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Florian Masiero - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Operations Manager at Viamedis
Real User
Provides a global map of all machines, and shows all the problems related to our VMs
Pros and Cons
  • "There is a problems page that shows us every warning or problem that occurs on our VMs globally. The map screen is also really useful because this is something that was missing. I don't know every other tool in the market. So, I don't know if this is a good point of only Zabbix, or other tools are also doing it, but from my point of view, this is the most useful page that I use, along with the problems page that efficiently lists the problem, recovery time, ending hours, starting hours, and so on."
  • "In terms of user-friendliness, large maps could be more interactive. We should be able to click on some areas and move some objects. It would make it simpler to see things while analyzing some dedicated parameters."

What is our primary use case?

I'm using it to have a global map overview of all my machines. We also use it in simple scenarios to check that our applications are up. We haven't really created that many dashboards at this time, but our next mission is to create good dashboards to efficiently track the VM performance.

What is most valuable?

There is a problems page that shows us every warning or problem that occurs on our VMs globally. The map screen is also really useful because this is something that was missing. I don't know every other tool in the market. So, I don't know if this is a good point of only Zabbix, or other tools are also doing it, but from my point of view, this is the most useful page that I use, along with the problems page that efficiently lists the problem, recovery time, ending hours, starting hours, and so on.

What needs improvement?

In terms of user-friendliness, large maps could be more interactive. We should be able to click on some areas and move some objects. It would make it simpler to see things while analyzing some dedicated parameters.

For how long have I used the solution?

It has been six months.

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Zabbix
December 2024
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable. We have 15 to 20 users of this solution. It is used by the IT department. So, the operations teams, which is my team, and the system admin team, which is in charge of the infrastructure and the network, are its users.

How are customer service and support?

I have never contacted them.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We used Centreon previously.

How was the initial setup?

I was not a part of the deployment project, but I didn't hear that the deployment was complicated. The tool is very detailed, and maybe the configuration needed afterward to do the setup everywhere might be heavy.

What other advice do I have?

From a user's perspective, I would rate it a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Information Security Officer at Kenmare Resources Mauritius
Real User
Effective monitoring, scalable, and useful online resources
Pros and Cons
  • "We are able to monitor our virtual infrastructure, virtual machines, windows servers, databases, and the network using a simple network management protocol. We are able to pull almost all the metrics that we want, receive notifications, and have them integrate with telegrams for certain devices that are critical, such as UPSs."
  • "Zabbix does not draw automatic mapping of the network, this is something they should add in the future. There is a lot of effort that is involved in tailoring some of the settings which could be made easier."

What is our primary use case?

We are using Zabbix in my workplace to monitor the infrastructure.

What is most valuable?

We are able to monitor our virtual infrastructure, virtual machines, windows servers, databases, and the network using a simple network management protocol. We are able to pull almost all the metrics that we want, receive notifications, and have them integrate with telegrams for certain devices that are critical, such as UPSs.

What needs improvement?

Zabbix does not draw automatic mapping of the network, this is something they should add in the future. There is a lot of effort that is involved in tailoring some of the settings which could be made easier. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Zabbix for approximately four years.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Zabbix is scalable because depending on the size of your infrastructure you can have distributed proxies servers across your network that will feed to the main server for the metric. It is similar to branches, where you can have one product for each branch and then the central server speaking in your central location, it works perfectly.

Our entire IT department is using Zabbix, which is 15 people, but we have approximately 600 devices being monitored.

How are customer service and support?

I have never had an issue that I needed to contact support. However, everything I have needed was able to be found online from the community or the Zabbix site manuals. Zabbix does offer support based on a subscription.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I was using Centurion previously but I decided to switch to Zaddix because of costs. I was using the community edition of Centurion and it was very limited but with Zabbix, you can have an enterprise-class monitoring solution for free. I did research quickly and then I phoned Zaddix to see if they could solve all my problems without having to pay anything. This is when they confirmed I could and then I switched.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was easy. It took approximately three hours to get the server up and running.

What was our ROI?

By using Zabbix you minimize the cost of operation because you recieve an enterprise-class monitoring solution for free.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution is free to use but they offer support as a paid service. If you can go read the manuals and do the fine-tuning based on your needs, you do not need to pay anything and you will have a full solution.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have evaluated PRTG and SolarWinds.

What other advice do I have?

You do not need to spend a lot of money on solutions that have similar functionality, such as PRTG or Solar Winds. With Zabbix, you receive a free enterprise-class monitoring solution for free, as long as you know how to use it.

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Zabbix a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Zabbix
December 2024
Learn what your peers think about Zabbix. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.
IT Manager at CLOUDJET GROUP
Real User
Top 10
The solution comes with thorough documentation and is great for discovery
Pros and Cons
  • "Zabbix is good for discovery."
  • "I had problems using Zabbix when working with SUSE Enterprise; many companies use SUSE."

What is our primary use case?

I used Zabbix for transaction monitoring.

What is most valuable?

Zabbix is good for discovery.

What needs improvement?

I had problems using Zabbix when working with SUSE Enterprise; many companies use SUSE.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used Zabbix for eight years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability depends on the infrastructure and different contexts, including security.

I have seen strict security contexts, and scaling the solution required creating multiple Zabbix servers. The solution is not easy to scale with multiple networks and sites.

Eight to nine people are using Zabbix in our organization.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I previously used Nagios before Zabbix and switched because Nagios required more clicks for monitoring. There is a lot of work when working with Nagios because it needs much maintenance. It was a large deployment, and I didn't have templates or standards for the kinds of hosts required.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is very easy. It takes one day to install and deploy the solution when done very well with the right parameters. Two people are required for deployment. And since maintenance is easy, it requires one person. However, the number of people needed to maintain the solution depends on how large the setup is.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Support for Zabbix is a little expensive. Support is probably for large companies. If you have 20,000 hosts, the support costs around €95,000 for a year.

What other advice do I have?

I never used technical support and relied on documentation and the community instead. The documentation was good. Zabbix is a good choice if you have a good team on Linux and a good team in general because the support is expensive for Zabbix.

If you're planning to choose Zabbix, start with a small deployment for the first five years. I rate Zabbix a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
FauzanRahmanto - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Top 10
Able to do auto-discovery of interfaces in devices
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable function for me is the auto-discovery of interfaces in devices. When you integrate devices into the tool, it automatically finds the interfaces, which is very helpful for my job. Integration and configuration run smoothly in my experience with Juniper and Aruba devices."
  • "I'm using the free version of Zabbix, and I'd like to see more customization options, especially for setting trigger thresholds."

What is our primary use case?

We use Zabbix mainly to monitor the status of interfaces in our Juniper suite. When an interface goes down or when traffic on an interface drops, Zabbix triggers an alert to our Telegram. We're not using it for performance monitoring, just for interface monitoring.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable function for me is the auto-discovery of interfaces in devices. When you integrate devices into the tool, it automatically finds the interfaces, which is very helpful for my job. Integration and configuration run smoothly in my experience with Juniper and Aruba devices.

What needs improvement?

I'm using the free version of Zabbix, and I'd like to see more customization options, especially for setting trigger thresholds.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the product for seven months. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the tool's stability a nine out of ten. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate the solution's scalability an eight out of ten. We have around 600 devices. 

How are customer service and support?

I haven't contacted the tool's support. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

When comparing Zabbix and PRTG, I prefer Zabbix for scalability, but PRTG is better for customization.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is quite simple, though it might be a bit confusing if you're unfamiliar with the Zabbix interface. We're using the desktop version, installed on a virtual machine and integrated into our network.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I use the tool's free version. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate the overall solution an eight out of ten. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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PeerSpot user
Senior Consultant at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Open-source and easy to deploy with great API capabilities
Pros and Cons
  • "There is less computing power needed for scaling."
  • "The event correlation could be better."

What is our primary use case?

We deploy it for our customers.

The main use case is monitoring of the workplace services. That means lot of VDI systems, little machines, and all that stuff around office routers, switches, and even printers for example.

What is most valuable?

The Zabbix agent is one of the highlights. It's easy to deploy and self-registering into the system. This is very helpful. Using the template and the discovery, it's very easy to find examples from the community and make some changes if you need to, and deploy it and roll out. While the discovery is very easy, all the important things when getting connected is pretty straightforward.

The initial setup is very easy.

There is less computing power needed for scaling.

The solution is stable. 

It is open-source.

One of the real benefits is the API. You can do anything with an API; it makes life much easier. If you want to get reports or if you want to document something or you want to add something, you can use the API for that. That's really, really helpful.

What needs improvement?

The service module started with version six. There is room for improvement, due to the fact that this first step looks nice, yet it can be improved here for a better combination with the services and the dashboard. 

The event correlation could be better. From day one, we're using the API to create tickets for our operations, however, the correlation is not good, not there. A lot of the time, in that case, we are opening a few tickets for one problem, and then the correlation functionality is very, very limited.

The reporting is lacking. It is there, however, it's not a real reporting from my perspective. Reporting in Zabbix means you create a dashboard and then you can schedule that and you get it as a PDF. It's probably not the reporting most operations need especially if you need more data for importing Excel or whatever. Reporting is even, in a lot of ways, missing. In the other end, we are using the API to do that now. That said, the issue there is you need the developer to do that if you decide to go that route.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have one year of experience with this solution.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is good. I would rate it five out of five since we have no issues. It's been running well since the first day. We did two release updates in the meantime, however, there was no reason to restart something. The performance is very good. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have around 50 people using the solution. It is mostly the operation teams from different departments.

I was wondering if an open-source solution would scale well, since we have experience more with a lot of other enterprise tools, including Broadcom and HP. There are others which need much more resources to monitor the same devices, I would say. However, if you go to an enterprise solution like Broadcom or HP or ScienceLogic or BMC, you need much more infrastructure for monitoring than you do if you use Zabbix. In this sense, I can say it scales well. 

I'd rate the scalability five out of five. 

How are customer service and support?

We haven't used the support from Zabbix so far. At the moment, all we are doing is using the manuals to troubleshoot. The documentation is good. Otherwise, we are using the community forum if we have any questions especially for creating templates or something like that. The community forum is great.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is very straightforward and simple. It's easy, not overly difficult. 

We started with just one single device, one single server, since we did not have too many devices. We have, I'd say, around about 2000. However, we found it enough to monitor them all with one device. We have one device for a UI, for the application and for database as well and it's just one single server. We started with that and figured out, from the performance, it was more than enough.

The deployment, just for the application, took less than a day. It was quick. There was not too much to do. 

What about the implementation team?

Our team managed the deployment. We did not need outside assistance. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution is an open-source product. We are using that version and have yet to purchase a license, which we may do further down the line - maybe a year for now.

What other advice do I have?

I'd rate the solution a nine out of ten.

The good thing is that it is easy to test. This is one of my favorite benefits and why I like open-source software. You can test it very well without signing contracts with enterprise vendors, for example. New users should put it on their laptop and try it out. It doesn't need much resources and you can discover your home network or your lab if you have something. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
VMware & Cloud Solutions Architect at Géant
Real User
Top 20
Effectively helps manage application performance and has a good alerting and notification system
Pros and Cons
  • "The template system in Zabbix is very beneficial as it saves time in configuration."
  • "To improve Zabbix, adding more features to support the monitoring of modern workloads like containers would be beneficial."

What is our primary use case?

I use Zabbix to monitor my server and network infrastructure. It was set up to monitor cloud interfaces and ensure high-speed performance. The dashboards allow the support team to see interface status and are configured with porting.

What is most valuable?

The template system in Zabbix is very beneficial as it saves time in configuration. Initially, setting it up might seem challenging, but using pre-made templates makes integration with switches easier. By leveraging templates, configuration becomes more straightforward and efficient.

What needs improvement?

To improve Zabbix, adding more features to support the monitoring of modern workloads like containers would be beneficial. Many environments are shifting away from traditional setups to remote and customized infrastructures. Enhancing Zabbix to accommodate these changes would make it more appealing and user-friendly. This would help organizations like mine in selecting the most suitable monitoring solution.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Zabbix for about four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Zabbix is a highly stable solution. Despite occasional minor issues, it consistently delivers on its core features.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Zabbix offers good scalability and flexibility, although there have been some issues with database scalability over time. Configurability is straightforward but sometimes requires separating the database from the Zabbix virtual machine for easier management. Improvements in database scalability would enhance the overall scalability of Zabbix.

How are customer service and support?

I would rate the technical support as an eight out of ten. It is quite good.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Zabbix is good for monitoring networks, while Prometheus is better for modern workloads like containers. Choosing depends on what you need to monitor. For diverse infrastructures, it is tough to pick one. Cost and engineer feedback help decide.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of Zabbix was complex because of the need to customize it for our environment. It was challenging to integrate with our devices until we found templates to help with configuration. It took around two to three months to deploy the solution completely due to configuring many dashboards and integrating switches. Initially, it required two engineers to deploy and maintain, alongside support staff for ongoing operations.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Zabbix's licensing and pricing are good for our needs.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?


What other advice do I have?

Zabbix helps manage application performance by providing easy-to-manage job reports and configuring alerts for network issues. It reduces turnaround time for issue resolution by 70%-80%. Managers and support teams receive updates on interface status, leading to quicker escalation and resolution. Zabbix also generates reports and dashboards showing link availability and downtime records, facilitating customer reporting and making processes more efficient.

The alerting and notification system in Zabbix is highly effective. It ensures that we are notified only when necessary, reducing unnecessary monitoring. Email alerts enable us to quickly respond to issues, even when away from the dashboard. This subscription system has significantly improved our response time to link failures.

Before using Zabbix, ensure that your database setup is appropriate for your environment, especially for larger setups. Consider hosting your database separately for security and performance reasons. Utilize templates provided by Zabbix to simplify the setup process, as they can streamline infrastructure configuration.

Overall, I would rate Zabbix as a nine out of ten. It is a great tool.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Faustine Chisasa - PeerSpot reviewer
System Administrator at TZ Telecom Ltd.
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Powerful, scalable, flexible for different use cases, highly customizable, supports multitenancy, and has a powerful API for integration with other related products
Pros and Cons
  • "It has an intuitive UI with beautiful graphs and customizable maps."
  • "The documentation gets a bit messy between versions and is not too detailed, which is a bit painful for first-timers, especially when they run into issues."

What is our primary use case?

As a network services provider we use Zabbix to monitor network infrastructure and customer services. I have also set instances for a number of government institutions to monitor their entire ICT Infrastructure. I will focus on the largest instances, the service provider use cases.

I used Zabbix to monitor network devices, servers, databases, virtual machines, services and applications. For the network services provider, I run an instance for our internal infrastructure and another instance for monitoring our customer services so they can have access to monitor the state and status of their services, SLA, view utilization graphs on demand or in real time and produce needed reports and also receive alerts when problems happen

We could easily monitor anything on our infrastructure and customer services using Zabbix as a consolidated solution for all the network infrastructure and customer services monitoring needs , as Zabbix is highly flexible and customizable to fit the specific needs of organizations.

How has it helped my organization?

Zabbix has greatly improved  operations and maintenance by helping management and technical teams be more proactive. They can easily spot problems or undesired states on the infrastructure or customer services

With the Zabbix out-of-box multitenancy support,  customers can have restricted access to their service utilizations and other operational data in real time or on demand. The feedback from customers shows they are very happy and they appreciate how easy it is to learn using it.

Time to work on issues is greatly reduced, as Zabbix provides powerful alerts and details into what is happening in our network. Issues that could take weeks to resolve can now easily be spotted in a few minutes as all essential metrics for all devices are monitored in real time.

Zabbix fits well with the multi-vendor environment and it has a lot of out-of-box templates that can be customized to fit our needs.

We can easily provide infrastructure status reports with Zabbix. We can produce reports even for old devices that were not properly and consistently monitored since they were installed.

What is most valuable?

Zabbix is highly customizable and flexible, which makes it easy to have all our monitoring needs accommodated. Many elements like auto-discovery, dashboards, templates, graphs, maps, metrics, SLA's can easily be customized to fit specific needs

Zabbix has a powerful API that support integration with third party software, automation and creating new applications. It can be easily integrated with other  tools as a data ingest, processing or visualization platform. The API allows for utilizing better software in specific areas that Zabbix may be lacking like Grafana which allows for more customizable dashboards.

Auto Discovery and Custom Actions are greatly helpful in doing mass discovery, the grouping of hosts, and templates association. The flexibility in setting discovery rules and actions is really helpful for complicated use cases.

Multi-tenancy support which a result of granular use roles, automatic actions, tags, and host grouping. User permissions can be limited to specific sections, services, applications, device groups, access level etc. This has proven to be very helpful for our customer's services monitoring instance.

Out-of-box templates that are customizable, can be changed or modified to suit specific use cases. Additional items can be added to these templates and more filtering or pre-processing rules can be specified in these templates

It has an intuitive UI with beautiful graphs and customizable maps. Although more powerful solutions can be used, Zabbix caters for all our needs in that area as it provides the flexibility we need.

Zabbix provides regular updates and a clear and timed roadmap. Very helpful as our c company can see whether  expectations will be taken care in coming releases of the software.

What needs improvement?

Although Zabbix is great, the documentation is a bit lacking. The documentation gets a bit messy between versions and is not too detailed, the learning curve is steep and can be difficult for first-timers, especially when they run into issues.

Zabbix depends on other open-source projects, so it would be a good idea to add more information on fine-tuning a Zabbix instance especially the essential details when working with specific choices of OS, database, webserver etc. I had to do most of the things with limited resources in the fine-tuning of the database, OS, and other packages. Although not entirely a Zabbix issue it is a good idea to provide guidance on the basics.

Automatic maps. It would be great if Zabbix could create automatic topology maps using discovery protocols like LLDP or CDP.

Automatic Updates of host templates. It would save a lot of time if that could be done with new releases while keeping personal configurations intact.

Out of box high availability setting for all sections of Zabbix

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Zabbix for four years

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This is a very stable solution. It is a low maintenance solution and if finetuned and optimized properly can handle a heavy workload with minimum resources.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This product is highly scalable.  HA and redundancy can be set for database, proxy and front-end.

How are customer service and support?

Zabbix experts provide great ideas on the open-source forums for the products. The Zabbix community, including the CEO and the technical experts, are friendly. Since they are doing great with the community, I am confident they are doing great with their optional Technical Support which we have not subscribed to.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I had used other solutions before but the licensing was too expensive for our company and still, other solutions were limited because we have a multi-vendor environment.

How was the initial setup?

The setup is a bit complex but can be done with the right  skills. More important than the initial setup is optimization and finetuning which requires multiple skills.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented it in-house. I primarily worked on the database, Zabbix server, Zabbix proxy, frontend and other server side stuff. I also prepared agent and SNMP configuration scripts for other Engineers to implement on network devices and servers.

What was our ROI?

I can confidently say that our ROI is 100%.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Zabbix is open-source so if one wishes to implement it in-house, they must have qualified professionals to set up and optimize databases, Linux/Unix OS, PHP, Apache, and depending on what is monitored, a full-stack network and systems administrator may be needed.

Zabbix provides support although we have not subscribed to the support. We implemented the instances on our own and we also operate and maintain them on our own.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We had to evaluate several options including SolarWinds NPM, PRTG, OpenNMS, Cacti, Nagios, and Zenoss Core. We used Huawei U2000, Cisco Prime and PRTG for some devices before we switched to Zabbix.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, Zabbix is a great product. I have been using it for almost two years, and I am very happy with it.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Software Maintenance Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Helpful documentation, single interface, but lacking performance
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of Zabbix are flexibility and a single interface for different types of monitoring."
  • "Zabbix could improve when it comes to large-scale use cases. Additionally, the inventory could be better when connecting to other solutions, such as ServiceNow. There show to be better integration with other platforms and storage."

What is our primary use case?

I use Zabbix for monitoring. For example, monitoring networks and applications.

How has it helped my organization?

The solution has been proactive in altering while monitoring which has been helpful.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of Zabbix are flexibility and a single interface for different types of monitoring.

What needs improvement?

Zabbix could improve when it comes to large-scale use cases. Additionally, the inventory could be better when connecting to other solutions, such as ServiceNow. There show to be better integration with other platforms and storage.

In the solution's next release, customizing scripts could be easier and API interactions could be better. If they would allow larger data metrics on one chart would be helpful.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Zabbix for approximately four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of Zabbix has been good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have approximately 300 network devices being monitored, including data center monitoring. Additionally, we monitor servers by different performance metrics and services.

Old versions of the solution do not scale well. We only had one master server and we had to switch off and turn on other features to allow scalability. It was not easy.

How are customer service and support?

I have not used any support for the solution.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of Zabbix is of a medium level of difficulty. The documentation is beneficial.

For a middle-sized integration of the solution of approximately 100 hosts, it can take one to two months to do all the necessary layers.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

This solution is open-source and free to use.

What other advice do I have?

The solution has quick integration, templating, mapping, and monitoring.

I rate Zabbix a seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Zabbix Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: December 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Zabbix Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.