Mapping Zabbix problems to existing Dynatrace entities

By adding a tag to a Zabbix problem you can send problem opening events to any Dynatrace entity. This is useful for example if Zabbix monitors entities such as databases or services which are also monitored by Dynatrace. By utilizing this extension functionality, you will have the proper mapping of events between Zabbix host entities and your existing Dynatrace entities.

Enabling the mapping

  1. Configure the name of the Zabbix tag in the extension configuration in the option Zabbix tag for Dynatrace entities. This tag will be evaluated by the extension and its value will be used for mapping when Zabbix problems are synchronized. For example, use the name DT_Entity

  2. Save the extension configuration in Dynatrace UI

  3. Add this tag in Zabbix configuration to the desired templates or triggers. The value of the tag must be a valid entity selector.

    1. Dynatrace entitySelector, such as type("SERVICE"),tag("MyTag")The entity selector may evaluate to any entity type or list of entities.

Mapping process

When a problem is opened in Zabbix, the extension:

  1. Iterates through the tags of the Zabbix problem.

  2. For each problem tag with the key specified in the extension configuration option, the extension considers the value as a Dynatrace entity selector

  3. Extension sends a Dynatrace event with an entity selector from the tag.

Be careful with the scope when using the entitySelector. The extension will send a problem opening event to each Dynatrace entity.

Especially in combination with allowDavisMerge set to false, this may result in many separate problems in Dynatrace for a single Zabbix problem.

Configuration example

This example illustrates how to configure Zabbix to send events to Dynatrace entities using Zabbix templates. In this case database services.

Add the configured Zabbix tag to the desired template as shown in the figure. You can use any existing templates.

In this case, we are using the Dynatrace entitySelector to send any future Zabbix problems generated from triggers in this template to the corresponding database service in Dynatrace using Zabbix macro {HOST.NAME}.

 

Ensure the template is linked to your Zabbix hosts. In this case, it’s the Zabbix host named ttrss representing the database.

 

Zabbix will attach the tag to problems created by triggers in this template automatically. You can see it in the figure, including the expanded macro.

 

As soon as the extension processes this problem, it will look up entities specified by the value of the tag and the extension will send problems to each entity in Dynatrace.

The Zabbix problem may have multiple tags - problem opening events will be sent to each entity.

In this example, the entitySelector resolved to a single MySQL database service in Dynatrace named ttrss.

 

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