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Course Outline

Introduction to Open Source Network Monitoring

  • The evolution of network monitoring: from SNMP to modern telemetry
  • Concerns regarding vendor lock-in in commercial monitoring solutions
  • Overview of the open-source monitoring landscape
  • LibreNMS vs Zabbix: selecting the appropriate platform
  • Hybrid and complementary monitoring strategies

LibreNMS Architecture and Installation

  • Overview of LibreNMS architecture and components
  • Installation options: manual deployment vs Docker
  • Database configuration (MySQL/MariaDB)
  • Web server setup (Apache/Nginx with PHP-FPM)
  • RRDtool configuration and tuning
  • Initial configuration and validation

Zabbix Architecture and Installation

  • Zabbix architecture: server, proxy, agent, and frontend
  • Installation methods: packages, Docker, or source compilation
  • Database setup and optimization (MySQL/PostgreSQL/TimescaleDB)
  • Configuration of the server and frontend
  • First-time setup wizard
  • Scalability considerations from the outset

Device Discovery and Inventory

  • Automatic network discovery within LibreNMS
  • Zabbix network discovery and auto-registration features
  • SNMP versions and security (v1, v2c, v3)
  • Device classification and grouping strategies
  • Managing locations and contact details
  • Importing/exporting data and bulk configuration

Deep Dive into SNMP Monitoring

  • Fundamentals of the SNMP protocol and MIBs
  • Configuring SNMP on network devices (routers, switches, firewalls)
  • Monitoring custom OIDs and polling
  • SNMPv3 security: authentication and encryption
  • Troubleshooting common SNMP connectivity issues
  • Vendor-specific SNMP considerations

Agent-Based Monitoring

  • Installation and configuration of the Zabbix agent
  • Zabbix agent 2: the Go-based next-generation agent
  • LibreNMS agent and check_mk integration
  • Utilizing custom scripts and user parameters
  • Differences between passive and active agent modes
  • Scalable agent deployment (Ansible, Puppet, Chef)

Windows and Linux Server Monitoring

  • Monitoring Windows performance counters and services
  • Tracking Linux system metrics: CPU, memory, disk, network
  • Process and service monitoring techniques
  • Log file monitoring and parsing
  • JVM and application monitoring
  • Container monitoring (Docker, Kubernetes)

Network Equipment Monitoring

  • Switch monitoring: port status, VLANs, STP, MAC tables
  • Router monitoring: BGP, OSPF, routing tables
  • Firewall monitoring: sessions, throughput, rule hits
  • Wireless access point monitoring
  • Environmental monitoring: temperature, power, UPS
  • Tracking interface utilization and errors

Virtualization and Cloud Monitoring

  • Integration with VMware vSphere monitoring
  • Proxmox VE monitoring
  • Hyper-V monitoring
  • AWS/Azure/GCP cloud monitoring APIs
  • OpenStack monitoring
  • Container orchestration monitoring

Item Types and Data Collection

  • Zabbix item types: Zabbix agent, SNMP, IPMI, JMX, SSH, Telnet
  • Calculated and aggregate items
  • Dependent items and preprocessing
  • LibreNMS poller modules and OS discovery
  • Custom data collection methods
  • Data types and units

Alerting and Triggers

  • Zabbix trigger expressions and functions
  • Trigger dependencies and event correlation
  • LibreNMS alert rules and transport mechanisms
  • Notification channels: email, SMS, Slack, PagerDuty, webhooks
  • Escalation and acknowledgment workflows
  • Maintenance windows and scheduled downtime

Dashboards and Visualization

  • Zabbix dashboards and screens
  • Graph widgets and network maps
  • Customizing LibreNMS dashboards
  • Creating custom graphs and templates
  • Network topology maps and discovery
  • Grafana integration for advanced visualization

Reporting and Analytics

  • SLA and availability reporting
  • Capacity planning reports
  • Generating custom reports
  • Scheduled report delivery
  • Trend analysis and forecasting
  • Automating reports via API

Distributed and High-Availability Monitoring

  • Deploying Zabbix proxies for remote sites
  • Zabbix server clustering and high availability (HA)
  • Setting up distributed pollers in LibreNMS
  • Load balancing across multiple pollers
  • Geographic distribution strategies
  • Database replication and clustering

Performance Optimization

  • Database optimization and tuning
  • Poller performance and concurrent checks
  • Optimizing history and trend storage
  • Housekeeping and data retention policies
  • Caching strategies
  • Hardware sizing and scaling guidelines

Security and Access Control

  • User authentication: LDAP, SAML, MFA integration
  • Configuring role-based access control
  • Permissions for host groups and templates
  • API security and token management
  • Audit logging and compliance
  • Securing communications (TLS/SSL)

Automation and Integration

  • Using the Zabbix API and scripting
  • LibreNMS API and automation capabilities
  • Webhook integrations for ticketing systems
  • Ansible modules for configuration management
  • CI/CD pipeline integration
  • ChatOps and notification automation

Migration from Commercial Tools

  • Assessing the need to replace commercial monitoring
  • Data migration strategies and tools
  • Managing coexistence during the transition
  • Staff training and documentation
  • Lessons learned from production migrations

Production Deployment Best Practices

  • Backup and disaster recovery procedures
  • Upgrade strategies for production environments
  • Creating documentation and runbooks
  • Testing and validation procedures
  • Engaging with community support and contributing

Requirements

  • Understanding of network protocols (SNMP, ICMP, TCP/UDP)
  • Experience with Linux system administration
  • K knowledge of fundamental networking concepts (subnets, routing, switching)
  • Familiarity with database concepts (MySQL/PostgreSQL)
  • Basic experience in web server administration

Audience

  • Network Administrators and Engineers
  • System Administrators tasked with infrastructure monitoring
  • IT Operations Managers
  • NOC Engineers and Monitoring Specialists
 28 Hours

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