Tag Archives: community

Making Patient Care Easier with Zabbix and Open-Future

Post Syndicated from Brian van Baekel original https://blog.zabbix.com/making-patient-care-easier-with-zabbix-and-open-future/28406/

The Antwerp University Hospital (UZA) is a university center known for top clinical and customer-friendly patient care, high-quality academic training, and groundbreaking scientific research with an important international dimension. The UZA has 593 hospital beds in 26 nursing units, as well as 41 highly specialized medical services where more than 800,000 patients are consulted every year and over 4,000 employees, including 642 doctors. Keep reading to see how Zabbix premium partner Open-Future rises to the challenge of monitoring this massive IT infrastructure.

The challenge

Due to the large amount of users connecting on a daily basis, the UZA’s Zabbix server was set up as a virtual machine with a front-end separate from the Zabbix server and database. Splitting the front-end from the Zabbix server allows them to use dedicated resources for the front-end and the Zabbix server.

Most of the monitoring is done by Zabbix agents on Linux and Windows. In order for the applications to see if everything is working as it should be, the Open-Future team leverages UserParameters and database monitoring with Zabbix Agent 2. For some more specific monitoring cases, we also make use of custom SQL scripts.

Because one server can have multiple teams responsible for just the application or the OS, getting the correct information to the right team proved to be a challenge. A simple solution was the creation of different trigger actions for every team that included only the triggers that were needed. Unfortunately this proved to be very difficult to manage over time and error-prone when changes were needed.

The solution

By making extensive use of tags in Zabbix, our team could add labels to the items and link them back to the correct user groups. This made it easier to send the right information to the correct teams and allowed them to both drastically reduce the number of actions that had to be created and simplify the actions that were created.

The results

Zabbix has proven itself as a powerful and versatile monitoring and management platform that allows our team to gain real-time insight into the performance of the UZA’s IT infrastructure and applications. Zabbix’s ability to collect and visualize various types of data (including network traffic, server load, application performance, and more) makes it easy to identify and resolve issues before they impact operations or patient care.

At present, Open-Future monitors about 1,400 hosts, a mix of Windows, Linux and BareMetal monitored by proxies. This allows us to monitor more then 10.000 metrics with more then 55,000 triggers to notify us in case of any potential issues. We make use of custom templates, plugins, and scripts to gather all needed information.

The impact of Zabbix on our operational efficiency cannot be overstated. Automated alerts and reporting functionality let us respond quickly to incidents and issues, which reduces downtime and maximizes the availability of critical systems. This has direct benefits for the UZA’s patients, as we can make sure that vital systems like electronic medical records are always available and that the quality of care is maintained at the highest level.

The post Making Patient Care Easier with Zabbix and Open-Future appeared first on Zabbix Blog.

What’s Up, Home? – Monitor your new Selenium

Post Syndicated from Janne Pikkarainen original https://blog.zabbix.com/whats-up-home-monitor-your-new-selenium/28394/

As Zabbix got the new fantastic Selenium-based synthetic web tests, you will now have a new component to monitor. How do you monitor Selenium? With Zabbix, of course! If you are impatient, feel free to download my very bare-bones example template.

How to monitor Selenium?

That part is easy. Selenium server exposes you at <your-selenium-URL>/status, for example, http://my.selenium.server:4444/status — the data from there is coming back as JSON. Either grab it all via LLD, low-level discovery rules, or just cherry-pick a few values to follow. I cherry-picked a few values, as the status contains so many items I would not ever need. No, my Selenium is not going to test stuff through the Microsoft Edge browser, for example. Below is a short snippet from the status page output.

{
  "value": {
    "ready": true,
    "message": "Selenium Grid ready.",
    "nodes": [
      {
        "id": "e284925e-c341-41fc-8380-581ead4987b6",
        "uri": "http:\u002f\u002f0.0.0.0:4444",
        "maxSessions": 10,
        "osInfo": {
          "arch": "aarch64",
          "name": "Mac OS X",
          "version": "14.5"
        },
        "heartbeatPeriod": 60000,
        "availability": "UP",
        "version": "4.21.0 (revision 79ed462ef4)",
        "slots": [

First, confirm that your Selenium gives you back that status page. Done? Done. Next, move on and create a new Zabbix template.

Create a new Zabbix template

Go to Data Collection -> Templates -> Create template, give it a name, and assign it to any template groups you want.

Next, click on Macros tab, and enter there {$SELENIUM_URL} = your.selenium.server.address/status

Done. Now save your template and start adding items.

Add new items to the template

First, add a new HTTP agent type item for fetching the master data.

Next, just add any items you would like to pick from the long JSON output: as I’m only interested if Selenium is ready and what is the message it is returning, here is an example of how I grab the items. First, the one that checks if Selenium is ready (true/false).

… and get that with item pre-processing by using JSONPath and Boolean to decimal, so you get numeric values for graphs and so on.

The end result

After this, you are already monitoring your new Selenium to make sure that it is feeling well.

Now go and add your Selenium to monitoring, too! Add some triggers and visualize it for yourself by using some of the new fancy widgets we have in Zabbix 7.0!

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

The post What’s Up, Home? – Monitor your new Selenium appeared first on Zabbix Blog.

Zabbix Audit Log: Underlying Design and Considerations

Post Syndicated from Artjoms Rimdjonoks original https://blog.zabbix.com/zabbix-audit-log-underlying-design-and-considerations/28328/

An audit improves the security of a product, specifically the “non-repudiation” aspect in threat-models (risks are reduced when threat-agents cannot deny they did malicious activity). Zabbix 5.0 already had audit functionality, which received a major rewrite in 6.0 and several updates since then. In this blog post, we will go through them and get an overall picture of what has changed (and why).

The server side work on 6.0 was mostly done and further improved in 7.0. Front-end work is still ongoing (due to a larger scope). The main goal of a Zabbix audit is to track all configuration and settings changes – who, when, and what. This is an enterprise-level requirement, but non-enterprise users can also benefit.

The situation before Zabbix 6.0

When a host or template is added, only its name is recorded, without info about items, triggers, tags, etc. The linking of the template on the host is not audited. Everything on the screen is an audit done by the front-end, except the script execution. Zabbix Server itself actually does a lot of configuration changes, including adding and updating hosts and updating items (during LLD or when linking templates during auto-registration or network discovery), but there is no audit for that at all. There are also non-configuration changes (events) we want to audit, including:

  • Script execution (already audited in 5.0):

  • Reloading passive proxy config data (ZBXNEXT-1580), added in 6.2:

  • HA node status change (ZBXNEXT-6923), added in 6.0, history push API requests, and sending data to Zabbix server via API (ZBXNEXT-8541), added in 7.0:

Audit overview

Most Zabbix server audit logic is in:

a) Linking of templates (as a result of auto-registration or network discovery) with updates to:

  • Hosts
  • Items
  • Triggers
  • Graphs
  • Discovery Rules (and prototypes of everything above)
  • Web Scenarios

b) LLD, with the following entities created from prototypes:

  • Hosts
  • Items
  • Triggers
  • Graphs

New audit goals

In addition to the main functional requirement to “track all configuration and settings changes,” there are additional requirements aimed at making all audits faster and easier to manage:

  • All audits are now stored in a single table (Simpler and faster SQL queries)
  • Bulk SQL inserts and efficient ids generation
  • The audit of a particular entity stays longer than this entity. If an entity – (host or user) is deleted – the audit for it stays
  • The audit has an independent housekeeping schedule
  • It is still possible to disable the audit

CUID

Zabbix uses an ids table to generate ids:

When something (items, triggers etc.) needs to be generated, the related row in the ids table gets locked. This represents a problem for generating audit rows, because an audit can be generated independently by the server and front-end:

So, we could end up in a situation where a user cannot create an item because the server is holding a lock on the ids table while generating thousands of new LLD items. That is why a new method for generating ID was used for audits:

Thanks to it, the front-end and server can independently generate ids for audit entries without locks. The chance of collision is astronomically low.

System user

When it is not clear under which user an audit entry needs to be generated, it is recorded under “System user.” Most of the audits done by Server are done under “System user.” One exception is “script execution,”” since it is clear which user clicked on the script execution button. However, under which user should the server record audit entries when new items are generated during LLD? We could track down which user created the LLD rule, but what if the LLD rule was then modified by another user? For such cases, “System user” is used.

RecordSetID

From the spec: “To have the ability to recognize that some set of audit log records was created during the processing of a separate operation, a new column “Recordset ID” for audit log records will be provided. Each audit log record of the separate operation will have the same recordset ID. The recordset ID will be generated using the CUID algorithm.”

We can see that 2 graphs were created in a single operation (e.g. during the linking of one template with 2 graphs).

Audit details

A new audit contains much more information on what was changed with new details:

Upgrade patch

The warning, old auditlog, and auditlog_details tables are removed during the upgrade patch to 6.0. A new auditlog table is created, and the schema is updated.

  • auditid is now CUID
  • userid can be NULL (no more foreign reference on users table)
  • username is added
  • resource_cuid is added(alternative to resource, only for HA)
  • recordsetid is added
  • note and other auditlog_details table data now is in details (JSON)

BulkSQL

It is much more efficient to execute SQL queries in bulk. Zabbix already relies on bulk SQL queries:

Inserting and/or updating thousands of new items in one query is much faster than running thousands of individual queries. There are many reasons why this is the case, but the most basic answer is that DBs are designed this way. Another reason is that a large single query in PostgreSQL needs to start the planner/optimizer once, and then it would be able to properly analyze this large query and create an efficient execution plan.

When running thousands of separate queries, the planner/optimizer needs to be started for each query, and every time it would analyze the small query and decide there is not much it can do. When a server is doing some configuration changes, like LLD or templates linking during auto-registration or network discovery, it will insert/update/delete items/triggers and also auditlog entries in one large query.

Performance impact

Quick performance tests showed that the audit slows the server at most by 4-5%. The larger the setup, the smaller the impact will be.

Storage impact and administration

Zabbix audits can generate a lot of data. If your setup generates a lot of configuration, audits can eventually overrun the storage space. In this case, there are several audit configurations that could be helpful.

First of all, an audit can be disabled for all Zabbix, including the front-end:

Disabling audit is not advised, however – this option exists mostly as a possible workaround. Audit is enabled by default and Zabbix is developed and tested with audit enabled.

Log system actions button:

A disabled audit done by Zabbix server during auto-registration, network discover, and LLD. On some systems, these can generate a lot of configurations and audits, for example when LLD discovers hundreds of new devices every minute.

This could help reduce the storage impact while preserving all other audit functionality.

Housekeeping schedule:

If a host, trigger, or graph is deleted (by housekeeper or manually), the audit generated for it stays (as it exists in a separate table).

A Zabbix audit has its own independent housekeeping schedule, and it can be adjusted to suit your environment.

The post Zabbix Audit Log: Underlying Design and Considerations appeared first on Zabbix Blog.

Create anytime, anywhere with OctoStudio

Post Syndicated from Mitch Resnick & Natalie Rusk original https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/octostudio-app/

Today our friends Mitch Resnick and Natalie Rusk from MIT’s Lifelong Kindergarten group tell you about OctoStudio, their free mobile app for children to create with code. Find their companion article for teachers in the upcoming issue of Hello World magazine, out for free on Monday 1 July.

When people see our new OctoStudio coding app, they often say that it reminds them of Scratch, the world’s most popular coding platform for kids. That’s not surprising, since the group of us developing OctoStudio were also involved in creating Scratch, with its distinctive building-block approach to programming. But there’s an important difference.

A young person connects coding blocks in their OctoStudio phone app.
A young person connects coding blocks to animate their OctoStudio project. Credit: MIT Media Lab

The difference is that we designed OctoStudio specifically for mobile phones and tablets, based on requests from educators in communities where children and families don’t have access to laptops and desktop computers, but do have access to mobile devices. 

OctoStudio takes advantage of special features of mobile phones and tablets, such as built-in sensors, so young people can create projects that respond to shaking or tilting, or even ‘beam’ signals between devices. And because of the small size of mobile devices, children and families can create projects anytime anywhere, and integrate digital coding with physical making.

OctoStudio makes it easy for beginners to start creating. Children can choose a character from a diverse collection of emojis, draw their own in the OctoStudio paint editor, or take and edit a photo. With just a couple coding blocks, they can make their characters move, jump, speak, or glow — and respond to shaking, tilting, or tapping on the phone or tablet:

A short OctoStudio blocks script.
A short OctoStudio blocks script.

Since our Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab launched OctoStudio as a free app in October 2023, we’ve been delighted by the creativity and diversity of projects that children around the world have created with OctoStudio. As examples, we’d like to share with you three different projects from three different continents.

Getting active with OctoStudio 

When Xavier, a 10-year-old in Rwanda, started using OctoStudio, he was intrigued with the ‘When I shake’ block. He realized that he could create a step tracker project, by sensing how the phone shook each time he took a step. 

From the emoji library in OctoStudio, Xavier selected a rabbit, and he programmed it to grow a little bit each time he took a step. The more steps, the bigger the rabbit. To test the project, Xavier ran around in a circle. When he looked at the rabbit again, he saw how big it had grown and exclaimed: “Now it’s mega huge!” After finishing his project, Xavier made and posted a video tutorial to show others how to make their own step tracker using only 5 coding blocks.

Making creatures come to life on screen

One popular way to get started with OctoStudio is to make a favorite animal out of craft materials, take a photo of it, then bring your creation to life on the screen with OctoStudio coding blocks. As part of the Brazilian Creative Learning Network, educators Renato Barboza and Simone Lederman offer creative learning workshops in which children design creatures using a combination of natural materials and modeling clay. In these ‘fantastical creatures’ workshops, facilitators ask questions to encourage participants to design not only the creatures, but also develop ideas about how their creatures interact within their environment.

A girl holds up a winged creature she has grafted.

For example, two sisters created imaginary creatures, one with long sticks for arms, the other with big eyes and wings made from leaves. The sisters then took photos and made their creatures come to life in OctoStudio, making them jump, glow, and fly. They recorded sounds and explained more about their creatures, including where they live and what they like to eat.

A child uses the OctoStudio app on a mobile phone.

Beaming between devices

OctoStudio also opens up the possibility of projects involving multiple mobile devices, using the new ‘beam’ block to send signals between the devices (via Bluetooth). For example, children can make a character in a story or game look like it’s jumping from one device to another by sending a beam signal when the character reaches the edge of the screen.

Thawin, an elementary school student in Thailand, decided to use the ‘beam’ block to create a project about caring for the environment. He embedded one tablet in a cardboard cutout of a watering can, and programmed it to beam a signal each time he shook it as if he were sprinkling water. Then, he added a tree emoji to another tablet, and programmed the tree to grow each time it received a beam signal. He proudly shared his project with his classmates: each time someone shook the watering can, the tree grew.

Get started with OctoStudio

To get started with OctoStudio, you can download it for free from app stores for Android and iOS phones and tablets. The app is translated into more than 25 languages, and comes with sample projects and mini-tutorials. 

Here are some resources for learning and exploring more:

You can share your OctoStudio stories, photos, and videos on social media using @octostudioapp or #octostudio. We can’t wait to hear about your and your children’s experiences!

The post Create anytime, anywhere with OctoStudio appeared first on Raspberry Pi Foundation.

Zabbix 7.0 – Everything You Need to Know

Post Syndicated from Michael Kammer original https://blog.zabbix.com/zabbix-7-0-everything-you-need-to-know/28210/

After plenty of breathless anticipation, we’re proud to announce the release of the latest major Zabbix version – the new and improved Zabbix 7.0 LTS. This release is the direct result of user feedback and delivers a variety of improvements, including cloud-native Zabbix proxy scalability, website transaction monitoring, improved data collection speed and scalability, new dashboard widgets, major network discovery speed improvements, new templates and integrations, and more!

Without further ado, let’s take a whistle-stop tour of what you need to know:

Synthetic end-user web monitoring

Busy enterprises can now monitor multiple websites and applications by defining flexible multi-step browser-based scenarios. 7.0 LTS also makes it easy to capture screenshots of the current website state, collect and visualize website performance and availability metrics, extract, monitor, and analyze web application data, and get alerts when issues are discovered.

Zabbix proxy high availability and load balancing

When it’s time to expand, Zabbix 7.0 LTS makes it easy to scale a Zabbix environment, guaranteeing 100% availability with automatic proxy load balancing and high availability features, including the ability to assign hosts to load-balanced proxy groups and seamlessly scale a Zabbix environment by deploying additional proxies.

Faster, more efficient Zabbix proxies

Zabbix proxy now fully supports in-memory data storage for collected metrics. Users can choose from Disk, Memory, and Hybrid proxy buffer modes, all of which are ideal for embedded hardware. In addition, memory mode enables the support of edge computing use cases. Users can expect 10-100x better proxy performance by switching to memory or hybrid modes, depending on allocated hardware.

Centralized control of data collection timeouts

Centralizing control of data collection timeouts enables better support for metrics and custom checks, taking longer data collection time intervals. Data collection timeouts can be defined per item-type and overridden per proxy or on an individual item level. In addition, timeouts are now fully configurable in the Zabbix GUI or via Zabbix API.

Faster and more scalable data collection

Synchronous poller processes have been replaced with asynchronous pollers, which improves the speed and scalability of metric polling, particularly for agent, SNMP, and HTTP checks. The next metric can now be polled before waiting for a response from a previously requested metric, and up to 1,000 concurrent checks can now be supported per poller process.

New ways to visualize data

A variety of new dashboard widgets have been introduced, with the goal of giving users detailed information about their monitored metrics and infrastructure at a glance.

Dynamic dashboard widget navigation

Speaking of dashboard widgets, a new communication framework has also been introduced for dashboard widgets, enabling communication between widgets, allowing a widget to serve as a data source for other widgets, and dynamically updating information displayed in a dashboard widget based on the data source.

Faster network discovery

Discovering services and hosts has never been easier, thanks to support of parallelization while performing network discovery. Concurrency support allows for massive improvements in network discovery speed and simplifies host and service discovery while scanning large network segments.

Better security via enterprise-grade multi-factor authentication

Out-of-the box support of multi-factor authentication enables enterprise-grade security and added flexibility for configuring user authentication methods. Support MFA providers include time-based one-time Password (TOTP) and Duo Universal Prompt authentication.

More flexible resource discovery and management

Low-level discovery has received a variety of improvements, which enable enhanced host configuration and management flexibility when discovering hosts in complex environments, such as VMware or Kubernetes.

New templates and integrations

In response to user demand, Zabbix 7.0 LTS comes pre-packaged with a range of new templates for the most popular vendors and cloud providers.

Zabbix 7.0 training updates

All Zabbix training materials have been updated based on the new functionalities that have been added to the product since Zabbix 6.0.

Everyone is welcome to sharpen their skills, but if you’re a Zabbix 6.0 Certified Specialist or Certified Professional you can master Zabbix 7.0 LTS in just one day with our Upgrade Courses. As a 7.0 Specialist, you’ll be able to automate user provisioning with the Just-in-time (JIT) feature, monitor websites with new synthetic end-user monitoring, leverage new visualization features, and enhance the speed and performance of your data collection.

The 7.0 Certified Professional course covers proxy group configuration with high availability and load balancing, improved proxy data collection, new SNMP bulk monitoring, and enhanced host discovery for VMware, Kubernetes, and Cloud infrastructures.

We’re also happy to organize private trainings for organizations of any size, so don’t hesitate to get in touch!

Upcoming 7.0 events

If you’re looking for more information regarding Zabbix 7.0, you’re in luck! You can tune in to the “What’s new in Zabbix 7.0” webinar on June 11 at 12 PM CST or June 12 at 10 AM EEST. If you’d prefer a more hands-on approach, the following workshops are also available:

• “Zabbix Proxy High-availability and Load Balancing” (June 18, 6 PM EEST)
• “New Web Monitoring Features in Zabbix 7.0” (June 20, 6 PM EEST)

While you’re at it, feel free to explore Zabbix 7.0 LTS webinars and workshops in other languages. You can also check out worldwide events related to Zabbix 7.0 LTS, including our free in-person meetup in Riga on June 19 and Zabbix Summit 2024 this fall. 

Ready to upgrade or migrate?

With a brand-new version out, there’s never been a better time to take advantage of our upgrade or migration services. Let our team take the risk out of migrating or upgrading to 7.0, giving you the latest version at a lower cost and with minimal disruption to your organization.

Need a consultation about the latest version?

Not sure about how to get the most out of Zabbix 7.0? Our expert consultants can answer any questions related to the architecture of your infrastructure, the implementation of a back-up strategy, and your capacity planning, while providing strategic advice on which 7.0 services are right for you.

Make your contribution as a translator

The Documentation 7.0 translation project is now live, which means that you can help localize Zabbix 7.0 documentation in multiple languages. Your efforts will help make Zabbix accessible to users around the globe, and you’ll also receive a reward for your contributions. The guidelines, which contain essential information about the project, are available here.

Useful links

To see what else is in store for the future, have a look at the Zabbix roadmap.

You can find the instructions and download the new version on the Download page.

Detailed, step-by-step upgrade instructions are available on our Upgrade procedure page.

Learn about new features and changes introduced in Zabbix 7.0 LTS by visiting the What’s new in Zabbix 7.0 page.

The What’s new documentation section provides a detailed description of the new features.

Take a look at the release notes to see the full list of new features and improvements.

 

The post Zabbix 7.0 – Everything You Need to Know appeared first on Zabbix Blog.

Monitor new Zabbix releases natively

Post Syndicated from Brian van Baekel original https://blog.zabbix.com/monitor-new-zabbix-releases-natively/28105/

In this blog post, I’ll guide you through building your own template to monitor the latest Zabbix releases directly from the Zabbix UI. Follow the simple walkthrough to know how.

Introduction

With the release of Zabbix 7.0, it is possible to see which Zabbix version you are running and what the latest version is:

A great improvement obviously but (at least in 7.0.0rc1) I am missing the triggers to notify me and perhaps also really interesting, there is nothing available about older versions.

Once I saw the above screenshot, I became curious about where that data actually came from, and what’s available. A quick deep-dive into the sourcecode ( https://git.zabbix.com/projects/ZBX/repos/zabbix/browse/ui/js/class.software-version-check.js#18 ) gave away the URL that is used for this feature: https://services.zabbix.com/updates/v1 Once you visit that URL you will get a nice JSON formatted output:

{
  "versions": [
    {
      "version": "5.0",
      "end_of_full_support": true,
      "latest_release": {
        "created": "1711361454",
        "release": "5.0.42"
      }
    },
    {
      "version": "6.0",
      "end_of_full_support": false,
      "latest_release": {
        "created": "1716274679",
        "release": "6.0.30"
      }
    },
    {
      "version": "6.4",
      "end_of_full_support": false,
      "latest_release": {
        "created": "1716283254",
        "release": "6.4.15"
      }
    }
  ]
}

And as you may know, Zabbix is quite good at parsing JSON formatted data. So, I built a quick template to get this going and be notified once a new version is released.

In the examples below I used my 6.4 instance, but this also works on 6.0 and of course 7.0.

Template building

Before we jump into the building part, it’s important to think of the best approach for this template. I think there are 2:

  • Create 1 HTTP item and a few dependent items for the various versions
  • Create 1 HTTP item, a LLD rule and a few item prototypes.

I prefer the LLD route, as that is making the template as dynamic as possible (less time to maintain it) but also more fun to build!

Let’s go.

First, you go to Data Collection -> Templates and create a new template there:

Of course, you can change the name of the template and the group. It’s completely up to you.

Once the template is created, it’s still an empty shell and we need to populate it. We will start with a normal item of type HTTP agent:

(note: screenshot is truncated)

We need to add 3 query fields:

  • ‘type’ with value ‘software_update_check’
  • ‘version’ with value ‘1.0’
  • ‘software_update_check_hash’ with a 64 characters: you can do funny things here 😉 for the example i just used ‘here_are_exact_64_characters_needed_as_a_custom_hash_for_zabbix_’

As we go for the LLD route, I already set the “History Storage period” to “Do not keep history”. If you are building the template, it’s advised to keep the history and make sure you’ve got data to work with for the rest of the template. Once everything works, go back to this item and make sure to change the History storage period.

In the above screenshot, you can see I applied 2 preprocessing steps already.

The first is to replace the text ‘versions’ with ‘data’. This is done because Zabbix expects an array ‘data’ for its LLD logic. That ‘data’ is not available, so I just replaced the text ‘versions’. Quick and dirty.
The second preprocessing step is a “discard unchanged with heartbeat”. As long as there is no new release, I do not care about the data that came in, yet I want to store it once per day to make sure the item is still working. With this approach, we monitor the URL every 30 minutes so we get ‘quick’ updates but still do not use a lot of disk space.

The result of the preprocessing configuration:

Now it’s time to hit the “test all steps” button and see if everything works. The result you’ll get is:

{
  "data": [
    {
      "version": "5.0",
      "end_of_full_support": true,
      "latest_release": {
        "created": "1711361454",
        "release": "5.0.42"
      }
    },
    {
      "version": "6.0",
      "end_of_full_support": false,
      "latest_release": {
        "created": "1716274679",
        "release": "6.0.30"
      }
    },
    {
      "version": "6.4",
      "end_of_full_support": false,
      "latest_release": {
        "created": "1716283254",
        "release": "6.4.15"
      }
    }
  ]
}

This is almost identical to the information directly from the URL, except that ‘versions’ is replaced by ‘data’. Great. So as soon as you save this item we will monitor the releases now (don’t forget to link the template to a host otherwise nothing will happen)!
At the same time, this information is absolutely not useful at all, as it’s just a text portion. We need to parse it, and LLD is the way to go.

In the template, we go to “Discovery rules” and click on “Create discovery rule” in the upper right corner.
Now we create a new LLD rule, which is not going to query the website itself, but will get its information from the HTTP agent we’ve just created.

In the above screenshot, you see how it’s configured. a name, type ‘Dependent item’ some key just because Zabbix requires a key, and the Master item is the HTTP agent item we just created.

Now all data from the http agent item is pushed into the LLD rule as soon as it’s received, and we need to create LLD macros out of it. So in the Discovery rule, you jump to the 3rd tab ‘LLD macros’ and add a new macro there:

{#VERSION} with JSONPATH$..version.first()

Once this is done save the LLD rule and let’s create some item prototypes.

The first item prototype is the most complicated, the rest are “copy/paste”, more or less.

We create a new item prototype that looks like this:

As the type is dependent and it is getting all its information from the HTTP agent master item, there is preprocessing needed to filter out only that specific piece of information that is needed. You go to the preprocessing tab and add a JSONpath step there:

 

For copy/paste purposes: $.data.[?(@.version=='{#VERSION}’)].latest_release.created.first()
There is quite some magic happening in that step. We tell it to use a JSONpath to find the correct value, but there is also a lookup:

[?(@.version=='{#VERSION}')]

What we are doing here is telling it to go into the data array, look for an array ‘version’ with the value {#VERSION}. Of course that {#VERSION} LLD macro is going to be replaced dynamically by the discovery rule with the correct version. Once it found the version object, go in and find the object  ‘latest_release’ and from that object we want the value of ‘created’. Now we will get back the epoch time of that release, and in the item we parse that with Unit unixtime.

Save the item, and immediately clone it to create the 2nd item prototype to get the support state:

Here we change the type of information and of course the preprocessing should be slightly different as we are looking for a different object:

JSONPath:

$.data.[?(@.version=='{#VERSION}')].end_of_full_support.first()

Save this item as well, and let’s create our last item to get the minor release number presented:

The preprocessing is again slightly different:

JSONPath:

$.data.[?(@.version=='{#VERSION}')].latest_release.release.first()

At this point you should have 1 master item, 1 LLD rule and 3 Item prototypes.

Now, create a new host, and link this template to it. Fairly quick you should see data coming in and everything should be nicely parsed:

The only thing that is missing now is a trigger to get alerted once a new version has been released, so let’s go back into the template, discovery rule and find the trigger prototypes. Create a new one that looks like this:

Since we populated the even name as well, our problem name will reflect the most recent version already:

 

Enjoy your new template! 🙂

The post Monitor new Zabbix releases natively appeared first on Zabbix Blog.

The Clubs Conference is coming back

Post Syndicated from Tom Hadfield original https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/the-clubs-conference-is-coming-back/

Following the huge success of last year’s Clubs Conference, we are delighted to announce that we will be hosting the second-ever Clubs Conference on Saturday 30 November and Sunday 1 December 2024 in Cambridge, UK.

Two educators at a conference.

The event will be a weekend of learning and connecting for volunteers and educators involved in Code Club, CoderDojo, and other initiatives we support. We’d love for you to join us!

What you can look forward to

This year, we’re bringing the conference home to our offices in the centre of Cambridge.

On Friday 29 November, you’ll have the opportunity to register early and attend an informal networking event with community members, including the Foundation team. 

Saturday 30 November and Sunday 1 December will be filled with learning and development opportunities for you, including:

  • Thought-provoking talks and discussions
  • Hands-on, easy-to-follow workshops exploring a range of coding and digital making activities and related topics
  • Opportunities to connect with a diverse range of volunteers and educators

Join us to learn from your peers running clubs in various contexts, develop your digital making skills, and share your own insights. We look forward to learning with you.

Two smiling educators hold the Code Club posters.

Interested in attending or contributing to the Clubs Conference?

If you think you might want to attend the Clubs Conference, please fill in our form to express your interest. We will then get in touch when you can book your tickets. Tickets will be £5 for both days combined.

I want to express my interest
An educator delivers a presentation during a workshop.

Part of what made last year’s Clubs Conference so special was the range of exciting activities led by community members. If you’d like to host or co-host an activity this year, please also indicate this in the expression of interest form. We’ll be in touch in a few weeks to ask you more about your plans.

Possible activities include:

  • Workshops
  • Discussion sessions
  • Talks
  • Project demonstrations

Check out last year’s talks for inspiration.

Bursaries for participants in the UK and Ireland

If you would love to participate but you feel the costs of travelling would prevent you, you may be able to apply for a travel bursary. 

To be eligible for a bursary, you need to:

  • Be registered as a club leader or volunteer at a Code Club or CoderDojo within the UK or Ireland
  • Be available to attend the Clubs Conference in Cambridge on both Saturday 30 November and Sunday 1 December 2024

Please let us know whether you require a travel bursary when you fill in the expression of interest form.

If you’re not in the UK or Ireland and have any questions about travel, please send us a message through our contact page using the subject ‘Clubs Conference’.

If you have any suggestions about the Clubs Conference, we’d love to hear them. Let us know through the contact page, or on social with the tag #ClubsCon24.

The post The Clubs Conference is coming back appeared first on Raspberry Pi Foundation.

Case Study: Turning Data into Action with Zabbix

Post Syndicated from Fernanda Moraes original https://blog.zabbix.com/case-study-turning-data-into-action-with-zabbix/28077/

Change happens at an increasingly rapid and intense pace in the hyperconnected world we live in. This affects consumer relationships, forcing retailers to find more efficient ways of attracting customers. Linx, a company under the StoneCo group and a technology specialist for retail, understands this and has been using Zabbix to provide a better experience for their customers since 2017.

With extensive operations in over 20 retail segments and a portfolio of more than 180 solutions, Linx serves both small entrepreneurs and large retailers, offering the largest retail ecosystem in Latin America. In 2018, a presentation by the company at the Zabbix Conference Latin America stood out as a practical demonstration of how Zabbix served as a key tool in Linx’s business. Keep reading to find out how Zabbix has stayed central to the company’s strategy ever since.

The challenge

It all began in 2017 when Linx, understanding the importance of a stable IT environment, real-time data collection, and a quality customer journey, faced a challenge. They needed to transform their current Network Operation Center (NOC) into a structure aligned with the business that generated real value for customers. This required multiple actions, including:

  • Migrating the physical operation and monitoring structure from Porto Alegre-RS to São Paulo-SP
  • Reviewing the monitoring structure to generate indicators focused on customer success and experience
  • Replacing their existing monitoring tool with a more flexible one to keep up with new challenges and guarantee technical investment
  • Managing the mix of technologies used in the environment with a significant need for hybrid, cloud, and on-premises monitoring
  • Making this new structure the main provider of information for the rest of the company
  • Implementing a new NOC structure aligned with the business that would also generate value for customers
  • Speeding up the response time whenever incidents and anomalies were detected

To meet the business challenges and needs, Linx partnered with Unirede Inteligência em TI, a Zabbix Premium Partner in Brazil, to support the validation and subsequent implementation project. At that time, Linx’s solutions were specialized in retail as well as on-premises and SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions, with a data and cloud services platform focusing on customer experience.

The solution

Linx needed a robust and flexible tool that could meet business needs and share data with multiple teams.

“Linx chose Zabbix because it is an open-source, flexible platform capable of monitoring various technologies with different collection methods. Having a specialized partner to support deliveries— in this case, Unirede— also impacted the decision.”

 

Gabriel Pedroso, CEO of Unirede Inteligência em TI

Linx’s existing monitoring structure focused only on network infrastructure, much like a traditional NOC. A new objective arose – to understand the customer journey across all products and service segments. Linx needed to be able to map what kind of retail experience was being promoted to customers, predict peak moments, and gain insight into other behaviors that could influence the customer experience and compromise transactions.

This led to the creation of the xCenter, a structure that would become Linx’s experience monitoring center, expanding the view of servers, communication links, memory usage, and other infrastructure details.

“The xCenter goes beyond assets to establish the monitoring of complex solutions in hybrid environments (on-premises and cloud), delivering mobility, relevant content, and flexibility. Everything is oriented towards customer success.”

 

Nelson Lima, Coordinator of Linx’s xCenter

During the project’s initial phase, there was a mindset shift among the company’s teams, resulting in cooperation towards the project’s success and a renewed focus on the customer experience.

The first discoveries in Linx’s network were also made, along with adjustments and improvements in existing monitoring, including business metrics and the use of dashboards for visual management. In the same year (2017) xCenter operations began, delivering the first monitoring results.

By 2018, gains were evident: teams no longer thought exclusively about servers, storage, and network assets, but rather about services, transactions, and delivery excellence. That year, the project evolved into what was called “Partiu Cloud,” introducing the first Azure cloud environment monitoring. This took place alongside the ongoing evolution of existing monitoring and the democratization of information generated by the structure for decision-making. Examples of business services monitored at that time included NFCe, TEF, POS, sales reports, fiscal coupon issuance time, POS synchronization, and SaaS delivery.

In 2019, the focus shifted to business, with assessments, structuring, and development of metrics for Linx’s products. By then, Linx’s sales force was already using availability and performance information in their service routine, accessing product dashboards from mobile devices and using the data in their pitches to customers.

A significant update occurred in 2021 with the upgrade to Zabbix 5.0 LTS, which increasingly supported the delivery of connectivity services to customers alongside the already delivered platform and software solutions.

2022 was marked by significant variations in the tool’s use – integration with Jira software, integration with Linx’s AD for secure login (SSO), and integrations with other communications tools. The tool was also customized, involving script execution and remote commands for specific collections.

2023 brought a new focus on automation, using integrations with other tools to automate functions in Zabbix. For example, Microsoft Power Automate was able to facilitate daily operational processes and improve the use of media types. The entire journey was a continuous process of adaptation and improvement, showing an increased focus on business metrics and customer experience.

“Zabbix enabled the democratization of fundamental business data and information across different company areas. In other words, monitoring has become a strategic element for Linx’s business.”

 

Gabriel Pedroso, CEO of Unirede Inteligência em TI

The results

After the cultural shift and Zabbix implementation, the following strategic and operational gains were observed:

Improved efficiency and agility. Problems are detected and resolved faster, with incidents directly handled by Zabbix through integrations that automate actions.

Additional integrations. Zabbix’s flexibility and scalability allow for integration with other structural components, supporting operational efficiency.

More customer-oriented features and a renewed customer focus. Using Zabbix enabled a focus on customer success through a change in culture and business perspective, with features reviewed from a user experience perspective.

Improved scalability. This came about thanks to Zabbix’s capacity to support large loads, perform distributed data collection, and expand as needed.

Better market alignment. Aligning operations and monitoring with market needs created specific panels and monitoring for major national retail dates, such as Black Friday and Christmas.

Better sales pitches. Sales pitches are now based on data and performance monitored by xCenter. The sales team presents real monitoring data as a pitch for service quality.

Consolidation. Integrating all monitoring in a single tool eliminates the need for multiple tools and integrations.

An investment guarantee. Zabbix is now seen as a tool that accompanies Linx through future challenges, negating the need for tool changes.

A democratization of information. xCenter provides information to the entire company, improving decision-making in the process.

What’s next?

The journey to success is never-ending, and the following steps demonstrate Linx’s ongoing commitment to improvement and innovation in monitoring and the future of managing customer experiences for the services provided by the company.

Upgrading to Zabbix LTS 6.0. This upgrade is a crucial step to keep the platform updated with the latest features and security improvements.

Integrating with WhatsApp. Linx aims to improve communication and notification flexibility by offering alerts and updates via the popular messaging app.

Application Tracking Monitoring (APM). This involves a renewed focus on enhancing application monitoring, which is essential for maintaining and optimizing system performance. This improvement is planned in Zabbix’s roadmap.

Business layer evolution. Enhancing the monitoring and analysis of business indicators for better data-based decision-making.

Enhancing Availability Metrics. Improving the precision and relevance of metrics related to service and product availability.

Evolving predictive metrics. Implementing and refining metrics that can predict trends or future problems, allowing proactive actions.

In conclusion

When taken together with Unirede’s support of retail monitoring, Linx’s success story with Zabbix is a true inspiration. With the help of Zabbix, Linx has turned data into information and information into action in order to prove the excellence of its services. Throughout its growth trajectory, the company has managed to turn challenges into opportunities, using Zabbix to optimize operations and focus on what really matters – satisfying their customers.

To find out more about what Zabbix can do across a variety of industries, feel free to visit our website or request a demo.

 

 

The post Case Study: Turning Data into Action with Zabbix appeared first on Zabbix Blog.

Case Study: Monitoring with Zabbix and AI

Post Syndicated from Aurea Araujo original https://blog.zabbix.com/case-study-monitoring-with-zabbix-and-ai/28045/

Artificial intelligence (AI) and data monitoring are working together to digitally transform relationships, businesses, and people. In telecommunications, predictive analysis based on data collection plays a crucial role in development. Starting with version 6.0 of Zabbix, users have benefited from updates in predictive functions and machine learning, which make it possible for them to study the data monitored by Zabbix and integrate it with AI modules.

Danilo Barros, co-founder of Lunio (a Zabbix Certified Partner in Brazil), presented the results of using Zabbix combined with telecom data monitoring through AI and machine learning at Zabbix Conference Brazil in 2022. Keep reading to get the whole story!

The scenario

With over 600 OLTs (Optical Line Terminals – the fiberoptic infrastructure used by internet providers) as well as 400,000 customers across more than 800 cities and 20 states in Brazil, Lunio’s client manages a staggering amount of data. This monitoring is essential for smooth operations and to guarantee that there are no negative impacts on users and no overload for customer service agents in the event of accidents.

A primary challenge for telecom clients is the overload of calls to customer service in the event of massive network incidents. With so many customers, every precaution must be taken to avoid clogging phone lines during outages or service failures.

“You can’t achieve customer satisfaction under such circumstances, and the Net Promoter Score (NPS) drops drastically.”

 

Danilo Barros, co-founder of Lunio

Mapping needs

Considering the client’s operational structure, a series of customer needs were identified, focusing on six main points:

1. Automation: With notifications via digital channels for each event
2. Speed: Aiming for improved customer service
3. Operational costs: Budget optimization
4. Root cause analysis: Quick identification of the cause of events
5. Predictability: The ability to analyze problems and identify trends
6. Reporting: Identifying incidents and following regulations from ANATEL (National Telecommunications Agency)

With these interests in mind, it was possible to reassess the use of tools previously employed by the telecom client, which at the time served unique functions in the process. Each tool had its usage and information verification time, which could impact hundreds of users in a massive-scale incident. The key challenges identified by the Lunio team included:

  • Integrations: Systems needed to be interconnected
  • Integrity: Constant data updates
  • Topology: With system mapping through specific programs
  • Business rules: Respecting the development of local processes
  • Performance: The monitoring and automation of 600,000 assets
  • High availability: Dozens of data centers catering to local demand

Once the needs and challenges were identified, it was time to promote change within the client. By integrating systems and using Zabbix to monitor over 600,000 items, understand incidents, and predict potential future errors, the technical teams at Lunio created LunioAI, a “super attendant” with analytical and predictive capabilities as well as the ability to continuously learn.

“This guy (LunioIA) learns from each event, understanding each topology that occurs in the client’s network.”

 

Danilo Barros, co-founder of Lunio

In the initial response tests, LunioAI was able to analyze and evaluate massive events in a minute and a half. Over time, this was reduced to 30 seconds, making the return to the technical team increasingly swift and positively impacting incident resolution.

The results

Throughout the development and improvement of LunioIA, the operations chain was involved in predictive analyses of potential events on the network, providing technical professionals with the information needed to perform preventive maintenance on monitored items.

LunioIA considers data from integrated systems, FTTH (fiber to the home) environments, data centers, and items, all as part of the Zabbix monitoring environment. It can then diagnose events, understand the severity of an event, and find resolution points – without the need for human resources in the process.

As a result, when physical attendants were contacted by customers experiencing difficulties with the service, instead of going through the entire process to understand what happened, the attendant could perform a search using the customer’s CPF (Individual Taxpayer Registry Identification) and then access a summary of the events, causes, and solutions identified by artificial intelligence combined with data monitoring through Zabbix.

In conclusion

This example happens to come from the telecommunications industry, but it’s not difficult to see how the ability of Zabbix to integrate the data monitored by Zabbix with AI modules can benefit companies in almost any industry.

You can find out more about what we can do across a variety of industries by visiting our website or requesting a demo.

The post Case Study: Monitoring with Zabbix and AI appeared first on Zabbix Blog.

Case Study: Zabbix at the European Space Agency

Post Syndicated from Arturs Lontons original https://blog.zabbix.com/case-study-zabbix-at-the-european-space-agency/28024/

The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 22-member intergovernmental body devoted to space exploration. Headquartered in Paris and with a global staff of around 2,200, the ESA was founded in 1975. Its annual budget was €7.08 billion in 2023.

The challenge

The Columbus laboratory is the European module of the International Space Station and the cornerstone of Europe’s participation. Positioned on the starboard side of the Station’s leading edge, it is designed to provide an environment for pursuing research and development in a wide variety of fields. Its characteristics include:

  • Payload complement flexibility, provided by a modular design and serviced by a regular logistics, maintenance, and upgrade capability
  • A permanent crew presence for servicing payload support systems and interacting with payloads
  • A continuously available ground infrastructure for monitoring and controlling onboard activities

Columbus provides internal payload accommodation for multidisciplinary research into material science, fluid physics, and life sciences, while the External Payload Facility (EPF) hosts space science and Earth observation payloads.

Academics on Earth perform their tests on Columbus remotely – programming them and getting the results. The infrastructure required for these tests and the payloads that get sent back and forth require a flexible and dependable monitoring solution, and that’s where Zabbix enters the picture.

The solution

Zabbix proxy was deployed in the Columbus module alongside other software required for research, operations, and connectivity. The Zabbix server and frontend are deployed in the ground data center, and this is what the proxy communicates with.

In addition to proxies, we have a Zabbix sender and Agent 2 that are used on this infrastructure, which is made of VMS and containers running different kinds of services. Data is collected in a very ordinary fashion – Zabbix Agent 2 performs native checks because there is still server hardware running with operating systems and OS level resources that need to be monitored by the Agent.

We mix these native checks with user parameters which execute custom checks based on scripts or commands for commercial off-the-shelf components. The agent is extended depending on the requirements of the components. It then collects those metrics and sends them to the proxy. Scripting is used for custom components, and because Zabbix is language agnostic, any type of programming or scripting language works. It gets wrapped together with Zabbix sender, which then sends data to the proxy, which then sends data to the server.

Because there are so many custom services and metrics that need to be monitored (the number of high priority files in the transfer queue for a particular payload, for example) and because metrics, services, and payloads can change over time, the ESA needed to automate a way of automatically discovering these, displaying them, and collecting data for them. We used low-level discovery together with some scripting to discover and automatically start monitoring new payloads.

The results

Thanks to Zabbix’s visualization capabilities, the ESA’s team has found it easy to observe their dashboards and react to alerts in real time.

The ESA has also found Zabbix proxy to be an ideal solution for their needs, because if a link between the ground data center and the Columbus module goes down, the proxy keeps collecting local metrics, stores them in its own database, and then sends them back to the ground once the connection is restored. No such situation has arisen yet, but Zabbix has performed flawlessly in all test scenarios.

Monitoring is a never-ending process and there’s always room for improvement, but it’s reasonable to expect that the ESA will continue working on Zabbix and finding new metrics and new ways of improving monitoring.

In conclusion

Part of the beauty of Zabbix has always been its adaptability – it can be as simple or as complex as any user needs it to be. The simplicity of the Zabbix setup in this scenario (as opposed to a more modular setup with 4 or 5 pieces of software) is what makes it ideal for deployment by the ESA on the International Space Station.

To learn more about what we do for customers across multiple industries, visit our website or request a demo.

The post Case Study: Zabbix at the European Space Agency appeared first on Zabbix Blog.

Making Life Easier for MSPs: The Zabbix Advantage

Post Syndicated from Michael Kammer original https://blog.zabbix.com/making-life-easier-for-msps-the-zabbix-advantage/28004/

Times have never been better for managed service providers (MSPs). The demand for remote monitoring services has skyrocketed as cloud adoption rises and working from home becomes the new standard. The number of organizations that trust MSPs with the everyday functioning of their mission-critical IT systems and processes has grown rapidly – nearly 9 out of 10 small and medium enterprises either use or plan to use MSPs to manage their infrastructure.

As a service provider, an MSP needs to be ahead of the curve at all times and adopt a constantly-shifting and evolving set of best practices for remote monitoring and management. At Zabbix, we’ve created the ultimate solution for full-stack IT monitoring, and we’ve built in features and benefits that are designed to make it as easy as possible for MSPs to provide top-quality monitoring to their clients as well. Keep reading to learn more about what makes Zabbix the ideal monitoring tool for any MSP.

There are no limits to what you can monitor with Zabbix

And when we say no limits, we mean no limits! Zabbix literally allows you to monitor anything from the frequency of a baby’s cries to the hydraulic systems on a space station. From hardware to software to middleware, VEP resources, virtual resources, and more, Zabbix is capable of monitoring millions of metrics.  As an MSP, you’re no doubt called upon to tackle anything from basic network and server monitoring to highly advanced cloud, container, and Kubernetes monitoring. Zabbix lets you keep it all under one roof and handle it with a single solution.

You can integrate Zabbix with any client’s systems

Today’s MSP needs to be able to seamlessly integrate their tools and processes with the IT frameworks and ITIL guidelines of their clients as well as their business goals, strategies, and best practices. Zabbix is designed to work with third party solutions and boasts a constantly-growing list of official integrations.

When you’re notified of a potential problem, you can easily forward your alerts to third-party ITSM, helpdesk, and messaging systems, enhance them with the additional information that Zabbix is able to collect, and freely customize the outgoing messages for different clients – just one of the areas where Zabbix stands out as an ideal multitenant solution.

Zabbix makes reporting and analysis simple

MSPs need to be able to quickly generate and share regular reports and analyses with clients, keeping them up to speed on the status, performance, and health of their infrastructure. Ideally, those reports should be clear, concise, and actionable, highlighting key metrics and insights via graphs, charts, and tables, identifying trends, and predicting potential issues. Done right, reporting can enhance service quality and position you as an ideal strategic partner.

When you make the decision to deploy Zabbix scheduled reports, you’ll get daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly overviews of the infrastructures and business services you’ve been tasked to monitor. You can also track the changes performed in your Zabbix instance with our robust and detailed built-in audit logging functionality, all of which is designed to make it as easy as possible for you to keep your clients in the loop.

Zabbix makes data easy to visualize

Much like the world around them, MSPs have become increasingly more data-driven. It’s easy to understand why – when you have critical information right in front of you, it’s easier to see trends you would have otherwise missed, which in turn helps you make better-informed decisions that can help guide you to success.

Zabbix dashboards are built to serve as visual storybooks for your business. They transform complex monitoring metrics into an engaging narrative, presenting intimidating data in an intuitive, insightful layout and making data interpretation simple.

You can customize dashboards, screens, and slideshows to easily track the status of a tenant’s infrastructure, applications, and business services. You can also leverage a wide range of dashboard widgets to aggregate, transform, and graph your data while also tracking your monitoring endpoints on geographical and network maps, identifying the status of the most critical alarms, and sorting your monitoring endpoints by resource usage.

Zabbix makes effective security management easier

When it comes to cyberattacks, MSPs are up against a constantly changing threat landscape, not to mention the challenges they face in protecting diverse, multitenant setups. With Zabbix, you can secure connections to and from your monitoring endpoints either with certificates or via pre-shared key encryption.

Multitenant MSPs can also control access to different Zabbix elements and features by creating unique Zabbix roles for your tenants while taking advantage of the native permission logic to isolate monitoring endpoints between tenants. Host groups and subgroups let you decide what your tenants can see, and encrypted agents help to secure all communication, including proxy-to-server communication.

You can also rely on encrypted communication between Zabbix components as well as flexible permissions, user authentication, and integrations with secret vaults for storing passwords and other sensitive information.

Zabbix is inherently scalable

There are no two ways about it – surviving as an MSP in today’s business environment means being able to scale. The number of customers that you support is likely to vary from year to year or even month to month. In order to add customers without compromising your level of service, you need to scale up. And if your customer base shrinks, you will probably need to decrease the size of your infrastructure and operations in order to avoid spending money on services that your business no longer needs.

By deploying Zabbix proxies and letting them collect and process data on behalf of the primary Zabbix server node, you can easily scale your Zabbix instance as your client base expands – no matter where those clients happen to be. And if you need to scale back your business for any reason, it’s a simple matter of deleting the unused proxies.

Zabbix is uniquely cost-efficient

A key benefit of Zabbix has always been that it’s open-source – there are no license fees associated with using our software, and you’re not locked into an endless, inflexible contract. Meanwhile, our extensive range of competitively-priced professional services are designed to fit the unique needs of MSPs and give you the most effective solutions as quickly as possible.

Perhaps most importantly for a multitenant MSP, Zabbix is built to run without the need for a lot of infrastructure or resources. With Zabbix, you can offer your clients more flexibility than comparable monitoring solutions while dramatically lowering the amount of hardware, CPU power, and costs involved.

Conclusion

In order to serve the constantly evolving needs of their clients, MSPs demand more flexibility and features than ever before – and this naturally extends to the monitoring solutions they choose. Rather than offer a few additional services to target MSPs, we’ve built our business with them in mind, which is why we offer a range of feature-rich technical support plans specifically for MSPs.

To learn more about what Zabbix can do for MSPs like yours, visit our website or request a demo.

The post Making Life Easier for MSPs: The Zabbix Advantage appeared first on Zabbix Blog.

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’.

The post Learning from our hybrid training programme for youth and community organisations appeared first on Raspberry Pi Foundation.

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.

The post Celebrating the community: Arno & Timo appeared first on Raspberry Pi Foundation.

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.