Systems
• Groups
• Locations

Getting Started with Zenoss 37

 A device can be part of many groups or systems, but can be part of only one location.

The following procedure illustrates how to add a system, and then add devices to that system:

1. From the Browse by area of the Navigation menu, click Systems.

2. From the Sub-systems table menu, select Add New Organizer.
The Add Organizer dialog appears.
3. In the ID field, enter a name for the new system.
4. Optionally, nest additional systems and groups in the new system.
5. Click OK.
The new system appears in the System lists.
6. To add devices to the system, navigate to a device, and then add it from the Edit tab.

Adding, Moving, and Nesting Locations

Read this section to learn how to create a location, and then how to move and nest that location. The
locations you create here are the same locations that Zenoss uses when creating a Google map of your
devices. You can use locations to add Google maps addresses.

To create a location:

1. From the Browse by area of the Navigation menu, click Locations.

2. From the Sub-Locations table menu, select Add New Organizer.
The Add Organizer dialog appears.
3. In the ID field, enter the names of the new locations. For example, add “Annapolis” and “Maryland.”
Alternatively, you can specify a zip code.
4. Move the location /Annapolis into the /Maryland location.
5. Select the option next to the system you are moving.
6. From the Sub-Locations table menu, select Move Organizers.
The Move Organizers dialog appears.
7. From the list of options, select the location where you want to move the system.

At the top of the page, the breadcrumbs (navigation) path changes, and Annapolis is in the location
Maryland.

38 Getting Started with Zenoss

To display the locations on the Dashboard:

1. From the Dashboard, click Add portlet link.

2. Select Top-Level Organizers.
The Root Organizers portlet appears on the dashboard.
3. Click * (asterisk) at the top right corner of the Root Organizer portlet.
4. From the Root Organizers list of options, select locations.
This portlet will now display the status for the locations you have entered.

NOTE
You also will use these locations when creating a Google map.

Performance Monitoring
Read this section for information about monitoring a:
• Windows server
• Virtual Server (ESX) Host
• Tomcat (or other Java/JMX Server

Monitor a Windows Server

ZenWinPerf is an Enterprise ZenPack that allows agentless performance monitoring of Windows
servers. It provides a data source, WinPerf, that uses a Windows performance counter rather than an
SNMP OID to specify the value to collect. WinPerf data sources are processed by the zenwinperf
daemon.

Getting Started with Zenoss 39

 Monitor a Virtual Server (ESX) Host
For lightweight monitoring of virtually hosted operating systems, install the ZenossVirtualHostMonitor
ZenPack.

The ZenossVirtualHostMonitor ZenPack:

• Extends devices to support a relationship from host to guest

• Extends ZenModeler to find Guest operating systems and add them to virtual hosts
• Provides screens and templates for collecting and displaying resources allocated to guest
operating systems

Configuring the Virtual Host Server

To configure the virtual host server, you must select the Guest menu and ensure that the guest hosts
were found when the devices were added. Using the VMware Virtual Infrastructure Client, add Zenoss
to the list of destinations for SNMP traps. See the Menus Administration > VirtualCenter Management
Server Configuration > SNMP. Optionally, you can install the VMware ESX MIB files in Zenoss. You also
must ensure you have SNMP connectivity to your ESX 3.0 servers.

Adding the Virtual Host Server to Zenoss

Add and model your ESX 3.0 servers by using the /Servers/Virtual Hosts/ESX device class.

NOTE
If you have already modeled these servers, you must first remove and then
recreate them under the ESX device class. Do not move them.

40 Getting Started with Zenoss

Monitor a Tomcat (or Other Java/JMX) Server
Use the instructions in this section to prepare for and set up monitoring of a Tomcat or other Java/JMX
server.

Device Preparation for the Tomcat Server

When you start your Tomcat server, you must enable JMX access with these commands:

JAVA_OPTS="-Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.port=12346"
JAVA_OPTS="${JAVA_OPTS} -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.authenticate=false"
JAVA_OPTS="${JAVA_OPTS} -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.ssl=false" \
export JAVA_OPTS

NOTE
If you prefer to use a WebLogic or JBoss server, see the configuration notes
located at:
http://dev.zenoss.org/trac/browser/trunk/zenpacks/ZenJMX/notes.txt

Look at the list of Loaded Zen Packs to verify that the ZenJMX ZenPack is installed. Select Settings
from the Navigation menu, and then click the ZenPacks tab to see the list.

Figure 30: ZenPacks - Loaded Zen Packs

Getting Started with Zenoss 41

 Monitoring the Tomcat Server
Use these instructions to set up Zenoss to monitor a Tomcat server.
1. Add the Java server device to your preferred device class.
Tip: You might, for example, set up a Java Servers class under the Server device class and add the
device in that location.
2. When adding the device, set the discovery protocol to None. (In this case, the SNMP model will
not add significant additional information.)
3. Navigate to the newly added Java server device.
The Status tab appears.
4. From the page menu, select More, and then select Templates.
The Templates tab appears.
5. From the Table menu, select Bind Templates.
The Bind Templates dialog appears.

Figure 31: Bind Templates Dialog

6. Bind the ZenJMX template (loaded with the ZenJMX ZenPack). Use Control+Click to select
multiple items in the dialog, and then click OK.
7. When the Templates tab re-appears, the ZenJMX template will also appear in the list. Click the
template in the list.

42 Getting Started with Zenoss

Change Data Source Parameters

In the next set of steps, you will change some of the parameters of the Data Sources. These Data
Sources are provided through Java, and must be fine-tuned for Zenoss. These sample steps illustrate
changing the Heap memory Data Source.

1. In the Data Source list, select Heap Memory.

The Heap memory Data Source page appears.

Figure 32: Heap Memory Data Source

Getting Started with Zenoss 43

 2. Make sure that the Enabled field is set to a value of True.
3. In the Connection and Metadata Information area, make sure that the value of the Management
Port field is set to the same value as the management port on your Java server.
4. In the Remove Authentication Information area, make sure that:
a If you have remote authentication enabled on your server, you have also enabled it in Zenoss.
b Zenoss and server values match.
5. Click Save.
To see where the JMX information appears in the device model, navigate to the device through
the device list, and then click the Perf tab for the device.
These performance graphs should appear on the page:
• ZenJMX Non-Heap Memory
• ZenJMX Heap Memory
• ZenJMX Open File Descriptors
• ZenJMX Thread Count
The graphs are created by ZenJMX. When the graphs are initially loaded, they will not display
actual data.

Figure 33: Performance Graphs (No Data Displayed)

44 Getting Started with Zenoss

Collecting and Displaying Data

You must restart the ZenJMX daemon to begin collecting and displaying data. To restart the daemon:

1. In the Navigation menu, click Settings.

2. Click the Daemons tab.
3. Next to the ZenJMX entry, click Restart.

Event Management
The event console is Zenoss’ central nervous system, enabling you to view and manage events. It
displays the repository of all events that are detected by the system.

To access the event console, click Event Console in the Navigation menu.

Figure 34: Zenoss Event Console

Getting Started with Zenoss 45

 Sorting and Filtering Events
You can sort and filter events that appear in the event console to customize your view.

You can sort events by any column that appears in the event console. To sort events, click a column
header. Clicking the header toggles between ascending and descending sort order.

Filter options appear below each column header.

Figure 35: Filter Events

You can filter the events that appear in the list in several ways, depending on the field type. Date fields
(such as First Seen and Last Seen) allow you to enter a value or use a date selection tool to limit the
list. For other fields, such as Device, Component, and Event Class, enter a match value to limit the list.

To clear filters, select Configure > Clear filters.

46 Getting Started with Zenoss

Viewing Event Details
You can view details for any event in the system. To view details, double-click an event row.

NOTE
Do not double-click on or near the device name, component, or device class in
the row. Doing this displays details about that entity, rather than about the
event.

The Event Detail area appears.

Figure 36: Event Details

To see more information about the event, click Show more details.

You can use the Log area to add specific information about the event. Enter details, and then click
Add.

Getting Started with Zenoss 47

 Selecting Events
To select one or more events in the list, you can:
• Click a row to select a single event
• Ctrl-Click rows to select multiple events, or Shift-Click to select a range of events
• Click Select to select all, none, new, or suppressed events

Managing Events
You can manage events from the event console. After selecting an event, you can:

• Acknowledge the event

• Close the event (move it to history)
• Map the event, associating it with a specific event class
• Return the event to New status (revoke its Acknowledged status)

You also can add an event from the event console.

Figure 37: Event Management Options

Creating Test Events

While most events are generated by the devices in your system, Zenoss also provides the ability to
generate test events about any device in the system. This feature is helpful when you are testing or
trying a new setup.

48 Getting Started with Zenoss

To create a test event:

1. Click Events in the Navigation menu.

The Events page appears.
2. Select Add Event.
The Add Event dialog appears.

Figure 38: Add Event Dialog

3. Enter and select details about the test event and device you want to test, and then click OK.
The event appears in the system, according to the criteria you set.

Managing Zenoss Users

You use Zenoss user accounts to associate rules and permission, and alerting rule behavior, with a
specific user. Along with assigned permissions, user accounts comprise login and contact information
for a user.

Getting Started with Zenoss 49

 Creating a User Account
To create a Zenoss user account:

1. Log in as administrator.
2. From the Navigation menu, click Settings.
3. Click the Users tab.
4. From the Users table menu, select Add User.
The Add User dialog appears.

Figure 39: Add User

50 Getting Started with Zenoss

5. Enter a user name and email address for the user account. Alert messages will be sent to the email
address you set here.
6. Click OK. The new user appears in the list.

Adding User Account Details

To add details to a user account:
1. Click the user name in the Users list.
The User details page appears.
2. Enter or select details for the user account, and then click Save.

Troubleshooting Device Connectivity Issues

If your Zenoss instance relies on SNMP to collect information from remote systems, use these tips and
tricks to identify and help solve SNMP issues with the devices on your network.

Identifying SNMP Agent Issues

Make sure an SNMP agent is running and accessible from the Zenoss server. To check, run this
command on the Zenoss server:

$ snmpwalk -c YOUR_COMMUNITY_STRING -v1 YOUR_DEVICE_IP

NOTE
If you do not know your community string, try public.

If the system returns this string, then the device is not answering to your SNMP request:

Timeout: No response from xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

Getting Started with Zenoss 51

 Resolving Linux SNMP Issues
Depending on your device platform, there are several reasons that the device may not be answering
the request. To resolve this problem, you can:

• Check permissions and DLLs on the agent side

• Ensure that there is an SNMP daemon running on the target device. To determine if the daemon is
running, issue this command:
netstat -an | grep -i udp
If you see an entry that looks like this, then the agent is running but Zenoss cannot get the
information for another reason:
udp 0.0.0.0:161 0.0.0.0:*
If the SNMP daemon is running, but the configuration does not allow connections, then add this
line to the /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf file to grant read access to Zenoss:
rocommunity public
• Check firewalls
There may be a firewall on the target device, or between the Zenoss server and the target device.
Use the tcpdump command to debug this issue.

NOTE
Refer to the Zenoss Administration Guide for information about how to use
Zenoss through a firewall.

52 Getting Started with Zenoss

Additional Zenoss Resources
For more information and help, go to one of these Zenoss resources on the Web.
• Zenoss Product Guides
• http://community.zenoss.org/community/documentation
• Zenoss Wiki
• http://community.zenoss.org/community/documentation/wiki
• Zenoss FAQ
• http://community.zenoss.org/docs/DOC-2445
• Zenoss User Forum
• http://community.zenoss.org/community/forums
• Zenoss Blog
• http://community.zenoss.org/blogs/zenossblog

Getting Started with Zenoss 53