Device dependency in ZABBIX 4.2 - zabbix

Question

Suppose the following scenario in using Zabbix 4.2. We have a core switch, two distributed switches and 20 access switches, where the distributed switches are connected to the core and 10 access switches are connected to each distributed switch. I am monitoring all of them using SNMP v2c and using the template cisco switches (the official one). Now the problem arises as I cannot define device dependency in zabbix easily. By easily, I mean that if a distributed switch goes out, I want to have the alarm for that device and not for all access switches connected to it. I could define it as follows. Change the triggers for each device and made them dependent on the corresponding trigger for distributed switches. However, this is too time consuming. What should I do? Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

You are right, there isn't an easy way to set this kind of dependancy.
I had to manage the same situation a while ago and I wrote a python dependancy setter which uses a "dependent hostgroup <--> master host" logic.
You can modify it to fit your needs (see masterTargetTriggerDescription and slaveTargetTriggerDescription for the dependancy targets), it works but contains little error checking: use at your own risk!
import csv
import re
import json
from zabbix.api import ZabbixAPI
# Zabbix Server endpoint
zabbixServer = 'https://yourzabbix/zabbix/'
zabbixUser = 'admin'
zabbixPass = 'zabbix'
zapi = ZabbixAPI(url=zabbixServer, user=zabbixUser, password=zabbixPass)
# Hostgrop variables - to reference IDs while building API parameters
hostGroupNames = [] # list = array
hostGroupId = {} # dict = associative array
# Csv file for dep settings - see the format:
"""
Hostgroup;Master
ACCESS_1;DistSwitch1
ACCESS_2;DistSwitch1
ACCESS_5;DistSwitch2
ACCESS_6;DistSwitch2
DIST;CoreSwitch1
"""
fileName = 'dependancy.csv'
masterTargetTriggerDescription = '{HOST.NAME} is unavailable by ICMP'
slaveTargetTriggerDescription = '{HOST.NAME} is unavailable by ICMP|Zabbix agent on {HOST.NAME} is unreachable'
# Read CSV file
hostFile = open(fileName)
hostReader = csv.reader(hostFile, delimiter=';', quotechar='|')
hostData = list(hostReader)
# CSV Parsing
for line in hostData:
hostgroupName = line[0]
masterName = line[1]
slaveIds = []
masterId = zapi.get_id('host', item=masterName, with_id=False, hostid=None)
hostGroupId = zapi.get_id('hostgroup', item=hostgroupName, with_id=False, hostid=None)
masterTriggerObj = zapi.trigger.get(hostids=masterId, filter=({'description': masterTargetTriggerDescription}) )
print "Group: " + hostgroupName + " - ID: " + str(hostGroupId)
print "Master host: " + masterName + " - ID: " + str(masterId)
print "Master trigger: " + masterTriggerObj[0]['description'] + " - ID: " + str(masterTriggerObj[0]['triggerid'])
# cycle through slave hosts
hostGroupObj = zapi.hostgroup.get(groupids=hostGroupId, selectHosts='extend')
for host in hostGroupObj[0]['hosts']:
#exclude master
if host['hostid'] != str(masterId):
print " - Host Name: " + host['name'] + " - ID: " + host['hostid'] + " - MASTER: " + str(masterId)
# cycle for all slave's triggers
slaveTargetTriggerObj = zapi.trigger.get(hostids=host['hostid'])
#print json.dumps(slaveTargetTriggerObj)
for slaveTargetTrigger in slaveTargetTriggerObj:
# search for dependancy targets
if re.search(slaveTargetTriggerDescription, slaveTargetTrigger['description'] ,re.IGNORECASE):
print " - Trigger: " + slaveTargetTrigger['description'] + " - ID: " + slaveTargetTrigger['triggerid']
# Clear existing dep. from the trigger, then create the new dep.
clear = zapi.trigger.deletedependencies(triggerid=slaveTargetTrigger['triggerid'].encode())
result = zapi.trigger.adddependencies(triggerid=slaveTargetTrigger['triggerid'].encode(), dependsOnTriggerid=masterTriggerObj[0]['triggerid'])
print "----------------------------------------"
print ""

Answer 2

I updated the code contributed by Simone Zabberoni and rewritten it to work with Python 3, PyZabbix, and YAML.
#!/usr/bin/python3
import re
import yaml
#https://pypi.org/project/py-zabbix/
from pyzabbix import ZabbixAPI
# Zabbix Server endpoint
zabbix_server = 'https://zabbix.example.com/zabbix/'
zabbix_user = 'zbxuser'
zabbix_pass = 'zbxpassword'
# Create ZabbixAPI class instance
zapi = ZabbixAPI(zabbix_server)
# Enable HTTP auth
zapi.session.auth = (zabbix_user, zabbix_pass)
# Login (in case of HTTP Auth, only the username is needed, the password, if passed, will be ignored)
zapi.login(zabbix_user, zabbix_pass)
# Hostgrop variables - to reference IDs while building API parameters
hostGroupNames = [] # list = array
hostGroupId = {} # dict = associative array
# yaml file for dep settings - see the format:
"""
pvebar16 CTs:
master: pvebar16.example.com
masterTargetTriggerDescription: 'is unavailable by ICMP'
slaveTargetTriggerDescription: 'is unavailable by ICMP|Zabbix agent is unreachable for 5 minutes'
"""
fileName = 'dependancy.yml'
with open('dependancy.yml') as f:
hostData = yaml.load(f)
for groupyml in hostData.keys():
masterTargetTriggerDescription = hostData[groupyml]['masterTargetTriggerDescription']
slaveTargetTriggerDescription = hostData[groupyml]['slaveTargetTriggerDescription']
masterName = hostData[groupyml]['master']
hostgroupName = groupyml
slaveIds = []
masterId = zapi.host.get(filter={'host': masterName},output=['hostid'])[0]['hostid']
hostGroupId = zapi.hostgroup.get(filter={'name': hostgroupName},output=['groupid'])[0]['groupid']
masterTriggerObj = zapi.trigger.get(host=masterName, filter={'description': masterTargetTriggerDescription}, output=['triggerid','description'])
print("Group: " + hostgroupName + " - ID: " + str(hostGroupId))
print("Master host: " + masterName + " - ID: " + str(masterId))
print("Master trigger: " + masterTriggerObj[0]['description'] + " - ID: " + str(masterTriggerObj[0]['triggerid']))
# cycle through slave hosts
hostGroupObj = zapi.hostgroup.get(groupids=hostGroupId, selectHosts='extend')
for host in hostGroupObj[0]['hosts']:
#exclude master
if host['hostid'] != str(masterId):
print(" - Host Name: " + host['name'] + " - ID: " + host['hostid'] + " - MASTER: " + str(masterId))
# cycle for all slave's triggers
slaveTargetTriggerObj = zapi.trigger.get(hostids=host['hostid'])
for slaveTargetTrigger in slaveTargetTriggerObj:
# search for dependancy targets
if re.search(slaveTargetTriggerDescription, slaveTargetTrigger['description'] ,re.IGNORECASE):
print(" - Trigger: " + slaveTargetTrigger['description'] + " - ID: " + slaveTargetTrigger['triggerid'])
# Clear existing dep. from the trigger, then create the new dep.
clear = zapi.trigger.deletedependencies(triggerid=slaveTargetTrigger['triggerid'])
result = zapi.trigger.adddependencies(triggerid=slaveTargetTrigger['triggerid'], dependsOnTriggerid=masterTriggerObj[0]['triggerid'])
print("----------------------------------------")
print("")