ZenPacks.community.DistributedCollectors

About

This ZenPack provides a UI for configuring multiple collectors with Zenoss Core. It implements remote collector configuration using the method described in How to install distributed collectors manual.

Requirements

Zenoss

You must first have, or install, Zenoss 2.5.2 or later. This ZenPack was tested against Zenoss 2.5.2, Zenoss 3.2, 4.2.0 and Zenoss 4.2.5. You can download the free Core version of Zenoss from http://community.zenoss.org/community/download.

Installation

Install ZenPack on the master server

Download the Distributed Collectors ZenPack. Copy this file to your Zenoss server and run the following commands as the zenoss user.

zenpack --install ZenPacks.community.DistributedCollectors-2.0.2.egg
zenoss restart

Note that Developer Installation (with --link option) of ZenPacks not supported - all ZenPacks including this one must be in the normal directories to be synchronised to the collectors.

Install remote collector

Install Zenoss on remote collector without any ZenPacks - you may have to delete any entries from the /opt/zenoss/var/zenpack_actions.txt file first.

Configure "ssh public key authentication"

On the remote collector server check if /home/zenoss/.ssh directory exists, if not, than run ssh-keygen as zenoss user.

on Zenoss master server run as zenoss user:

ssh-keygen -t rsa
cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh zenoss@remote_collector_name "cat - >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys"

Test you can ssh zenoss@remote_collector_name without prompts coming up for "add to known hosts". If it fails then check the files are all chmod 600 in the .ssh directory on both systems.

Usage

Add Remote Collector

In "Collectors" -> select menu item "Add Remote Monitor..." and enter name or ip address of remote collector. This must be the same name, fully qualified domain name or ip as you have tested with ssh or the local UserKnownHostsFile will not work.

Update Remote Collectors

Update your remote collector after installing, updating or removing any ZenPacks.

1. in "Collectors" select all remote collectors you want update.
2. in "Collectors" -> select menu item "Update Remote Monitors..."

Delete Remote Collectors

1. in "Collectors" select all remote collectors you want update.
2. in "Collectors" -> select menu item "Delete Remote Monitors..."

Zenoss Graph Rendering

The RRD files and rendering of graph images occurs on the remote collector - to use the zenbub connection and Zenoss Web Proxy rather than requiring users to connect to both systems then:

Navigate to Advanced > Collectors > [collectorname] > Edit > RenderURL to proxy through the main hub

from

http://collectorname.domain.com:8091

to

http://hubname.domain.com:8090/collectorname.domain.com

MAKE SURE NOT TO CHANGE RENDER USER OR PASSWORD (autofill will try to when using Firefox or Chrome)

Dynamic thresholds on memory from Zenpacks that expect access to RRD files such as

(here.getRRDValue('memTotalSwap') or 3145724) * .80

will fail since the hub cannot access the RRD file. Use this instead

((here.os.totalSwap/1024) or 3145724) * .80

Firewalls

On the remote collector add port 8091:tcp

lokkit -v --port=8091:tcp #Zenoss graph RRD render

On the main zenoss hub then add the following ports:

lokkit -v --port=8090:tcp #Zenoss Web Proxy connection (remote connector proxy to RRD render graphs)
lokkit -v --port=8100:tcp #ZeoDB
lokkit -v --port=3306:tcp #mysql
lokkit -v --port=8789:tcp #zenhub