Tag Archives: community

What’s Up, Home? – Welcome, Zabbix 7.0beta3

Post Syndicated from Janne Pikkarainen original https://blog.zabbix.com/whats-up-home-welcome-zabbix-7-0beta3/27988/

When Zabbix 7.0beta3 got released, I immediately updated my What’s up, home? environment to run it. As usual, the update process was seamless and fast, going through everything in about a minute with my Raspberry Pi 4.

As I updated Zabbix maybe ten minutes ago, these are very real-time impressions of the new version.

The new honeycomb widget

This new honeycomb widget might be useful! Here’s my first try with it, illustrating the reachability status of my IoT devices.

The text shown on widget combs can be modified freely as in the widget advanced config you can put there any Zabbix macro you want.

… or if you are such an eternal child that I am, just put there some static text:

The widget supports the new widget communication framework, so whatever item you click there can then be notified by other widgets on the dashboards, to make the experience more interactive.

Versatile host navigator widget

There’s another new widget in town, and its name is Host Navigator. With it, you can create a widget that groups your hosts with any criteria by their host groups, or tag values, and it looks like this.

If you then add new widgets or modify the existing ones on your dashboard to receive events from the Host Navigator widget, the changes on other widgets will be reflected in real time. You can also group the items by using multiple rules, for example, first by severity and then by host group, as shown below.

Nice for quick browsing!

Many more improvements

Underneath there’s more going on, but these two were the most visible additions. Other than that, new icons, Zabbix can now execute trigger actions much faster than before (apparently previously there was ~4 seconds lag, now it’s capable of acting in about 100 milliseconds if I read the ticket right), PDF reporting and streaming to external systems are not experimental anymore.

Another solid release marching towards the final version of Zabbix 7.0. In my home environment, these beta versions have been perfectly stable for me.

This post was originally published on the author’s page.

The post What’s Up, Home? – Welcome, Zabbix 7.0beta3 appeared first on Zabbix Blog.

Saving Time and Money with Zabbix Professional Services

Post Syndicated from Ronalds Sulcs original https://blog.zabbix.com/saving-time-and-money-with-zabbix-professional-services/27951/

One of the most common questions the Zabbix Sales team gets is, “How do you make money selling an open-source product that literally anyone in the world can download for free? Where’s the business?”

The simplest and shortest answer is that we’ve developed a three-part approach to our business – build a best-in-class monitoring solution, make that solution open source and available to everyone, and develop a set of Zabbix professional services that help our users save time and money.

There’s a lot of information available about the first two parts of this trifecta, so in this post I’m going to complete it by going into a little bit more detail about what Zabbix professional services can do for you and why they’re well worth the investment.

What do our clients look for?

Our professional services are designed to be flexible enough to fit your unique business demands, and they include technical support, turnkey and migration solutions, professional training, and template building integrations. These are the main services that my team and I see our clients expressing an interest in on a daily basis, so let’s take a look at each one individually.

Zabbix turnkey/migration services

This service is perfect for Zabbix users who are new to Zabbix and who would like to either start using Zabbix or migrate from another solution to Zabbix. Because they’re just starting out, we help them design their Zabbix environment, deploy it, and make it secure. Whether it’s just a local installation for devices in one location or if the devices and applications you would like to monitor are spread around the globe worldwide, distribution is not an issue thanks to our scalable Zabbix architecture.

We start out by doing an analysis to make sure that whatever your requirements are, we’ll be able to meet them. Based on this, we provide a specific timeline and a cost estimate of how much this service will cost you. Once we have approval from your side, we move forward to implementation, which includes documentation, a full knowledge transfer, and constant check-ins to make sure your expectations are met.

It’s a service that quickly pays for itself when you consider the potential downsides of attempting to go the DIY route – notably, a high risk of delay or failure (which will end up costing you money and time rather than saving it). When our team guides your Zabbix deployment and implementation, your project gets done properly and on time, with an average implementation time of 10 days as opposed to several months if you go the self-service route. Thanks to the skills and experience of our engineers, we’re accurate in 95% of our project estimates, so it’s easy to calculate the time and money you’ll save by leaving it to us.

Zabbix technical support

Technical support is intended for clients and Zabbix users who have already deployed Zabbix and are using it on a daily basis. It’s an annual subscription, with pricing dependent on the size of your Zabbix environment and how many legal entities will be using it.

The silver tier is meant for simple installations, where only one Zabbix server is available. The gold and platinum tiers are dependent on your Zabbix environment, including how many proxies you have. The enterprise and global tiers support unlimited Zabbix servers and proxies, and they include plenty of other useful services, including training, consulting, and even development.

Zabbix also offers a specialized managed service provider (MSP) support subscription, tailored for companies that provide monitoring services for their own clients. These companies need to have support for their clients as well as themselves, which means that the support structure is slightly different, with the key differentiator being the number of hosts.

When it comes to saving time and money with Zabbix professional services, there’s no better move than purchasing a Zabbix technical support package. In many cases, our clients need to dedicate at least one specialist to take care of their Zabbix environment and make sure that everything is up and running. But what happens when that individual is out of office for any reason, or needs assistance?

A Zabbix support subscription costs considerably less than hiring an additional engineer or outsourcing issues to a third-party specialist, and the level of expertise in our team simply can’t be matched – you’ll have a full team of support engineers who are available around the clock to jump on any request that you have and provide you with an answer whenever you need it. Not only that, but tickets created within our support portal are nearly always answered in less than one hour, regardless of SLAs.

Zabbix template building and integrations

On our website, you’ll find an extensive list of available integrations, many of which are supported by Zabbix directly and many more of which are built and developed by our global community. But what if your specific needs call for a template that doesn’t exist yet?

Not to worry – not only do we maintain a massive library of existing templates, but on average, it takes only 3 to 10 days for us to create a standard template from scratch. For standard templates that we want to maintain for future versions, we’re ready to give a fixed price and cover part of the cost of the development of the template ourselves – something that definitely wouldn’t be on the table if you were to have a third-party vendor create the template for you.

Zabbix professional training

When you invest in Zabbix professional training courses for your employees, what you’re really investing in is improved efficiency, faster project completion time, and a much lower risk of project failure.

The effectiveness of employees who have gone through a Zabbix training course is impossible to miss – they learn tips and tricks about how to work better with Zabbix that wouldn’t be possible for them to pick up anywhere else. Our goal is to give you and your employees comprehensive knowledge about how to use Zabbix as effectively as possible.

Here are our core courses – user, specialist, professional, and expert. Our recommendation is to take them all in a row, as it’s the best way to make sure that you’ll be equipped with the most up-to-date subject knowledge. There’s also a bargain involved if you purchase them as a bundle!

We’ve also got advanced, one-day courses that can be taken separately whenever you need, depending on the topic that you’re interested in understanding better.

Learning is a lifelong process, and because we strive to create new upgrades and put out new versions every year, Zabbix upgrade courses are the perfect way to quickly brush up on your knowledge and keep your skills relevant.

All of our training courses are designed to produce a quick, measurable return on investment, equipping you and your employees with the knowledge you need to get the most out of Zabbix. Our website is full of testimonials and additional information, so it’s the perfect place to start if you have any questions or you want to get started on your training journey.

Conclusion

From the beginning, our goal at Zabbix has been a world without interruptions. In practice, that means giving businesses of all kinds the all-in-one, Enterprise-level solution they need to monitor their devices, applications, and processes. With the help of Zabbix professional services, you can help you minimize or even eliminate downtime, so that you can keep your business is up and running at all times, increasing your efficiency, and generating more revenue in the process.

Don’t hesitate to reach out to us to learn more – we’re standing by with the answers to any questions you may have.

The post Saving Time and Money with Zabbix Professional Services appeared first on Zabbix Blog.

Learning from our hybrid training programme for youth and community organisations

Post Syndicated from Mirnali Koneswaran original https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/learning-from-our-hybrid-training-programme-for-youth-and-community-organisations/

At the Raspberry Pi Foundation, we aim to democratise access to digital skills and technologies. One of the ways we do this is via partnerships with youth and community organisations that deliver frontline services to young people experiencing educational disadvantage.

Two smiling adults at a computer.

In 2023 we delivered a hybrid training programme to 14 youth organisations in the UK to help youth leaders and educators incorporate coding and digital making activities into their provision to young people. The training programme was supported by Amazon Future Engineer. In this blog, we summarise what we’ve learned from our evaluation of the training and its impact.

Youth workers feel prepared to run digital making activities

In total, 29 youth leaders and educators participated in the training, which consisted of 12 modules delivered across 4 online sessions and one in-person day. We asked participants to complete surveys at several points throughout the programme to enable us to explore their feedback, the training’s impact on their confidence in facilitating computing sessions, and their experiences of running activities with young people.

The educators on this programme were already well motivated to run digital making sessions. But one of the main challenges youth organisations report to us most often is that their staff and volunteers need more confidence in their ability to deliver coding activities on an ongoing basis. It was therefore great to see that, following the training, every participant felt at least moderately prepared to run coding activities, with 2 out of every 5 participants feeling very prepared. Furthermore, we recorded positive impact of the training on participants’ readiness: after the training, 4 out of every 5 participants agreed they had the skills they needed to facilitate activities for young people.

“It was pitched right for the majority of attendees with no knowledge of Scratch[.]” – Karl Nicholson, Manchester Youth Zone

The training was well received

Educators found the training to be high quality and, in almost all cases, beneficial. Participants reported that attending two online sessions in preparation for the in-person training day had improved their experience of the in-person activites.

“It was really great. The online courses are excellent and being in-person to get answers to questions really helped. The tinkering was really useful and having people on hand to answer questions [was] massively helpful.” – Liam Garnett, Leeds Libraries

Some participants told us they struggled with the second online training session. This may be because it contained more challenging content: moving from block-based coding (Scratch) to text-based coding (Python), a transition we know many people new to programming can find difficult.

This feedback has helped inform the next iteration of our training programme for youth and community organisations.

A Learning Manager is supporting two adult educators during a training session.

Youth workers are now running digital making sessions

Since the training, attendees across the 14 organisations have reported that, so far, 39 digital making sessions have taken place, reaching 422 young people. Youth leaders and educators who have already run sessions also told us they intend to continue with coding and digital making activities with their young people in the future.

Young learners in a coding club.

Among these youth leaders was Marie Henry, founder of Breadline London, a grassroots charitable organisation based in Haringey, London, that supports families and young people to break the cycle of poverty through financial education, training, and practical workshops.

Since the training programme, Marie has gone on to start a regular coding club in her local area.

“We are immensely grateful to the Raspberry Pi Foundation team for their encouragement and unwavering support in empowering us to launch our own coding club. Their guidance, expertise, hands-on training workshops, and provision of essential equipment and devices have been instrumental in our journey towards building a positive community for our young coders.

With their help, we’ve gained the confidence, knowledge, and skills needed to inspire the next generation of coders and innovators. We still have a lot to learn, but with them by our side, we are confident that our coding club will be a great success.

Thank you, Raspberry Pi Foundation, for believing in our vision and helping us turn it into reality.” – Marie Henry, Founder of Breadline London

Some of the organisations that participated in the training have not yet run sessions, but plan to start delivery within the next 1 to 3 months. They continue to face some logistical challenges, ranging from staff shortages and volunteer availability, to encouraging local young people with limited prior exposure to computing to join the digital making activities. We are continuing to support these organisations to get up and running as soon as possible.

“Oh my what a great coding after school session I’ve had this afternoon…Scratch not only sets a starting point for children in their ITC learning, but is also a fun way to learn and build on skills they can take with them as they grow.

Planting the seeds of aspirations!” – Heather Coultard, Doncaster Children’s University

Our ongoing support to youth and community organisations

Our previous blog highlighted the importance of increasing young people’s sense of belonging within a coding club environment, to appeal to marginalised youth. Our findings suggest we are on the right track. Overall, participants felt positive about the training and found it to be of high quality, and it has helped them to deliver digital making sessions to young people in their communities. The organisations’ detailed feedback and impact reporting will continue to inform and improve the development of our training programmes going forward.

We thank Amazon Future Engineer for helping us run this rewarding programme. 

For more information about how we can support youth and community organisations in the UK in starting their coding clubs, please send us a message on the subject ‘Partnerships’.

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Global Impact: Empowering young people in Kenya and South Africa

Post Syndicated from Vicky Fisher original https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/global-impact-empowering-young-people-in-kenya-and-south-africa/

We work with mission-aligned educational organisations all over the world to support young people’s computing education. In 2023 we established four partnerships in Kenya and South Africa with organisations Coder:LevelUp, Blue Roof, Oasis Mathare, and Tech Kidz Africa, which support young people in underserved communities. Our shared goal is to support educators to establish and sustain extracurricular Code Clubs and CoderDojos in schools and community organisations. Here we share insights into the impact the partnerships are having.

A group of young people outside a school.

Evaluating the impact of the training 

In the partnerships we used a ‘train the trainer’ model, which focuses on equipping our partners with the knowledge and skills to train and support educators and learners. This meant that we trained a group of educators from each partner, enabling them to then run their own training sessions for other educators so they can set up coding clubs and run coding sessions. These coding sessions aim to increase young people’s skills and confidence in computing and programming.

We also conducted an evaluation of the impact of our work in these partnerships. We shared two surveys with educators (one shortly after they completed their initial training, a second for when they were running coding sessions), and another survey for young people to fill in during their coding sessions. In two of the partnerships, we also conducted interviews and focus groups with educators and young people. 

Although we received lots of valuable feedback, only a low proportion of participants responded to our surveys, so the data may not be representative of the experience of all participating educators. 

A group of young people coding on a laptop.

New opportunities to learn to code

Following our training, our partners themselves trained 332 educators across Kenya and South Africa to work directly in schools and communities running coding sessions. This led to the setup of nearly 250 Code Clubs and CoderDojos and additional coding sessions in schools and communities, reaching more than 11,500 young people.

As a result, access to coding and programming has increased in areas where this provision would otherwise not be available. One educator told us:

“We found it extremely beneficial, because a lot of our children come from areas in the community where they barely know how to read and write, let alone know how to use a computer… [It provides] the foundation, creating a fun way of approaching the computer as opposed to it being daunting.”

Curiosity, excitement and increased confidence

We found encouraging signs of the impact of this work on young people.

Nearly 90% of educators reported seeing an increase in young people’s computing skills, with over half of educators reporting that this increase was large. Over three quarters of young people who filled in our survey reported feeling confident in coding and computer programming.

The young people spoke enthusiastically about what they had learned and the programs they had created. They told us they felt inspired to keep learning, linking their interests to what they wanted to do in coding sessions. Interests included making dolls, games, cartoons, robots, cars, and stories. 

A young person points at a screen.

When we spoke with educators and young people, a key theme that emerged was the enthusiasm and curiosity of the young people to learn more. Educators described how motivated they felt by the excitement of the young people. Young people particularly enjoyed finding out the role of programming in the world around them, from understanding traffic lights to knowing more about the games they play on their phones.

One educator told us:

“…students who knew nothing about technology are getting empowered.” 

This confidence is particularly encouraging given that educators reported a low level of computer literacy among young people at the start of the coding sessions. One educator described how coding sessions provided an engaging hook to support teaching basic IT skills, such as mouse skills and computer-related terms, alongside coding. 

Addressing real-world problems

One educator gave an example of young people using what they are learning in their coding club to solve real-world problems, saying:

“It’s life-changing because some of those kids and the youths that you are teaching… they’re using them to automate things in their houses.” 

Many of these young people live in informal settlements where there are frequent fires, and have started using skills they learned in the coding sessions to automate things in their homes, reducing the risk of fires. For example, they are programming a device that controls fans so that they switch on when the temperature gets too high, and ways to switch appliances such as light bulbs on and off by clapping.

A young learner coding on a laptop.

Continuing to improve our support

From the gathered feedback, we also learned some useful lessons to help improve the quality of our offer and support to our partners. For example, educators faced challenges including lack of devices for young people, and low internet connectivity. As we continue to develop these partnerships, we will work with partners to make use of our unplugged activities that work offline, removing the barriers created by low connectivity.

We are continuing to develop the training we offer and making sure that educators are able to access our other training and resources. We are also using the feedback they have given us to consider where additional training and support may be needed. Future evaluations will further strengthen our evidence and provide us with the insights we need to continue developing our work and support more educators and young people.

Our thanks to our partners at Coder:LevelUp, Blue Roof, Oasis Mathare, and Tech Kidz Africa for sharing our mission to enable young people to realise their full potential through the power of computing and digital technologies. As we continue to build partnerships to support Code Clubs and CoderDojos across South Africa and Kenya, it is heartening to hear first-hand accounts of the positive impact this work has on young people.

If your organisation would like to partner with us to bring computing education to young people you support, please send us a message with the subject ‘Partnerships’.

The post Global Impact: Empowering young people in Kenya and South Africa appeared first on Raspberry Pi Foundation.

What Makes a Zabbix Conference Benelux Special?

Post Syndicated from Michael Kammer original https://blog.zabbix.com/what-makes-a-zabbix-conference-benelux-special/27789/

Zabbix has always seen our mission as going beyond simply delivering a product. From the start, building a strong global community has created and supported a better business model, and an important part of building our community is our practice of taking our message to the places where our users, partners, and potential clients live and work.

That’s where Zabbix Conferences enter the picture. Since 2011, they’ve grown from yearly events on our home turf in Riga to multi-day extravaganzas in locations as far-flung as Tokyo, Shanghai, and Porto Alegre. There’s something about the conferences in the Benelux countries, however, that seems to boost our reach a little further and create a little more enthusiasm every time we visit.

“Zabbix Conference Benelux is a can’t-miss event for European Zabbix enthusiasts and professionals. It attracts Zabbix experts from the retail, IT, banking, and government sectors (just to name a few), and brings everyone together with a shared sense of purpose. It’s the perfect place to network with like-minded individuals and come away with plenty of inspiration for your own projects.”

– Alexei Vladishev, Zabbix Founder and CEO

There’s just something about Benelux

The politico-economic union of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg is a fascinating locale for any event – the three nations that make up the union each bring their own customs, history, language, and business culture to the mix, which creates an intriguing backdrop for any kind of business.

“A Zabbix Conference Benelux is a unique event because of the way the people of the region make their guests feel welcome and create an atmosphere of belonging, togetherness, and support.”

-Alexei Vladishev, Zabbix Founder and CEO

From our perspective at Zabbix, Benelux is home not only to a sizable community of existing clients and partners, but also an enormous pool of potential new ones. We’ve thought long and hard about what we can offer to that particular group when we make our (almost) annual pilgrimage to Benelux, so keep reading for some insight into what makes a Zabbix Conference Benelux not only special, but worth attending.

Learn from the best

Attending a Zabbix Conference Benelux is first and foremost an excellent opportunity to catch up with the very latest trends and developments in the world of IT monitoring, including Zabbix proxy high-availability and load balancing as well as automating Zabbix workflows with Zabbix API and zabbix_utils.

Our conference speakers represent a broad cross-section of industries and experiences, and they pride themselves on coming up with fresh, innovative topics – in fact, many of them share their use cases and results for the first time on our stage. What’s more, the energy and dynamics of our workshops and live Q&A sessions foster open dialogue, richer conversations, and greater innovation.

“The Zabbix Conference Benelux I attended in 2023 stands out to me because of a very informative speech by (Zabbix Trainer and Consultant at Opensource ICT Solutions) Brian Van Baekel about his experience with Zabbix in an MSP environment. On top of that, the conference was organized in the beautiful center of Antwerp, the atmosphere was very friendly as usual, and we had some fascinating events after the conference as well.” 

– Kaspars Mednis, Zabbix Chief Trainer 

Getting to know you

The world may be increasingly dominated by virtual interactions and digital connections, but there’s still something unique and special about face-to-face conferences. At Zabbix, our feeling has always been that in-person events are crucial to strengthening the bonds between our team members, our partners, and our users. A Zabbix Conference Benelux gives participants a chance to truly get in touch with the people behind our product, allowing for deeper understanding and stronger relationships, which are the foundation of all successful business collaborations.

“The year I attended (2023) I really enjoyed the overall spirit of the event, the atmosphere in Antwerp, and the opportunities to get to know the Zabbix community closer.” 

– Aleksandrs Petrovs-Gavrilovs, Zabbix Technical Support Engineer 

Drumming up new business

Attending a Zabbix Conference Benelux isn’t just about exchanging information, but also about providing attendees with opportunities for spontaneous conversations, chance encounters, and relationship-building that can lead to collaborations, partnerships, and future business opportunities for everyone involved.

Business leaders can learn about the technology and challenges of Zabbix and our partners and have a frank dialogue that helps them understand their own needs from a different perspective. And as anyone who has spent time at a Zabbix Conference Benelux can tell you, those kinds of free-flowing conversations tend to happen naturally and organically when both parties are in a friendly, welcoming environment that also happens to be just a bit outside of their home turf.

Networking and hospitality

Speaking of creating a welcoming environment, it’s impossible to underestimate how important quirky yet fun event venues and incredible hospitality are to creating an ideal event for learning and networking. Zabbix Technical Support Engineer Edgars Melveris is a veteran of Zabbix Conferences in 2020 (Utrecht, the Netherlands) and 2023 (Antwerp, Belgium). He says that it’s the combination of in-depth technical information, fascinating locales, and good times that makes a Zabbix Conference Benelux special to him.

“The National Military Museum in Utrecht really impressed me, and I also enjoyed the atmosphere and sense of community at the event venues. When it comes to conference content, (Zabbix Chief Trainer) Kaspars Mednis’ workshop on ‘New and improved SNMP bulk data collection in Zabbix 6.4’ has only become more relevant with the passage of time, and (Zabbix Trainer and Consultant at Opensource ICT Solutions) Nathan Liefting’s presentation on ‘Zabbix Native HA: Lessons Learned and Tips & Tricks’ was particularly useful to me in my role.”

-Edgars Melveris, Zabbix Technical Support Engineer

Zabbix Conference Benelux 2024 will take place in Utrecht, the Netherlands, on May 24-25. To find out more information, register to attend, or sign up as a speaker, please visit the conference page. We’re looking forward to seeing you soon!

The post What Makes a Zabbix Conference Benelux Special? appeared first on Zabbix Blog.

Celebrating the community: Arno & Timo

Post Syndicated from Sophie Ashford original https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/celebrating-the-community-arno-timo/

We love hearing from members of the community and sharing the stories of amazing young people, volunteers, and educators who are using their passion for technology to create positive change in the world around them.

Arno helping young coders at the CoderDojo Netherlands tenth birthday celebrations
Arno helping young coders at the CoderDojo Netherlands tenth birthday celebrations

In our latest story, we’re heading to Alkmaar, the Netherlands, to meet Arno and Timo, CoderDojo enthusiasts who have transitioned from club members to supportive mentors. Their journey at CoderDojo and their drive to give back and support the next generation of coders in their community has been an inspiration to those around them.

Introducing Arno and Timo

Arno and Timo have been friends since childhood, and embarked on their CoderDojo journey at the age of 12, eager to explore the world of coding. Under the guidance of mentors like Sanneke, Librarian and Chair of CoderDojo Netherlands, they not only honed their technical skills, but also learned about the value of collaboration, curiosity, and perseverance. As they grew older, they in turn were inspired to support young coders, and wanting to remain part of the CoderDojo community, they decided to become mentors to the next generation of club attendees. 

Having been helping younger members of the club for years, the transition to official mentors and proud owners of the much-coveted mentor T-shirt was seamless. 

Timo with Mirthe and Linus, two young CoderDojo members
Timo with Mirthe and Linus, two young CoderDojo members

The power of mentorship

Sanneke reflects on the impact young mentors like Timo and Arno have on the young learners at CoderDojo:

“Having young mentors who are just slightly older than our youngest… I think it helps them to see what happens when you grow up and how they can help. They can be examples for how to help others.” – Sanneke, Librarian, CoderDojo mentor, and Chair of CoderDojo Netherlands

Timo echoes this sentiment, highlighting how mentoring provides a fantastic opportunity to help people and make a positive impact in the local community: 

“I think volunteering is important, because you’re doing something for the community, in a city or village, supporting them in their journey in learning coding.” – Timo

As they continue their journey, Timo and Arno remain committed to supporting and inspiring the next generation of coders. They also encourage anyone who is thinking of volunteering at a club to give it a go: 

“If you want to volunteer at the CoderDojo, just go for it. You don’t really need that much experience. […] The kids can learn it, so can you.” – Arno

The CoderDojo movement in the Netherlands is celebrating a decade of impact, and champions a culture of growth and learning. Arno and Timo’s story serves as an inspiration to us all, shining a light on the power of mentorship and the impact of volunteering in building stronger, more supportive communities. 

Inspire the next generation of young coders

Arno and Timo’s story showcases the importance of mentorship for both individuals and communities, and the real impact you can have by donating an hour of your time a week. If you’re interested in becoming a CoderDojo volunteer, head to coderdojo.com to find out how to get started.

Help us celebrate Arno and Timo and their inspiring journey by sharing their story on X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, and Facebook.

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Zabbix in Mexico: A Year of Expansion and Connection

Post Syndicated from Aurea Araujo original https://blog.zabbix.com/zabbix-in-mexico-a-year-of-expansion-and-connection/27780/

At the end of March 2023, Zabbix opened our second office in Latin America. Mexico was the choice, and Mexico City became the new headquarters for our operations in the region. 

It’s been an eventful year, during which we met many professionals, developed new businesses, and – most importantly – learned a great deal from the local community, new business partners, and users who had already been spreading the word about Zabbix. 

Here are a few highlights from year one of Zabbix Mexico! 

The official opening of the Zabbix Mexico office

March 29, 2023 was opening day for the Zabbix office in Mexico. We gathered over 90 professionals for a day-long agenda of talks, technical presentations, and use case demonstrations with major companies in the region, including the National Center for Energy Control (CENACE).

We also signed a cooperation agreement with the Foundation for Digital Development and Open Knowledge (DEDICA), who later organized a Zabbix hackathon in Mexico City.  

Luciano Alves and Alexei Vladishev at the office opening in Mexico
Sergey Sorokin presenting Zabbix’s business model

New Official Zabbix Partners in Mexico

Since the beginning of Zabbix’s official operations in Mexico, we’ve established eight new partners through the Zabbix Partnership Program. 

There are 5 Zabbix Certified Partners in the region and 3 Resellers, backed by Zabbix and authorized to provide our services in the region. 

We are always looking for companies that develop services with Zabbix to complement our network of official partners. If you’re interested, please contact our Partners team to learn more about the benefits of the Zabbix Partnership Program. 

Second Zabbix Forum Mexico held in the capital

Building on the success of the first edition of the event, we held the second Zabbix Forum Mexico in Mexico City in November 2023. 

With more than 120 attendees from 7 countries, the Forum featured 10 talks on stage and two discussion sessions – an open source and business panel and a panel on the technology landscape and monitoring trends. 

Big names in the information technology market were present, such as Red Hat, IDC Latin America, Dell, Kyndryl, and the Mexican Association of Information Technology Industry (AMITI). 

Luciano Alves at Zabbix Forum Mexico 2023
Open Source & Business Panel

This discussion model has become a tradition at Zabbix events and will be a feature of the Zabbix Conference Latam 2024 as well. 

Development and education in the Zabbix Innova Challenge

With the aid of the DEDICA Foundation, we were able to support and sponsor the Zabbix Innova Challenge in Mexico. 

The project started in December 2023, with free registration for students and professionals from Latin America to come together and create a solution with Zabbix. 

Mentorships, planning meetings, and technical Zabbix training sessions were held for participants, and in March 2024, the hackathon itself took place. In three days, the selected students developed their projects and presented them to the judges. 

The project marked the beginning of Zabbix’s educational initiatives in the region. According to Fernanda Moraes, Communications and Marketing Manager LatAm at Zabbix,  

Developing educational projects is part of the collaborative essence we work with in our business model, which is fundamental to supporting the technological community’s development.

At the end of the hackathon, more than 70 Zabbix official certification scholarships were awarded to the best teams, with the top team winning a trip for the team representative to attend the Zabbix Conference Latam 2024 in Brazil in June. 

Students at the final of hackathon Zabbix Innova Challenge
Zabbix Team and organization team at Zabbix Innova Challenge

Next Steps for Zabbix in the region

Zabbix’s expansion and operation plans in Mexico continue to move forward.

Luciano Alves, CEO of Zabbix in Latin America, had this to say

Mexico represents a significant market that benefits from Zabbix but is not yet using the tool to its full potential. Our goal is to support the region’s companies in technology sustainability.

With our presence in the region plus the actions of our official partners, we expect our business in the region to grow along with other open-source initiatives. 

Find the Zabbix Community at the Zabbix Conference Latam 2024

In addition to the Mexico office and the Zabbix Mexico Community group on Telegram, Zabbix has had official operations in our Brazil office since 2020. Zabbix Brazil is responsible for a wide variety of events, including the Zabbix Conference Latam – the biggest event on Zabbix and monitoring in the region! 

Representatives from the entire Zabbix Community in Brazil and neighboring countries will be present at the event, sharing use cases and educational presentations on our favorite topic. 

Check out the updated event page and sign up today! 

The post Zabbix in Mexico: A Year of Expansion and Connection appeared first on Zabbix Blog.

Community Update: empowering startups building on Cloudflare and creating an inclusive community

Post Syndicated from Ricky Robinett original https://blog.cloudflare.com/2024-community-update


With millions of developers around the world building on Cloudflare, we are constantly inspired by what you all are building with us. Every Developer Week, we’re excited to get your hands on new products and features that can help you be more productive, and creative, with what you’re building. But we know our job doesn’t end when we put new products and features in your hands during Developer Week. We also need to cultivate welcoming community spaces where you can come get help, share what you’re building, and meet other developers building with Cloudflare.

We’re excited to close out Developer Week by sharing updates on our Workers Launchpad program, our latest Developer Challenge, and the work we’re doing to ensure our community spaces – like our Discord and Community forums – are safe and inclusive for all developers.

Helping startups go further with Workers Launchpad

In late 2022, we initiated the $2 billion Workers Launchpad Funding Program aimed at aiding the more than one million developers who use Cloudflare’s Developer Platform. This initiative particularly benefits startups that are investing in building on Cloudflare to propel their business growth.

The Workers Launchpad Program offers a variety of resources to help builders scale faster and reach more customers. The program includes, but is not limited to:

  • Fostering a community of like-minded founders
  • Facilitating introductions to the Launchpad’s VC partner network of 40+ leading investors
  • Company-building support and mentorship through virtual Founders Bootcamp sessions
  • Organizing technical office hours with our engineers
  • Access to preview upcoming Cloudflare products and Product Managers
  • Culminating in a Demo Day, for participants to share their stories globally with investors and prospective customers.

So far, 50 amazing startups from 13 countries have successfully graduated from the Workers Launchpad program. We finished up Cohort #1 in March 2023, and Cohort #2 wrapped up August 2023.

Meet Cohort #3 of the Workers Launchpad!

Since the end of Cohort #2, we have received hundreds of new applications from startups across the globe. Startup applicants showcased incredible tools and software across a variety of industries, including AI, SaaS, Supply Chain, Media, Gaming, Hospitality, and Developer Productivity. While we were encouraged by this wave of applicants’ ability to build amazing technology, there were a few that stood out that are leveraging Cloudflare’s Developer Suite to scale their business.

With that being said, we would like to introduce you to the 29 startups that have been chosen to participate in Cohort #3 of Workers Launchpad:

Below, you will find a brief summary of what problems these startups are looking to solve:

Autoblocks AI Evaluation & testing platform to improve AI product quality.
BEAM (By Mass Luminosity) A next-gen live streaming platform that elevates creator-viewer interactions to the next level.
BentoML Run any AI model in your cloud.
bohr.io An easy and fast development platform.
Cloneable Provides low/no-code tools to build and deploy applications to any device, instantly.
CleverEV Manage EV charging infrastructure and experience for clients.
Dulia Managed edge powered serverless AI platform.
Erxes Open-source experience operating system empowering businesses.
Exporio AI-first A/B testing and personalization platform.
Helicone GenAI observability platform built for developers.
Houdini An end-to-end solution for building and deploying GraphQL applications.
Intelligage Humanize your AI for customers.
Langbase Ship hyper-personalized AI apps in seconds — any LLM, any data, any developer.
Milkshake Create websites via mobile within minutes.
Nadrama Kubernetes PaaS in your cloud account, in minutes.
NuxtHub (by NuxtLabs) Build full-stack applications on Cloudflare with zero configuration.
Panaptico High performance networking fabrics for specialized workloads.
Playroom Platform for game developers to build multiplayer games in minutes.
Puzzle Labs P2P, prompt-first knowledge base for teams to collaborate with AI.
Resilis Intelligent edge caching for REST APIs.
Scrappi A better way to collect, create and collaborate.
Starlight Labs AI native game studio.
T4 Stack Ship feature parity on universal apps.
TextCortex AI AI copilot platform to leverage the power of easy customization and integration.
Toothless Build GenAI-powered workflow automation and internal tools in minutes.
Unfetch Generate and run scripts with AI to complete tasks within seconds.
Unkey Redefines API management for developers. Add authentication, analytics, and rate-limiting to your APIs in minutes.
Unnug Transformative cloud compiler with an emphasis on user on-premises, cloud, and edge resources.
Wope AI-powered marketing agent that leverages Gen AI to optimize businesses’ online presence and drive more traffic.

The Cloudflare team is looking forward to working with Cohort #3 participants and sharing what they are building on Cloudflare. To follow along with Cohort #3 of Workers Launchpad, follow @CloudflareDev and join our Developer Discord server.

Are you a startup and interested in joining Cohort #4? Apply here!

AI developer challenge

Now that Workers AI is GA, we’re excited to see what our community can build.  We’ve teamed up with our friends at DEV who will be running an AI Developer challenge, which officially launched on Wednesday, April 3, and runs until Sunday, April 14, 2024, when submissions close.

For this challenge, you will build a Workers AI application that makes use of AI task types from Cloudflare’s growing catalog of Open Models. Apps will be evaluated on innovation, creativity, and demonstration of underlying technology with prizes awarded by DEV for the best overall app, as well as projects leveraging multiple models and tasks. For more information and details on how to participate, including DEV’s rules and requirements, head over to the official challenge page.

Creating an inclusive community

Our community has been growing really fast over the past year, so fast that it’s becoming more difficult to welcome each new member that joins our Discord server every day, and Developer Week has always been one of the main drivers of this growth.

When you come into the Cloudflare developer community, it’s important to us that you’re entering a space that is safe and welcoming. Even though we already have rules for the server and community forums, we needed guidelines for our community programs, so that’s why we’ve created a new Code of Conduct that promotes inclusivity, respect, and will help us create a better community for everyone.

Do you want to be part of this and help us create a more inclusive and helpful community? Then please share your feedback and tell us what you would like to see improved in our community and our Discord server in this thread.

Striking the Right Balance: Zabbix 7.0 to be Released Under AGPLv3 License

Post Syndicated from Alexei Vladishev original https://blog.zabbix.com/striking-the-right-balance-zabbix-7-0-to-be-released-under-agplv3-license/27596/

At Zabbix, we believe that knowledge should be accessible to everyone, and we’re proud to have built a thriving community that reflects our values of openness, transparency, and cooperation. That’s why we’ve championed the open-source movement.

Our number one priority is and always has been to make sure that we’re able to provide our solution to millions, while being able to maintain and develop it.

Why AGPLv3?

Since 2001, all major and minor versions of Zabbix Monitoring Solution software have been released under GNU General Public License version 2.0 or later (GPLv2 or later), which has proven to be a strong and well-regarded copyleft license.

As the tech landscape has evolved, however, we’ve been on the lookout for a licensing solution that would allow us to stay open source while keeping our values intact, adding flexibility, and maintaining copyright protection. That’s why we’re releasing version 7.0, the next major version of Zabbix, under GNU Affero General Public License version 3 (AGPLv3).

AGPL V3 is an OSI-approved license that meets all criteria for Free and Open-Source Software. The purpose of AGPLv3 is to impose copyleft license on modified versions made available for use over a network, which we believe will help us strike the right balance between our open-source roots and effective copyright protection.

How will this affect the Zabbix community?

Our community impacts our popularity and the direction of our development. Their contributions are important to us, and as far as we’re concerned, the release of the 7.0 version of Zabbix software under AGPLv3 will not create any impact on any plugins, modules, or widgets released under any AGPLv3 compliant licenses. Our Contributor License Agreement (CLA) will not change in any way, and you can find the current version of it here.

In terms of templates, there is an opinion that application programming interfaces (APIs) are not protected by copyright. However, if the developer of a template considers the template copyrightable, we recommend that they release the template under any permissive or copyleft open-source software license that is AGPLv3 compliant (e.g., 3-clause BSD, MIT, Apache license 2.0, LGPLv3, GPLv3, or AGPLv3).

How will this affect Zabbix itself (the product)?

It won’t. This change will do nothing to prevent Zabbix users from using Zabbix software — in fact, the only difference is that under the AGPLv3 license users must share source code if they are modifying it and making it available to others, either by distribution or over a network. For distributors, AGPLv3 has the same source code sharing requirements as other strong copyleft licenses, including GPLv2 or later.

Conclusion

We’re honored by the number of users who love Zabbix and don’t want to see it change in any way. We believe that releasing the 7.0 version of Zabbix software under the AGPLv3 licence is the perfect balance between protecting our business interests and staying free and open source.

If you want to learn more about AGPLv3, the GNU project has a comprehensive FAQ section, and the Free Software Foundation has published a useful guide as well. We’ve added our own FAQ section below for anyone who wants more specific information, and you can also visit our updated license page.

FAQ

Why is Zabbix doing this? And why now?

Being open source is central to our business model, which is all about empowering partners to provide our customers with individual solutions. After much internal discussion, we’ve determined that moving to AGPLv3 is the best way to make sure that anyone who modifies our software makes it available to everyone. The upcoming 7.0 release provided us with the perfect time to make the move. It’s a way for us to get two birds with one stone – we can make sure that no commercial entity helps themselves to our product while circumventing copyleft requirements, and we can also make sure that anyone who does modify our code makes their modifications available to everyone.

Will this affect the Zabbix version that I already have?

Absolutely not! There is no impact on any older releases of Zabbix in any way.

The post Striking the Right Balance: Zabbix 7.0 to be Released Under AGPLv3 License appeared first on Zabbix Blog.

Discover A World of Opportunity at Zabbix Meetings

Post Syndicated from Michael Kammer original https://blog.zabbix.com/discover-a-world-of-opportunity-at-zabbix-meetings/27684/

From the very beginning, Zabbix has been fortunate to have a large, diverse, and truly global community. Engaging with them is the key to getting the most out of Zabbix, and to that end, we introduced Zabbix Meetings in late 2022.

Zabbix Meetings are global get-togethers in locations from Stockholm to Shanghai to Sao Paulo and all points in between. They were created to serve as the first step on the journey to working with Zabbix and getting to know us better, giving Zabbix beginners a chance to learn about our capabilities directly from our team and our partners.

They’re also an opportunity for more experienced Zabbix users to learn from others, share their knowledge, and stay up to date on the latest developments in the Zabbix ecosystem – all in one event.

Whether you’re new to Zabbix or an experienced professional, we’re confident that attending a Zabbix Meeting will help you solve problems, exchange ideas, and grow your Zabbix expertise. Accordingly, here are 4 key benefits you can expect from showing up at a Zabbix Meeting near you.

Build relationships with our team members

Businesses are built on relationships, and ours is no exception. We still believe that there’s no substitute for meeting in person when it comes to building a strong culture, developing rapport with our users and partners, and connecting on a deeper level.

Attending Zabbix Meetings and getting to know our team is a great way to build trust and put some faces to names, which will allow you to know who exactly on our team you can reach out to when you’re shopping around for the best deals on support packages, when you need assistance, or when you want to collaborate on a cool new feature or project that can be a game-changer for your business.

Hear use cases that apply to your own organization

If you’re thinking about adopting Zabbix or expanding your existing Zabbix setup, it can be invaluable to learn how other companies similar to yours have tried and succeeded with it. Our use cases come from actual satisfied Zabbix users and highlight the effectiveness of a specific feature or benefit, while sharing notable results.

They’re also ideal for providing best practices that you can apply to your own industry. We can just about guarantee that no matter what you’re trying to do with Zabbix, a similar organization has already succeeded at it and would be glad to show you how they pulled it off. What’s more, seeing Zabbix-related use cases presented can also help you sell the benefits of Zabbix to stakeholders in your organization, gain buy-in, and present the implementation process.

Get direct, real-time answers to your questions

Taking part in a Zabbix Meeting is an excellent way to grow your professional network and make new business connections – we’ve created them to be the perfect place to meet a variety of like-minded industry professionals. That said, simply attending a Zabbix Meeting isn’t a recipe for success – if you’re not asking questions, you’re definitely not getting the full experience.

Asking good questions at Zabbix Meetings can help you gain valuable information and make the most of your time and the opportunity. The presentations and use cases that are the backbone of any Zabbix Meeting are detailed, in-depth, and full of technical details, so we always offer an extended Q&A session at the end of each one to make sure you walk away from the Meeting with a full understanding of all the information presented.

Learn more about what Zabbix can do for you

If you’re signing up to attend a Zabbix Meeting near you, there’s a good chance that you already know a fair amount about Zabbix and what we do. There are plenty of ways to find out the basics, including visiting our website, checking out our latest blog posts, or having a look at our famous forums.

No matter how much time you spend reading up on us, however, some information is bound to slip through the cracks. You might know about our technical support offers, but there’s no substitute for chatting with one of our support engineers about how you use Zabbix and hearing their opinion about what type of support plan best suits your specific needs.

You might also know that we offer training sessions, but that’s not the same as hearing from one of our certified trainers exactly how a Zabbix Certified training session has upskilled employees at a company just like yours and helped them save money, reduce downtime, and do things with Zabbix that they never imagined possible.

Conclusion

There’s simply no substitute for a Zabbix Meeting when it comes to learning more about what we can do for you. Have a look at our Events page to see when we’ll be in a location near you and be sure to sign up – we’re looking forward to seeing you soon!

The post Discover A World of Opportunity at Zabbix Meetings appeared first on Zabbix Blog.

Celebrating the community: Micah

Post Syndicated from Sophie Ashford original https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/celebrating-the-community-micah/

We love hearing from members of the community and sharing the stories of inspiring young people, volunteers, and educators all over the world who have a passion for technology.

A smiling child.
Micah attends a Code Club in a library in Leeds, UK.

With this latest story, we’re taking you to Leeds, UK, to meet Micah, a young space enthusiast whose confidence has soared since he started attending a Code Club at his local library.

Introducing Micah

Computing skills are essential in today’s world, and Micah’s mum Catherine was keen for him to be introduced to coding from a young age.

While Micah is known to people close to him for his inquisitive nature, cheeky behaviour, and quick-witted sense of humour, he can be a little shy when meeting new people. And he isn’t always keen on his mum’s suggestions about trying new things and attending after-school clubs! However, when Catherine saw there was a Code Club running at their local library, she knew it was the perfect opportunity for Micah to try out computing.

A parent and child laughing together.
Micah’s mum Catherine took the opportunity to get Micah introduced to coding at their local Code Club.

What Catherine didn’t know is that not only would Micah find out he was a talented coder, but Code Club would also set the path for him to become a regular attendee at many of the library’s other clubs.

Opportunities for young coders

Based in Leeds, the Compton Centre Code Club is part of the Leeds Libraries network, which runs seven Code Clubs throughout the city. Liam, Senior Librarian for Digital at Leeds Libraries, described the importance of these spaces for the community and for engaging children in tech:

“Libraries are safe spaces that provide free access to exciting and innovative technology to those in our communities who might not get that opportunity. We’re proud that our Code Clubs can support young people to engage with tech, learn some new skills, and meet like-minded peers in a friendly and positive environment.

Our Code Clubs are aimed at 9- to 13-year-olds. We do have some learners that will come that have a younger sister or brother that wants to get involved as well. We never want to turn anyone away. So we’re more than welcoming for that age group to come in and have a play, get used to the equipment, and join in.”

— Liam, Senior Librarian for Digital at Leeds Libraries

Coding and confidence

Code Club provides a safe and friendly space for Micah to connect with other children, and he has embraced coding with enthusiasm. This is possible thanks to the work, support, and encouragement of Micah’s Code Club mentor Basia (they/them), the librarian at the Compton Centre who runs the club.

“Micah loves coming [to Code Club] and learning all the different things that he can do with coding. And he also loves Basia. They’re brilliant and run the club really well. It’s a super child-friendly place to be and he loves the support that he gets from them.”

– Catherine, Micah’s mum

Support from an inspiring mentor is so often an important part of a young coder’s journey, and Basia’s own journey from a coding beginner to a confident mentor highlights the positive influence Code Club has on both children and mentors.

A child and Code Club leader at a club session.
Micah loves coming to Code Club and being mentored by the club leader, librarian Basia.

Basia reflected on how they felt when they first heard they were going to be running Code Club sessions, and how their skills and confidence have grown.

“I was daunted for a bit. But actually one of the first things I did when I started this job was to go through some of [the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s] resources and do a project in Scratch. And it was just so simple and straightforward. You know, all the resources are absolutely great and I don’t really need to think about it. I think my confidence has increased quite significantly.”

— Basia, Librarian and Code Club mentor

Since joining Code Club, Micah has become involved in other extracurricular activities, like Lego club and drama club. These experiences have contributed to Micah’s overall personal growth, showcasing the transformative power of Code Club for children.

Young people and adult mentors at a Code Club session.
Code Clubs are save and friendly spaces for learning.

Micah has exciting dreams for the future, including becoming an astrophysicist, a marine biologist, and the founder of a company named Save The Planet. Supported by dedicated mentors like Basia, Code Clubs are not just about teaching coding — they are helping shape the leaders of tomorrow.

Inspire young people in your community

If you are interested in encouraging your child to explore coding, take a look at the free coding project resources we have available to support you. If you would like to set up a Code Club for young people in your community, head to codeclub.org for information and support.

Help us celebrate Micah and his inspiring journey by sharing his story on X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, and Facebook.

The post Celebrating the community: Micah appeared first on Raspberry Pi Foundation.

What’s Up, Home? – I created my first Zabbix 7.0 custom widget

Post Syndicated from Janne Pikkarainen original https://blog.zabbix.com/whats-up-home-i-created-my-first-zabbix-7-0-custom-widget/27668/

As Zabbix 7.0 will come with the new widget framework, allowing communication between different widgets on dashboards, of course, I had to try it out.

Creating the module

The blog post title is a bit of a clickbait in the sense that this example is just 1:1 from the Zabbix Summit 2023 custom widgets workshop session. I made some very, very minor modifications to the code, mainly just changing my name and so on to manifest.json files. Since the code itself was obtained from the workshop session, I’m not going to publish it, but this much I will tease:

{
   "manifest_version": 2.0,
   "id": "whatsuphome",
   "type": "widget",
   "name": "What's up, home?",
   "namespace": "WMHostNav",
   "version": "1.0",
   "author": "Janne Pikkarainen",
   "description": "Custom host filtering widget for my home monitoring purposes",
   "widget": {
       "js_class": "WidgetWMHostNav",
       "out": [
           {
               "type": "_hostids"
           }
       ]
   },
   "assets": {
       "js": [
           "class.widget.js"
       ],
       "css": [
           "widget.css"
       ]
   }
}

Beginning with Zabbix 7.0, you can create your own custom widgets with JavaScript & PHP, and easily make other widgets on the dashboard to react to clicks you made on some other widget. The manifest.json file in the root of your custom module can describe what kind of info your widget will broadcast to other dashboard widgets, or what kind of info it will be receiving and obeying. Other than that, the custom widget only has a 2.6-kilobyte JavaScript file and a 587-byte CSS file. Modules are placed under /usr/share/zabbix/modules.

Next, just like in older versions of Zabbix, to activate your module you just go to Administration->Modules and click on Scan modules. And, there you have it.

Then, in your widgets, you can enable the dynamic reactions to other widgets or dashboard query changes like this:

Great! But what will it do?

I now have a new way of filtering the visible alerts. The custom widget on the left lists my host groups and hosts that belong to them.

Observe what happens when I click on the Electricity usage button:

I’m not limited to only selecting one host at a time, I can click on multiple hosts. Now see what happens if I also choose Lunch menus from my hosts.

The possibilities are endless

This example is just a simple read-only example. But, as Alexei mentioned to me after my speech at the Zabbix Summit 2023, this new framework could be used for controlling stuff, too. When I have time, I’ll try to run custom scripts and do other write operations through Zabbix API and this new framework.

Having a proper control panel for switching on/off the lights, music, and other things would be really cool, and now it certainly is possible. The future of the Zabbix user interface is really exciting thanks to new custom widgets.

This post was originally published on the author’s page.

The post What’s Up, Home? – I created my first Zabbix 7.0 custom widget appeared first on Zabbix Blog.

What’s Up, Home? – Time to start to use Zabbix 7.0 (at home)

Post Syndicated from Janne Pikkarainen original https://blog.zabbix.com/whats-up-home-time-to-start-to-use-zabbix-7-0-at-home/27610/

Since I will have some real use for Zabbix 7.0 when it comes out, I figured out that maybe it’s time to switch my What’s up, home? main instance to run on Zabbix 7.0beta1.

Actually, I first upgraded to Zabbix 7.0alpha9 early yesterday, but then 7.0beta1 got released later in the evening before I had time to play around with alpha9.

Anyway, now my Raspberry Pi 4 is running the latest and greatest version of Zabbix. A possible bumpy ride ahead, but I’m ready!

First impressions

The upgrade process itself went smoothly, just like with the stable releases. All my data, dashboards, triggers, and other rules are still in place.

Developers tell you that the new 7.0 will be much faster under the hood due to migrating to threads and asynchronous polling, among other changes. It ain’t just market speak, as this is my Zabbix instance before and after the upgrade. I don’t think that I need to annotate the graphs to show the point when I did the upgrade. The part that’s still hovering around 20% is my ICMP ping pollers. Other than that, in my humble home setup, everything is now pretty much idle.

Looking at my Raspberry Pi dashboard, not much has changed, and anyway, my Raspberry Pi is running many other things than Zabbix, too.

Here’s CPU:

Memory:

Disk I/O utilization:

Temperature:

From single item view to gauges

To try out the new gauge widget, I threw in a few of them showing some temperatures. The widget is very configurable.

Interactive manual host/event actions

In addition to being actually useful in production, the new interactive host/event actions are fun to play with. You can provide parameters to your scripts via dropdown or a free text field. Here’s a dropdown example. Well, a mockup, because my Python script is currently just a Hello world always returning that it changed the light color. Anyway, will modify my existing lights on/off script to handle colors, too.

So, if in scripts I click on Advanced Configuration, I get to adjust the input type and dropdown options.

… which gives me this:

Now, when I click on Change home office light color, I get to see:

And after choosing any of the colors, I get:

Easy! Just pass {MANUALINPUT} macro for your script as a parameter and it works. Like this:

Will definitely be helpful in serious business applications, as your on-call guys could, for example, trigger any Ansible playbooks through Zabbix to investigate and/or fix something just by clicking on an alert.

DNS monitoring gone overkill

With the new and improved net.dns.get Zabbix agent item key, you can query no less than 73 different DNS record types. To visualize this, your DNS monitoring could look this wild. No, whatsuphome.fi doesn’t give you back answers for nearly all of the query types but at least Zabbix tries.

Next page:

So if there’s something really deep you want to know about your DNS, Zabbix now supports it.

… and much more!

I’ll have lots of poking to do, including creating my custom widgets. But, from now on, bye-bye Zabbix 6.4. Here at What’s up, home?, it’s now time to move on. Oh, and by the way, Grafana also continues working just fine with Zabbix 7.0beta1, or at least I haven’t seen any broken dashboards yet.

This post was originally published on the author’s page.

The post What’s Up, Home? – Time to start to use Zabbix 7.0 (at home) appeared first on Zabbix Blog.

Fostering collaboration in the Global Clubs Partner network

Post Syndicated from Isabel Ronaldson original https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/collaboration-global-clubs-partner-network/

We partner with educational organisations around the world to bring coding activities to young people in their regions through Code Club and CoderDojo. Currently involving 52 organisations in 41 countries, this Global Clubs Partner network shares our passion for empowering kids to create with technology.

Students in a Code Club run by CSEd Botswana.
Learners in a Code Club run by CSEd Botswana, one of our Global Clubs Partners.

A key aspect of how we foster the Global Clubs Partner network is to promote connections between partners. It’s one reason we host regular online meetings and regional in-person events, and connect partners one on one to facilitate information sharing. Today, we’re highlighting three stories from partner organisations that have benefited from working with each other.

Aruba and the Netherlands

In March 2023, the Foundation hosted the first Clubs Conference for educators and volunteers involved with Code Club and CoderDojo. As this event took place in Cambridge, UK, the majority of attendees were from the UK and Republic or Ireland, but a small number came from further away. Much further away, in some cases.

A panel discussion on stage at the Clubs Conference.

Bruce Harms and his colleague Thanya Croes (Full Stack Vision Foundation, Aruba) were attending the Clubs Conference to share their work to increase digital literacy in Aruba through CoderDojo clubs. At a special conference session for international attendees, they connected with Sanneke van der Meer and Marloes van der Meulen (CoderDojo Netherlands), who were also presenting as part of the session.

Two people smiling at the camera.
Thanya and Bruce at the Clubs Conference in 2023.

After the Clubs Conference, the two organisations remained in touch. Later in the year, Bruce and Thanya attended the DojoCon Netherlands 2023 in the Hague. ”It was an amazing day with great workshops and lots of other CoderDojo Champions”, Bruce said. He and Thanya have plans to invite the CoderDojo Netherlands team to Aruba and hope to collaborate on future projects together. 

Malawi and Tanzania

Sylvester Mtumbuka (Computers for Enhanced Education, Malawi) and Mrisho Habibu (AMCET Innovation Hub, Tanzania) first connected at our Global Clubs Partner meetup in Malaysia in late 2022. Sylvester said: “We were the only ones from Africa there and we are from neighbouring countries. We happen to have a lot of goals in common, and we started discussing possible opportunities for collaboration.”

A group of educators.
The attendees of the Global Clubs Partner meetup in Malaysia in 2022.

The result is the Tanzania and Malawi (TaMa) Innovation Initiative, which is dedicated to fostering the educational, technological, and entrepreneurial development of young people in Tanzania and Malawi. It aims to empower young people in under-served communities, offering support for sustainable livelihoods and entrepreneurship, and it is already yielding great results.

Global Clubs Partners in Africa.
Sylvester and Mrisho signing their partnership agreement.

As part of their ongoing partnerships with us, Sylvester and Mrisho attended our Global Clubs Partner meetup in South Africa a year later —  the perfect opportunity to sign their partnership agreement.

Greece and Portugal

A chance meeting between Homero Cardoso (TAGUSVALLEY, Portugal) and Manos Zeakis (CoderDojo in Greece) at DojoCon Netherlands 2022 in Almere had unexpected consequences. “We discussed a lot of things, including the difficulty in finding venues for our Dojos in Greece”, Manos said. “Then in October 2023, we met at a Global Clubs Partner call and we talked again. With Homero’s help I contacted a Greek company, and they were immediately enthusiastic about helping us. After a few weeks, the Nea Ionia Dojo was live and the first Ninjas had their first session!”

Someone presenting to a room of people.
Manos holds a workshop.

Homero added: “Getting to know Manos was transformative for me as well. Because of that chance encounter in Almere, this year 7th and 8th grade students are participating in Astro Pi Mission Zero for the first time, mostly due to the inspiring example of Manos’s United Dojos project presented at DojoCon.”

Could your organisation become a Global Clubs Partner?

To find out more about our Global Clubs Partner network and how your organisation might get involved, visit the CoderDojo or Code Club websites, or contact us directly about a partnership.

The post Fostering collaboration in the Global Clubs Partner network appeared first on Raspberry Pi Foundation.

Keeping Remote Teams Connected: The Zabbix Advantage

Post Syndicated from Michael Kammer original https://blog.zabbix.com/keeping-remote-teams-connected-the-zabbix-advantage/27551/

The popularity of remote teams may have exploded in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it’s not a phenomenon that’s likely to trend downward anytime soon. High-profile organizations like 3M, Dropbox, Shopify, and LinkedIn are continuing to enthusiastically embrace remote working, essentially making it the “default setting” for their employees.

The shift toward remote working is not without its challenges, however. Organizations of all sizes often have little time to set up the kind of networking infrastructure and efficient processes that make sure remote workers are just as connected and productive as their on-site counterparts. In this article, we’ll take a quick look at some of the most important network monitoring challenges that remote teams face and show how Zabbix can help you tackle them as efficiently as possible.

Infrastructure and connectivity issues

A remote network is essentially a grouping of multiple smaller network setups, each with their own set of variables that can affect performance. The differences between network system and infrastructure quality at different remote destinations can often lead to low overall network performance, which in turn makes it a challenge to provide the kind of high-speed communication needed to run the remote automation tools and software applications used by remote employees and teams.

By providing straightforward and easy-to-understand visibility into a network’s connected devices and how data moves between them, Zabbix makes it easy to automatically compare data and identify any drop in network performance.

With Zabbix, you can easily keep an eye on network routers and switches, especially internet provider and uplink ports up/down. You can also monitor network latency, the error rate on ports, the packet loss to important devices, and network utilization on important ports with net.if.in/net.if.out. Here are some example triggers:

High Network Utilization: avg(/Router ABC/net.if.in[eth0],5m)>80MB
High Packet Loss: avg(/Router ABC/icmppingloss,5m)>5
High Latency: avg(/Router ABC/icmppingsec,5m)>0.1

What’s more, Zabbix allows you to create network maps with important network devices and real-time data, as well as dashboards with maps and single item/gauge widgets, all of which makes it far easier to achieve the uninterrupted connectivity that remote teams depend on.

Staying safe

Remote locations aren’t islands that can be completely isolated from external traffic. Staying vigilant and doing everything possible to eliminate data breaches is important, and taking advantage of strong encryption methods, network scanning tools, and firewalls to protect your systems is a good start. However, using a whole suite of tools to protect security can add more difficulty when it comes to integrating and monitoring them.

With Zabbix, you can count on enterprise-grade security, including encrypted communication between components, a flexible user permission schema that can be easily applied to a distributed environment, and custom user roles with a granular set of permissions for different types of users.

Zabbix also provides native support for HTTP, LDAP, and SAML authentication (which gives you an additional layer of security and improves your user experience while working with Zabbix), the ability to restrict access to sensitive information by limiting which metrics can be collected in your environment, and the ability to track changes in your environment by utilizing the Audit log. It’s all designed to make sure that there are no compromises on the security of your data when you decide to go remote.

Scalability

As a remote organization grows and its distributed systems expand, a good monitoring solution needs to be able to grow along with it in order to prevent gaps in coverage while maintaining performance and reliability. Zabbix gives you limitless scalability in the form of Zabbix proxies, which act as independent intermediaries that collect performance and availability data on behalf of a Zabbix server. You can roll out new proxies as fast as you need them, and because Zabbix is free and open source, you don’t have to worry about additional licensing costs.

Zabbix proxies allow you to see at a glance what resources are being used on your network at any given moment, which is especially handy if, like most remote teams, you have tens or even hundreds of servers and network appliances to monitor. You can also execute remote commands in remote locations – either on the proxies themselves or on the agents monitored by the proxy, and multiple frontends can be deployed for load balancing as well as for improved security and connectivity. Proxy docker containers and cloud options are available as well, enhancing flexibility and making Zabbix ideal for any organization that spans the globe (or aspires to).

Managing multiple solutions

The legacy software and systems you use were most likely designed to work in a traditional networking model. Remote working, as we’ve seen, presents a whole new range of challenges when it comes to compatibility and support.

We’ve created Zabbix to be as easy as possible to integrate with existing systems. You can easily monitor any operating system, cloud service, IP telephony service, docker container, or web server/database backend. We provide out-of-the-box monitoring for the world’s leading hardware and software vendors, and our extensively documented API makes it easy to create workflows and integrate with other systems. In addition, you can also integrate Zabbix with the most popular helpdesk, messaging, and ITSM systems, such as Slack, Jira, MS Teams, and many others.

Not only that, Zabbix is designed to serve as the ideal monitoring solution for multi-tenant environments. It serves as a single pane of glass for your entire infrastructure, and it’s easy to visualize everything that’s happening with your network with unique maps, dashboards, and templates.

Conclusion

The days of large teams all working together under the same roof are a thing of the past – the remote working trend will only accelerate as technology improves and employees get more accustomed to working with colleagues across multiple locations. That’s why it’s of paramount importance to make sure your monitoring solution has the built-in flexibility and scalability to grow with your team and your business.

If you want to see for yourself how Zabbix can help you effectively monitor a globally distributed network, contact us.

 

 

The post Keeping Remote Teams Connected: The Zabbix Advantage appeared first on Zabbix Blog.

Black role models in tech are making history every day

Post Syndicated from Kevin Johnson original https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/black-history-month-2024/

It’s the last week of Black History Month 2024 in the USA, but by no means is the celebration over. The beautiful thing about history is that it’s not an isolated narrative about the past, but an ongoing dialogue in which we talk about how our collective past informs our present, and what more can be achieved in the future. The fact is this: we make history every single day. That’s why it’s so important for everyone to actively engage with history, and for us to celebrate the achievements of all.

A young person with their project at a Coolest Projects event.

When we talk about the history of STEM and computing, it’s necessary to highlight the achievements of people from groups that are still underrepresented in these fields: communities of colour, female and gender non-conforming people, people with disabilities, and underresourced communities. When we highlight their achievements, everyone can gain a fuller understanding of this history, and more young people from these groups can see they have a place in these fields and in moving them forward. 

[When young kids of colour help inform the technology they use,] we end up with technology that is more inclusive to diverse communities […], and we help the kids become creators instead of just consumers.

Qumisha Goss

So to keep the conversation going about Black history in STEM and computing and how people make it every day, today we’re highlighting stories of Black community members. You’ll find out how they got involved in coding and creating with technology, and who their Black role models in tech are — past and present.

Community spotlight: Qumisha Goss

Meet Qumisha Goss, a brilliant source of inspiration and a shining light for youth in the ‘Motor City’ of Detroit, Michigan, USA.

A smiling woman.

Growing up, Qumisha always had an interest in tech, often tinkering and putting projects together, and her interest quickly transformed into a dream of becoming an engineer one day. Fast forward to now, and Qumisha has done exactly that and so much more.

She’s the Interim Executive Director of Peer 2 Peer University, the Digital Literacy Subject Matter Expert for Connect 313, the Creator and Lead Instructor of Code Grow, and a Raspberry Pi Certified Educator. Talk about impact! We asked Qumisha a few questions to explore her incredible story and to learn how she’s giving back to her community today: 

Which Black individuals have helped pave the way for you?

Qumisha: “When I was a kid, my grandmas, Gloria and Cassandra, helped my brother and I make a shrinking machine out of a cardboard box, some batteries, and some lights. There was a minimum of science used, but my grandma swapped out our test ear of corn for a baby corn and my curiosity was rewarded with success. In elementary school, my ‘hero’ was Mae Carol Jemison, engineer, doctor, and astronaut. She was the first African American woman to go to space, in 1992 on the Endeavor. I found someone who looked like me who was doing something that I wanted to do, and that was encouraging.”

Two young people using laptops at a Code Club session.

Why is it important to encourage diversity in tech?

Qumisha: “It’s important that young kids of colour help inform the technology that they use. The benefits are twofold: we end up with technology that is more inclusive to diverse communities because it is informed by them, and we help the kids become creators instead of just consumers.”

How did you find your way into tech?

Qumisha: “I eventually went to college to study engineering. I ended up switching majors and studying history and classical languages, but later returned to the tech world when I joined the Python and Raspberry Pi communities. I learned how to code outside of a traditional classroom and have been running physical computing classes and workshops for kids in my hometown of Detroit.”

A Coolest Projects participant

How do you believe your work is paving the way for more Black excellence in tech?

Qumisha: “Even if kids don’t stick with it, they learn that coding — and lots of things — are not beyond them. The next Bill Gates might be sitting on the library stoop. The difference between them being able to make it or not is: ‘Did they ever get the opportunity to touch the thing that really sparks their genius?’ And for me, I want to help as many kids as possible interact with tech in a fun and engaging way so that they know that they can be technologists too.”

The difference between [kids] being able to make it or not is: ‘Did they ever get the opportunity to touch the thing that really sparks their genius?’

Qumisha Goss

To connect with Qumisha and learn how you can support the incredible, history-making work that she’s doing, follow her on X at @QatalystGoss.

Keep reading to meet more Black history makers across the USA, and to find resources to learn how you can help increase diversity in the technology sector in your community.  

Ways to continue celebrating Black history

Explore our research seminars for educators who want to learn how to make computer science more accessible to all.

Listen to the stories of other Black community members who are making history all over the US. Siblings Sophia and Sebastian, researcher Randi Williams, and aspiring filmmaker Jordan chatted to us about their interest in coding, tech, and getting creative with digital tools.

At Coolest Projects, a group of people explore a coding project.

Try out one of our guided projects for young people to get creative with tech. Check out Coolest Projects, our free online showcase for young tech creators, and how you can get young people involved. 

And if you want to share the story of how you got into tech and how you’re inspiring kids to do the same, reach out to us on social media so we can amplify your voice. 

Happy Black History Month!

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The Zabbix/HackerOne Bug Bounty Program: A Year of Results

Post Syndicated from Michael Kammer original https://blog.zabbix.com/the-zabbix-hackerone-bug-bounty-program-a-year-of-results/27490/

As cyberattacks increase exponentially and the cost of maintaining dedicated internal security teams skyrockets, the popularity of the “bug bounty” program (which sees outside hackers paid by organizations to legally expose cybersecurity vulnerabilities) is exploding.

Organizations large and small are running programs to root out the security vulnerabilities in their products. Governments and policymakers are changing laws to make the approach easier to adopt, while private sector tech giants are also offering generous rewards – Apple alone has reportedly paid out more than $20 million via its bounty program, and the vendor offers up to $2 million to any hacker who reports a vulnerability that bypasses the protections of Lockdown Mode on its devices.

It’s an approach that dovetails perfectly with the Zabbix philosophy of “security first,” and it’s why as 2023 dawned we began working with HackerOne, the world leader in attack resistance management (ARM). ARM blends the security expertise of ethical hackers with asset discovery, continuous assessment, and process enhancement to find and close gaps in the digital attack surface.

Why HackerOne?

We knew from the start that we wanted to create a Zabbix-specific bug bounty program that would challenge the world’s best ethical hackers to find the weak spots in our cybersecurity armor – and let us know about them in time to fix them.

One of the biggest advantages of the HackerOne platform is the broad and diverse community of experts that they can call on. Adding Zabbix to HackerOne’s platform was a golden opportunity to test our security and vulnerabilities on a scale that we’d previously been unable to even imagine.

In contrast to an individual penetration test, which is the “old-school” industry standard security measure and is performed based on a pre-prepared scenario, we knew that HackerOne’s experts could discover vulnerabilities that a run-of-the-mill penetration test would never find.

At the same time, we knew that adding Zabbix to HackerOne was a bold decision that would test our faith in the security of our product. Put simply, teaming up with HackerOne was our way of confirming the quality of Zabbix and our desire to constantly improve it.

Getting started

We’ve known for a long time that HackerOne was the ideal partner for a bug bounty program, given their reputation for innovation and effectiveness. After an initial approach and agreement between HackerOne and Zabbix, it was time to consider what exactly a Zabbix bug bounty program would look like.

It was clear to everyone involved that if the reporting of vulnerabilities was to be meaningful and structured, we needed to develop new workflows that would provide a procedure for processing the received applications and handing them over for development. Another critical step was to register for the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) database, where all vulnerabilities discovered in Zabbix are currently registered.

The results

We’re pleased to report that as with any successful implementation, the numbers speak for themselves:

Data for the period 01.01.2023 – 25.01.2024

Submissions

• Reports submitted: 250
• Reports triaged: 3
• Reports closed as resolved: 16
• Reports rewarded: 19

Rewards

• Total rewards: $17,300.00
• Average reward: $865.00
• Median reward: $500.00

Submissions by severity

• Critical: 29
• High: 65
• Medium, low, none: 108
• Not severe: 48

We were pleasantly surprised at the sheer number of submissions alone – not all 250 submissions were severe or even actionable, but the number shows that our community is taking to the program, spreading the word, and doing their part to help us make sure that Zabbix is as secure as we can possibly make it. The fact that we were able to “squash” several bugs that will now never get a chance to bedevil our users is just the icing on the cake.

The results are impressive, but in keeping with the Zabbix ethos of continuous improvement, we’re confident that with a few refinements we can pay out even more in 2024. After all, any money that goes toward building a better, more secure product is money well spent! We’d like to close by extending a special and heartfelt thank you to everyone who has contributed to our bug bounty program and discovered vulnerabilities – keep up the great work!

 

The post The Zabbix/HackerOne Bug Bounty Program: A Year of Results appeared first on Zabbix Blog.

Zabbix Conference Latam: living real connections

Post Syndicated from Fernanda Moraes original https://blog.zabbix.com/zabbix-conference-latam-living-real-connections/27474/

It’s official! Registrations for Zabbix Conference Latam 2024 are now open.

Of all the events that our Zabbix team in Latin America organizes and participates in (over 50 in 2023 alone), we’re confident that this is the most impressive.

The 2024 conference is the third one organized directly by Zabbix since the beginning of our operations in Latin America. It has become a key reference point for topics related to data monitoring and Zabbix.

When our team participated in the last edition of Zabbix Summit, a global Zabbix event, I remember a partner asking me what was so special about an event like Zabbix Conference Latam. The answer is easy – the strength and vitality of the Latin American community!

A few days ago, I read an excerpt from a book by Brazilian sociologist Muniz Sodré, where he addressed the concept of “community.” Etymologically, the word “community” originates from the Latin “communitas,” composed of two radicals: “cum” (together with) and “munus” (obligation to the Other).

In essence, the sense of community is related to a collective dimension that allows us to be with and be together. There is a bond, something that makes us stay together. A point of similarity amidst differences, if you will.

Indeed, it’s not a very didactic concept, precisely because it needs to be lived – and felt. It is the strength of a community that produces possibilities and changes. And this is extremely present in open-source communities like the one we have at Zabbix.

The union of totally different people around a common point (Zabbix) is impressive – and captivating.

One of the greatest advantages of participating in a community like the one we’ve built at Zabbix is the fact that there is a direct relationship with collaborative culture. This makes users feel like protagonists and active subjects in the product’s development.

In communities like this, a collaborative strength exists among members, along with an open and genuine spirit of sharing and support. And that’s exactly what we experience at an event like Zabbix Conference Latam.

Every year, Zabbix warmly welcomes users, partners, clients, and enthusiasts. We receive fans who are excited to check out news about the tool, meet friends again, share knowledge, interact with experts, and even chat with Zabbix Founder and CEO Alexei Vladishev.

We hear amazing stories about how people came to know the tool, developed incredible projects, and transformed businesses – and how many other members also started their own businesses with Zabbix.

Zabbix Conference Latam is a space where there are real connections, dialogue, and (very) happy (re)encounters. In other words, it’s an experience that every member of the Zabbix Community should have.

Checking out news straight from the manufacturer

The event provides technical immersion through lectures, real-life case presentations, and technical workshops with the Zabbix team, official partners, clients, and experts in the field over both days of the event (June 7 and 8, 2024).

In other words, you can expect plenty of knowledge directly from the source – Alexei Vladishev, Founder and CEO of Zabbix! For those who use Zabbix or are interested in using it, you won’t want to miss the chance to participate, either through lectures or workshops.

Expanding networking

We plan to welcome over 250 participants, including technical leaders, analysts, infrastructure architects, engineers, and other professionals. It’s a great opportunity to meet colleagues in the field and make professional contacts.

Understanding a bit more about business

The open-source movement democratizes the use of technology, allowing companies of different sizes and segments to have freedom of use for powerful tools like Zabbix. At the Conference, we provide a space for discussion on open-source and business-related topics.

In 2024, we will feature the second edition of the Open Source and Business panel, where we will bring together leaders and companies to share views and perspectives on the relationship between the open-source theme and business development.

Get ready for lots of inspiration!

Talking to our official business partners and visiting sponsor booths at the event while enjoying a nice cup of coffee is a fascinating experience.

These interactions teach us a little more about their experiences and their relationship with Zabbix. From brand connections and integrations, simple implementations, or even extremely complex and creative projects, it’s possible to understand the real power of Zabbix and how it can positively impact different businesses.

A room full of opportunities

The speakers at Zabbix Conference Latam include our team of experts, official business partners, clients, and our community.

Among technical immersions and updated topics on functionalities, roadmaps, and all Zabbix news, community members can submit presentations and, if approved, participate in the event as speakers.

This allows them to share insights, discoveries, projects, and use cases in different industries, inspiring everyone with creative ways to solve real problems with Zabbix.

Living the Zabbix Conference Latam is a beautiful experience that allows us to understand the meaning and real strength of a community. Participating is also actively contributing to the growth and strengthening of the tool.

It truly is one of the best ways to evangelize Zabbix, and we look forward to gathering our community again in June 2024!

About Zabbix Conference Latam 2024

Zabbix Conference Latam 2024 is the largest Zabbix and monitoring event in Latin America. It takes place in São Paulo on June 7 and 8.

Interested parties can purchase tickets at the lowest price of the season, starting at R$999.00.

You can check out package information on the official event website.

The post Zabbix Conference Latam: living real connections appeared first on Zabbix Blog.

5 Common Network Monitoring Mistakes (And How Zabbix Can Help You Avoid Them)

Post Syndicated from Michael Kammer original https://blog.zabbix.com/5-common-network-monitoring-mistakes-and-how-zabbix-can-help-you-avoid-them/27394/

Being the world’s most trusted open-source monitoring solution means that businesses of every size and description turn to us for their network monitoring needs. This gives us an inside look at how easy it is for them to suffer disruptive network failures, which usually happen thanks to relatively simple miscalculations.

Network monitoring mistakes are easy to make but often challenging and time-consuming to fix, so we’ve put together a list of five of the most common mistakes that we see users make. We’ve also shown how Zabbix’s built-in features can help prevent them when combined with our experience and expertise.

Network monitoring mistake 1: Playing defense with security threats

As technology evolves, security threats grow and mutate much faster than before. A cybersecurity team that takes a purely reactive approach to the latest round of digital threats will constantly be playing catch-up, unable to challenge network vulnerabilities and putting their entire network at risk.

Zabbix is designed to help enterprises go beyond the traditional network monitoring strategy of reacting to performance and security problems as they occur. Zabbix can, for example, trace failed logins (which are often possible hacking attempts) as well as unexpected successful logins.

If an anomaly is discovered, Zabbix uses multiple messaging channels to notify the responsible individuals in your organization about the different kinds of events occurring in your environment This allows you to discover potential threats before they happen and react to them before they become a problem.

Network monitoring mistake 2: Getting left behind when technology evolves

Networking technologies continually evolve, so monitoring technologies need to evolve with them, offering even better visibility. By failing to make use of new monitoring technologies as they’re released, companies leave themselves wide open to network problems. Employees get comfortable with tools and solutions and are often reluctant to change or upgrade, but not doing so puts your network at risk.

At Zabbix, we offer our users a quality product and a variety of support options. Every six months we release a new stable version, and each new Zabbix software release is subject to a standard life cycle and expiry date. Our life cycle specifics also help make content for all new version releases more predictable and manageable.

If you’re already using Zabbix (and we hope that you are), taking advantage of our upgrade solution is the perfect way to make sure you don’t fall behind the curve when it comes to monitoring technology. We work side by side with your team and adapt to your environment so that your upgrade gets taken care of with no disruption and in line with our best practices.

Network monitoring mistake 3: Not having the right performance data and insights

Every enterprise or business will have different network performance requirements, which in turn will require examining different performance metrics and having different performance expectations and baselines. The key is being able to separate the signal (useful performance data and insights) from the noise (everything else) so that you can properly judge your network’s behavior and take appropriate action.

Zabbix’s web UI provides multiple ways of presenting a visual overview of your IT environment. Widget-based multi-page dashboards display information in an easy-to-digest format, so even laymen can see what’s happening with the network at a glance.

Flexible graphs can display regular and aggregate data, and all display options allow you to filter and display only the data you need, at any level of granularity you may require. The goal is to make it as easy as possible for you to prioritize useful insights over all others.

Network monitoring mistake 4: Ignoring network logs

Modern networking devices generate logs that contain vital information. Network management teams can use this information to provide higher security, improved efficiency, and less downtime. Not collecting and using these logs is ignoring free information that you could use to run your network better.

Zabbix makes log monitoring easy by allowing you to collect, filter, and analyze log entries. Monitoring firewall logs with Zabbix, for example, allows you to identify things like unusual traffic patterns, blocked connections, and denied access logs. With more advanced or “smart” firewalls, you can read logs and create intrusion alerts in Zabbix.

When it comes to Windows logs, you can track the success or failure of user logins and monitor IP addresses to see whether login attempts are coming from a trusted network or not. VPN connections (source IP, multiple failed connection attempts, etc.) are also a snap to monitor with Zabbix. It’s all part of our “single pane of glass” philosophy that allows SNMP traps, logs, and other sources to all be monitored with a single tool.

Network monitoring mistake 5: Failing to plan for network growth

Simply focusing on how your network is performing now doesn’t cut it – you also need to prepare yourself for what your network might become. Any planned changes to your network need to be considered when planning out your monitoring strategies. That means projecting what the state of your network will be and considering how additions to your network might affect performance.

Zabbix is designed to be scalable to any infrastructure – our customers use it to monitor anything from smart homes to multi-tenant global business environments. And when it’s time to expand your network, you can gain an extra layer of scalability by deploying Zabbix Proxies, which allow you to collect millions of metrics from hundreds of thousands of devices, services, and applications.

Conclusion

Monitoring a modern network is a challenging task, and Murphy’s Law (anything that can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time) is never far from the mind of any network management professional. However, in our experience, network management teams can avoid the most common network monitoring mistakes by following the advice we’ve outlined in this post.

If you want to see for yourself how Zabbix can help you monitor your network as efficiently as possible and avoid common network monitoring mistakes, get in touch with us.

The post 5 Common Network Monitoring Mistakes (And How Zabbix Can Help You Avoid Them) appeared first on Zabbix Blog.

HPC Monitoring: Transitioning from Nagios and Ganglia to Zabbix 6

Post Syndicated from Mark Vilensky original https://blog.zabbix.com/hpc-monitoring-transitioning-from-nagios-and-ganglia-to-zabbix-6/27313/

My name is Mark Vilensky, and I’m currently the Scientific Computing Manager at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. I’ve been working in High-Performance Computing (HPC) for the past 15 years.

Our base is at the Chemistry Faculty at the Weizmann Institute, where our HPC activities follow a traditional path — extensive number crunching, classical calculations, and a repertoire that includes handling differential equations. Over the years, we’ve embraced a spectrum of technologies, even working with actual supercomputers like the SGI Altix.

Our setup

As of now, our system boasts nearly 600 compute nodes, collectively wielding about 25,000 cores. The interconnect is Infiniband, and for management, provisioning, and monitoring, we rely on Ethernet. Our storage infrastructure is IBM GPFS on DDN hardware, and job submissions are facilitated through PBS Professional.

We use VMware for the system management. Surprisingly, the team managing this extensive system comprises only three individuals. The hardware landscape features HPE, Dell, and Lenovo servers.

The path to Zabbix

Recent challenges have surfaced in the monitoring domain, prompting considerations for an upgrade to Red Hat 8 or a comparable distribution. Our existing monitoring framework involved Nagios and Ganglia, but they had some severe limitations — Nagios’ lack of scalability and Ganglia’s Python 2 compatibility issues have become apparent.

Exploring alternatives led us to Zabbix, a platform not commonly encountered in supercomputing conferences but embraced by the community. Fortunately, we found a great YouTube channel by Dmitry Lambert that not only gives some recipes for doing things but also provides an overview required for planning, sizing, and avowing future troubles.

Our Zabbix setup resides in a modest VM, sporting 16 CPUs, 32 GB RAM, and three Ethernet interfaces, all operating within the Rocky 8.7 environment. The database relies on PostgreSQL 14 and Timescale DB2 version 2.8, with slight adjustments to the default configurations for history and trend settings.

Getting the job done

The stability of our Zabbix system has been noteworthy, showcasing its ability to automate tasks, particularly in scenarios where nodes are taken offline, prompting Zabbix to initiate maintenance cycles automatically. Beyond conventional monitoring, we’ve tapped into Zabbix’s capabilities for external scripts, querying the PBS server and GPFS server, and even managing specific hardware anomalies.

The Zabbix dashboard has emerged as a comprehensive tool, offering a differentiated approach through host groups. These groups categorize our hosts, differentiating between CPU compute nodes, GPU compute nodes, and infrastructure nodes, allowing tailored alerts based on node types.

Alerting and visualization

Our alerting strategy involves receiving email alerts only for significant disasters, a conscious effort to avoid alert fatigue. The presentation emphasizes the nuanced differences in monitoring compute nodes versus infrastructure nodes, focusing on availability and potential job performance issues for the former and services, memory, and memory leaks for the latter.

The power of visual representations is underscored, with the utilization of heat maps offering quick insights into the cluster’s performance.

Final thoughts

In conclusion, our journey with Zabbix has not only delivered stability and automation but has also provided invaluable insights for optimizing resource utilization. I’d like to express my special appreciation for Andrei Vasilev, a member of our team whose efforts have been instrumental in making the transition to Zabbix.

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