Last Updated on January 1, 2023 by Thiago Crepaldi
From previous posts, we have deployed Zabbix Server on a Proxmox container. We also hardened the installation through Let’s Encrypt certificates for the web frontend and TLS encryption for the communication between Server and Agents/Proxies, after all, although encrypted Zabbix Server <-> Agent/Proxy communication with PSK or SSL certificates 🙂
In this post I will cover how to monitor a Supermicro server using Zabbix Agent template. Templates are great because they already pack a bunch of monitoring items, actions, triggers, etc that we would have to add one by one otherwise. Using template is smart because when we need to make changes, we just do it in the template and all hosts that use them will see the new settings. On a manual setup, you would have to make the change in each host, one by one…
Configuring SNMPv3 on Supermicro IPMI
In order to allow the Zabbix Server to monitor your Supermicro server, we need to enable SNMPv3 on it.
After logging in into your Supermicro’s IPMI, navigate to Configuration >> SNMP. Make sure SNMP is configured as follows::
- SNMP
- Enable SNMP: checked
- SNMPv2:
- Enable: unchecked
- SNMPv3:
- Enable: checked
- User name: zabbix
- Auth protocol: SHA1
- Private protocol: AES
- Auth key: Type a password
- Private key: Type a password
Click on Save and you are done.
Configuring Zabbix Server through Web UI
Although we don’t need to install a Zabbix Agent on the APs, we still need to create a Host on Zabbix Server to specify the Supermicro IPMI address, etc
Go to Configuration >> Templates and click on Create Host button. When the configuration dialog open, the Host tab should be the default one. Fill in the following fields and leave the rest as-is:
- Host
- Host name: Type the Supermicro hostname
- Templates: Supermicro Aten by SNMP
- Host Groups: Agentless, Linux Server, Hypervisor or whatever describes your Agent
- Interfaces:
- Add a new interface
- Type: SNMP
- IP Address: Type the server IP to be ping’ed
- DNS Name: Type the server FQDN to be ping’ed
- Connect to: Select IP or DNS
- Port: 10050
- Description: Do your thing here
- Monitored by Proxy: (no proxy)
- SNMP Version: SNMPv3
- Context Name: empty
- Security Name: Type the user set in the Supermicro (e.g. zabbix)
- Security Level: authPriv
- Authentication Protocol: SHA1
- Authentication Passphrase: Type the password set in the Supermicro
- Privacy protocol: AES
- Privacy passphrase: Type the password set in the Supermicro
- Add a new interface
Finish the host creation by clicking Update.
That is it, let’s try it. Go to Monitoring >> Latest data. In the filter section, type the name of your Supermicro server in the Hosts box and finally hit Apply. A list of items should be displayed for it, such as ICMP ping, etc
That is it, have fun!