About

Zabbix-auto-config is an utility that aims to automatically configure hosts, host groups, host inventories, template groups and templates in the monitoring software Zabbix.

Note: Primarily tested with Zabbix 7.0 and 6.4, but should work with 6.0 and 5.2.

Requirements

• Python >=3.8
• pip >=21.3
• Zabbix >=6.4

Quick start

This is a crash course in how to quickly get this application up and running in a local test environment:

Zabbix test instance

Setup a Zabbix test instance with podman and podman-compose.

TAG=7.0-ubuntu-latest ZABBIX_PASSWORD=secret podman-compose up -d

Zabbix prerequisites

The following host groups are created in Zabbix if they do not exist:

• All-auto-disabled-hosts
• All-hosts

The name of these groups can be configured in config.toml:

[zabbix]
hostgroup_all = "All-hosts"
hostgroup_disabled = "All-auto-disabled-hosts"

These groups contain enabled and disabled hosts respectively.

For automatic linking in templates you could create the templates:

• Template-barry
• Template-pizza

Database

The application requires a PostgreSQL database to store the state of the collected hosts. The database can be created with the following command:

PGPASSWORD=secret psql -h localhost -U postgres -p 5432 -U zabbix << EOF
CREATE DATABASE zac;
\c zac
CREATE TABLE hosts (
    data jsonb
);
CREATE TABLE hosts_source (
    data jsonb
);
EOF

Replace login credentials with your own when running against a different database. This is a one-time procedure per environment.

Application

Installation

Installing the project in a virtual environment directly with pip is the recommended way to go:

python -m venv venv
. venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .

When installing from source, installing in editable mode is recommended, as it allows for pulling in changes from git without having to reinstall the project.

Configuration (mock environment)

A ZAC environment with mock source collectors, host modifiers, and mapping files can be set up with the following commands:

cp config.sample.toml config.toml
sed -i 's/^dryrun = true$/dryrun = false/g' config.toml
mkdir -p path/to/source_collector_dir/ path/to/host_modifier_dir/ path/to/map_dir/
cat > path/to/source_collector_dir/mysource.py << EOF
from typing import Any, List
from zabbix_auto_config.models import Host

HOSTS = [
    {
        "hostname": "foo.example.com",
    },
    {
        "hostname": "bar.example.com",
    },
]


def collect(*args: Any, **kwargs: Any) -> List[Host]:
    hosts = []
    for host in HOSTS:
        host["enabled"] = True
        host["siteadmins"] = ["[email protected]"]
        host["properties"] = ["pizza"]
        source = kwargs.get("source")
        if source:
            host["properties"].append(source)
        hosts.append(Host(**host))

    return hosts


if __name__ == "__main__":
    # Print hosts as a JSON array when running standalone
    from zabbix_auto_config.models import print_hosts
    print_hosts(collect())
EOF
cat > path/to/host_modifier_dir/mod.py << EOF
from zabbix_auto_config.models import Host

def modify(host: Host) -> Host:
    if host.hostname == "bar.example.com":
        host.properties.add("barry")
    return host
EOF
cat > path/to/map_dir/property_template_map.txt << EOF
pizza:Template-pizza
barry:Template-barry
EOF
cat > path/to/map_dir/property_hostgroup_map.txt << EOF
other:Hostgroup-other-hosts
EOF
cat > path/to/map_dir/siteadmin_hostgroup_map.txt << EOF
[email protected]:Hostgroup-bob-hosts
EOF

Running

Installing the application adds the zac command to your path. You can run the application with:

zac

Systemd unit

To add automatic startup of the application with systemd, create a unit file in /etc/systemd/system/zabbix-auto-config.service:

[Unit]
Description=Zabbix auto config
After=network.target

[Service]
User=zabbix
Group=zabbix
WorkingDirectory=/home/zabbix/zabbix-auto-config
Environment=PATH=/home/zabbix/zabbix-auto-config/venv/bin
ExecStart=/home/zabbix/zabbix-auto-config/venv/bin/zac
TimeoutSec=300
Restart=always
RestartSec=5s

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Source collectors

ZAC relies on "Source Collectors" to fetch host data from various sources. A source can be anything: an API, a file, a database, etc. What matters is that the source is able to return a list of zabbix_auto_config.models.Host objects. ZAC uses these objects to create or update hosts in Zabbix. If a host with the same hostname is collected from multiple different sources, its information is combined into a single logical host object before being used to create/update the host in Zabbix.

Writing a source collector

Source collectors are Python modules placed in a directory specified by the source_collector_dir option in the [zac] table of the configuration file. Zabbix-auto-config attempts to load all modules referenced by name in the configuration file from this directory. If any referenced modules cannot be found in the directory, they will be ignored.

A source collector module contains a function named collect() that returns a list of Host objects. These host objects are used by Zabbix-auto-config to create or update hosts in Zabbix.

Here's an example of a source collector module that reads hosts from a file:

# path/to/source_collector_dir/load_from_json.py

import json
from typing import Any, Dict, List

from zabbix_auto_config.models import Host

DEFAULT_FILE = "hosts.json"

def collect(*args: Any, **kwargs: Any) -> List[Host]:
    filename = kwargs.get("filename", DEFAULT_FILE)
    with open(filename, "r") as f:
        return [Host(**host) for host in json.load(f)]

A module is recognized as a source collector if it contains a collect() function that accepts an arbitrary number of arguments and keyword arguments and returns a list of Host objects. Type annotations are optional but recommended.

We can also provide a if __name__ == "__main__" block to run the collector standalone. This is useful for testing the collector module without running the entire application.

if __name__ == "__main__":
    # Print hosts as a JSON array when running standalone
    from zabbix_auto_config.models import print_hosts
    print_hosts(collect())

If you wish to collect just the JSON output and write it to a file or otherwise manipulate it, you can import the hosts_to_json function from zabbix_auto_config.models and use it like this:

if __name__ == "__main__":
    from zabbix_auto_config.models import hosts_to_json
    with open("output.json", "w") as f:
        f.write(hosts_to_json(collect()))

Configuration

The configuration entry for loading a source collector module, like the load_from_json.py module above, includes both mandatory and optional fields. Here's how it can be configured:

[source_collectors.load_from_json]
module_name = "load_from_json"
update_interval = 60
error_tolerance = 5
error_duration = 360
exit_on_error = false
disable_duration = 3600
# Extra keyword arguments to pass to the collect function:
filename = "hosts.json"

Only the extra filename option is passed in as a kwarg to the collect() function.

The following configurations options are available:

Mandatory configuration

module_name

module_name is the name of the module to load. This is the name that will be used in the configuration file to reference the module. It must correspond with the name of the module file, without the .py extension.

update_interval

update_interval is the number of seconds between updates. This is the interval at which the collect() function will be called.

Optional configuration (error handling)

If error_tolerance number of errors occur within error_duration seconds, the collector is disabled. Source collectors do not tolerate errors by default and must opt-in to this behavior by setting error_tolerance and error_duration to non-zero values. If exit_on_error is set to true, the application will exit. Otherwise, the collector will be disabled for disable_duration seconds.

error_tolerance

error_tolerance (default: 0) is the maximum number of errors tolerated within error_duration seconds.

error_duration

error_duration (default: 0) specifies the duration in seconds to track and log errors. This value should be at least equal to error_tolerance * update_interval to ensure correct error detection.

For instance, with an error_tolerance of 5 and an update_interval of 60, error_duration should be no less than 300 (5 * 60). However, it is advisable to choose a higher value to compensate for processing intervals between error occurrences and the subsequent error count checks, as well as any potential delays from the source collectors.

A useful guide is to set error_duration as (error_tolerance + 1) * update_interval, providing an additional buffer equivalent to one update interval.

If error_tolerance is set, but error_duration is not, the application will set an error_duration that is slightly longer than the minimum required to ensure correct error detection.

exit_on_error

exit_on_error (default: true) determines if the application should terminate, or disable the failing collector when number of errors exceed the tolerance. If set to true, the application will exit. Otherwise, the collector will be disabled for disable_duration seconds. For backwards compatibility with previous versions of Zabbix-auto-config, this option defaults to true. In a future major version, the default will be changed to false.

disable_duration

disable_duration (default: 3600) is the duration in seconds to disable collector for. If set to 0, the collector is disabled indefinitely, requiring a restart of the application to re-enable it.

Keyword arguments

Any extra config options specified in the configuration file will be passed to the collect() function as keyword arguments. In the example above, the filename option is passed to the collect() function, and then accessed via kwargs["filename"].

Host modifiers

Host modifiers are Python modules (files) that are placed in a directory defined by the option host_modifier_dir in the [zac] table of the config file. A host modifier is a module that contains a function named modify that takes a Host object as its only argument, modifies it, and returns it. Zabbix-auto-config will attempt to load all modules in the given directory.

Writing a host modifier

A host modifier module that adds a given siteadmin to all hosts could look like this:

# path/to/host_modifier_dir/add_siteadmin.py

from zabbix_auto_config.models import Host

SITEADMIN = "[email protected]"

def modify(host: Host) -> Host:
    if host.hostname.endswith(".example.com"):
        host.siteadmins.add(SITEADMIN)
    return host

Any module that contains a function named modify which takes a Host and returns a Host is recognized as a host modifier module. Type annotations are optional, but recommended.

See the Host class in zabbix_auto_config/models.py for the available fields that can be accessed and modified. One restriction applies: the modify function should never modify the hostname of the host. Attempting to do so will result in an error.

Host inventory

Zac manages only inventory properties configured as managed_inventory in config.toml. An inventory property will not be removed/blanked from Zabbix even if the inventory property is removed from managed_inventory list or from the host in the source e.g:

1. Add "location=x" to a host in a source and wait for sync
2. Remove the "location" property from the host in the source
3. "location=x" will remain in Zabbix

Garbage Collection

ZAC provides an optional Zabbix garbage collection module that cleans up stale data from Zabbix that is not otherwise managed by ZAC, such as maintenances.

The garbage collector currently does the following:

• Removes disabled hosts from maintenances.
• Deletes maintenances that only contain disabled hosts.

Under normal usage, hosts are removed from maintenances when being disabled by ZAC, but if hosts are disabled outside of ZAC, they will not be removed from maintenances. The GC module will remove these hosts, and optionally delete the maintenance altogether if it only contains disabled hosts.

To enable garbage collection, add the following to your config:

[zac.process.garbage_collector]
enabled = true
delete_empty_maintenance = true

By default, the garbage collector runs every 24 hours. This can be adjusted with the update_interval option:

[zac.process.garbage_collector]
update_interval = 3600 # Run every hour

---

Development

We use the project management tool Hatch for developing the project. The tool manages virtual environment creation, dependency installation, as well as building and publishing of the project, and more.

Install Hatch with pipx:

pipx install hatch

Install the application with Hatch and enter the virtual environment:

hatch shell

The path to the current Hatch environment can always be found with:

hatch env find

Testing

Inside a Hatch environment, tests can be run in two ways.

With Hatch:

hatch run test

Or by directly invoking pytest:

pytest

The only difference is that Hatch will automatically check dependencies and install/upgrade them if necessary before running the tests.

Testing without Hatch

If you just want to run tests without Hatch, you can do so by installing the development dependencies independently:

# Set up venv or similar ...
pip install .[test]

Pre-commit

We use pre-commit to manage pre-commit hooks. Install the hooks with:

pre-commit install

This will install the hooks in the .git/hooks directory. The hooks will run automatically when you commit changes. If you want to run the hooks manually, you can do so with:

pre-commit run --all-files