Zenoss Core

Zenoss Community Edition is a free and open-source application, server, and network management platform based on the Zope application server. Released under the GNU General Public License version 2, Zenoss Community Edition provides a web interface that allows system administrators to monitor availability, inventory/configuration, performance, and events.

Zenoss Community Edition
Zenoss running under Linux
Developer(s)Zenoss Inc.
Stable release
Zenoss Core 6.3.2[1] / October 17, 2019 (2019-10-17)[1]
Written inPython 90%, Java 10%
TypeNetwork management system
LicenseGPLv2
Websitehttps://community.zenoss.com

Zenoss Community Edition is by Zenoss Inc., which was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas. The company develops hybrid IT monitoring and analytics software.[2]

Technology overview

Zenoss combines original programming and several open source projects to integrate data storage and data collection processes with a web-based user interface.

Zenoss is built upon the following open source technologies:

  • Zope Application server: An object-oriented web server written in Python.
  • Python: Extensible programming language.
  • Net-SNMP: Monitoring protocol that collects systems status information.
  • RRDtool: Graph and log time series data.
  • MySQL: A popular open source database.
  • Twisted: An event-driven networking engine written in Python.
  • Lucene: A full text search library written in Java.
  • OpenTSDB: Time series database (from Zenoss Core 5).
  • Docker (software): Container virtualization (from Zenoss Core 5).
  • D3.js: Interactive graphic Javascript library (from Zenoss Core 5).

Zenoss Core provides the following capabilities:

  • Monitoring availability of network devices using SNMP, SSH, WMI
  • Monitoring of network services (HTTP, POP3, NNTP, SNMP, FTP)
  • Monitoring of host resources (processor, disk usage) on most network operating systems.
  • Time-series performance monitoring of devices
  • Extended Microsoft Windows monitoring via WS-Management and Zenoss open source extensions
  • Event management tools to annotate system alerts
  • Automatically discovers network resources and changes in network configuration
  • Alerting system provides notifications based on rule sets and on-call calendars
  • Supports Nagios plug-in format

Platform

Zenoss Inc. lists the following operating systems for Zenoss Core on their download page:[3]

Zenoss versions 5.1 support

Zenoss version 4.2 support

A web-based portal provides operating system agnostic access to configuration and administration functions. Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer/Edge are supported.

ZenPacks

ZenPacks[5] provide a plug-in architecture that allows community members to extend Zenoss's functionality. The authors are free to choose how they license their individual ZenPacks. ZenPacks are encapsulated in Python eggs and provide instrumentation and reports for monitored infrastructure components. Currently there are over 400 ZenPacks[6] available for various versions of Zenoss.

Enterprise

The enterprise version builds on the core version by providing commercial support and additional features, such as synthetic web transactions and global dashboards. "In the enterprise edition," writes Sean Michael Kerner, "Zenoss is adding something it calls end-user experience monitoring which is intended to more accurately simulate end-user application activity." Kerner continues, "Enterprise users also get certified application monitors specifically geared for Microsoft SQL and Exchange."

Developer

Zenoss Community Edition was developed by Zenoss Inc. and is supported by the Zenoss User Community.

Zenoss competes with other open source and proprietary enterprise systems management products. Open source systems management products are available from GroundWork Inc., Hyperic and Opsview. In an interview with Jack Loftus of SearchEnterpriseLinux.com, Bill Karpovich explains what makes Zenoss different:

"Companies like GroundWork are similar to the Red Hat approach, where a company gathers up the pieces and puts support behind it. Our approach is we have always had the code and we are in control of its roadmap and indemnification. The Hyperic model is where a company comes from a commercial background and makes some of the code open source."[7]

Industry reviews

In a Network Computing review, Jeff Ballard singles out the Zenoss Core 2.0 user interface and event management system as highlights. Of the event management system, Ballard says, "By aggregating all events through a single rules-processing engine, Zenoss Core eliminates duplication, making for a manageable user interface."

In his review, Ballard finds the installation troubling. "Unfortunately, getting started was challenging as Zenoss provided no context-sensitive help to guide us through a truly staggering number of configuration options."

In the "Clear Choice Tests" Network World reviewer Barry Nance offers the following praise for Zenoss Core 2, "Even more impressive than its discovery of our network is its remediation features, which can automatically execute start or stop operations for a Windows service, for example." Nance's review finds that "Zenoss Core doesn’t support as many diverse devices as HP OpenView or Argent Extended Technologies, nor does it monitor Microsoft Exchange or SQL Server as closely as a commercial tool does."

SYS-CON Media awards Zenoss Core the 2007 Enterprise Open Source Reader's choice award for best Linux systems management software. Reader choice awards are nominated and voted on by the community of Enterprise Open Source Magazine readers.

Books
TitleAuthorPublisherDateLengthISBN
Zenoss Core 3.x Network and System MonitoringMichael BadgerPacktMay 2011312 (first edition)ISBN 978-1-84951-158-2
A step-by-step guide to configuring, using, and adapting Zenoss Core 3.
Zenoss Core: Network and System MonitoringMichael BadgerPacktJune 2008261 pp (first edition)ISBN 978-1-84719-428-2
A step-by-step guide to configuring, using, and adapting this free Open Source network monitoring system.

See also

References
  1. "Zenoss Community Edition (Core) Release Notes Release 6.3.2" (PDF).
  2. C4ISRNET. "Air Force set to benefit from transparent network management". C4ISRNET. Retrieved 2017-04-19.
  3. Zenoss install wiki page
  4. hydruid (30 October 2017). "zenoss: Zenoss related scripts for Ubuntu and Debian" – via GitHub.
  5. "ZenPack - Zenoss Wiki". wiki.zenoss.org.
  6. "Category:ZenPacks - Zenoss Wiki". wiki.zenoss.org.
  7. "Zenoss takes on IBM, HP systems management".
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