OPTAGE overcame issues related to increasing costs and inadequate resource visualization capabilities by combining their existing JP1 system with Zabbix and utilizing the advantages of both solutions, thereby creating the ideal monitoring environment
Reduction of the monitoring cost, reduction of the workload for installing agents, and improved visualization of resource information
Ability to reduce the cost and the workload for installation while covering all items to be monitored
Ability to continue using the existing notification integration process
Investigate a cost structure that does not rely on the number of servers
Embed agents into OS templates by using Zabbix to reduce the workload
Meet requirements that cannot be covered by a single solution by combining JP1 and Zabbix
Annual cost reduction of more than 10 million yen has been made possible
Automated the installation of agents that used to take about 2 hours per server
Resource graphs are now provided via browsers, enabling the visualization of resource information
OPTAGE was established in 2019, as a part of a business strategy of the Kansai Electric Power Group, in which several companies operating in the information and communication sector had been reorganized. They provide a residential communication service called “eo HIKARI” in the Kansai area, as well as offering a wide range of information and communication services in Japan, such as a budget smart phone service "mineo" for business and personal users, and corporate ICT services and systems integration (SI). OPTAGE is proactively working on Web 3.0 within the company, and also making progress in leveraging generative AI tools.
OPTAGE started looking for a new monitoring solution in 2021. They had been using JP1 for a long time, but as standard support was coming to an end in three years, they started considering a replacement.
At that time, one of the company's major issues was the increasing cost. “In accordance with business diversification and provision of new services, the total number of monitored servers had reached approximately 1,000 in both the production and verification environments. Licenses for JP1 agents and maintenance contracts were required for each server, and, as a result, the annual cost increased to over 10 million yen. Since we were planning to increase the number of monitored servers, it was necessary to reduce the cost,” explains Mr. Teppei Taenaka, Sub-manager of IT Infrastructure and Technical Support Team, Corporate IT Systems Department, Corporate Management Division, OPTAGE.
Another issue they were facing was installing monitoring agents when building new servers. It was time-consuming and labor-intensive, which posed a significant burden. JP1 agents need to be installed from media each time a new server is set up for monitoring. "There was an operational burden as we had to coordinate workload within the company and produce manuals for each version. Also, the installation task itself took about two hours,” says Mr. Taenaka.
Additionally, since various methods were used to check server resources depending on the system, there was no centralized monitoring dashboard, making it difficult to optimize the resources. In light of this background, Mr. Taenaka explains the reason why they decided to look into a new solution: “We concluded that it is necessary to visualize resource information across all monitoring systems.”
Upon implementing a new solution, OPTAGE investigated several different products, focusing on cost-saving open-source software (OSS). Their final choice was Zabbix, as it had been previously employed in other departments.
“Zabbix already had a proven track record in other departments, with its functions such as system monitoring, alert notification, and performance visualization. Since Zabbix agents can be embedded in OS templates, the installation work can be automated when building a virtual server. In addition, server resource usage can be visualized through graphs provided in the browser. In terms of the cost, we thought that monitoring cost could be significantly reduced, considering the fact that Zabbix is open-source software and that the support provided by our partner Ashisuto is not dependent on the number of monitored servers.” (Mr. Taenaka)
However, there were some requirements that Zabbix alone could not meet. Since SNMP Trap monitoring cannot be implemented with Zabbix alone, it was difficult to cover all items to be monitored. Another issue was that a full migration to Zabbix would make it impossible to continue using the existing notification integration process, such as JP1/Integrated Management 2 (JP1/IM2), which means that costs for maintenance and testing would be increased.
Given this situation, OPTAGE’s partner and support company, Ashisuto, suggested combining two solutions: JP1 and Zabbix. This proposal was made possible only by a vendor-neutral company like Ashisuto, which offers a wide range of products. With this solution, Zabbix will manage health check, log monitoring, process monitoring and resource monitoring, and resource monitoring, while JP1 will manage SNMP Trap monitoring. Events detected by Zabbix will be shared with JP1, and JP1 will handle mail notifications.
“Another issue was that it was difficult to change JP1/IM2 because it was interconnected with other tools. There are actually many cases like this, and we thought an integrated solution would be a good match,” explains Ms. Kaori Sonoyama, Manager of the Technology Department 3, System Infrastructure Technology Division, Business Infrastructure Technical Group, Ashisuto.
This integrated solution enabled cost and workload reduction for installing agents, as well as resource visualization. It also enabled coverage of all items to be monitored, which was not possible with a single tool alone, and to continue using the existing notification integration process. Thus, a monitoring system that maximizes the advantages of both products has been implemented.
Building the Zabbix monitoring system and migrating from JP1 went smoothly. Templates were created for standard monitoring items, such as health and resource monitoring, which will be automatically linked when registering hosts. System-specific monitoring items for detection and other settings were also made into templates, and system administrators now only need to input system-specific items such as process names.
In addition, it was decided to make configuration more accessible, and user manuals for Zabbix monitoring configuration were created to allow users to configure Zabbix settings themselves. The manuals were prepared by verifying procedures with actual machines so that users with no prior experience of Zabbix can configure it. "Zabbix is GUI-based and user-friendly. We also received a range of support from Ashisuto, such as explanation of the functions and advise for creating manuals. We were able to conduct the verification smoothly and reflected the results in the manuals,” says Mr. Yu Hirayama, IT Infrastructure and Technical Support Team, Corporate IT Systems Department, Corporate Management Division, OPTAGE. As a result of creating the templates and manuals and making the configuration more accessible, the time spent on configuring monitoring was significantly reduced, and operational efficiency was improved.
For the installation of Zabbix agents, Ansible was utilized. Zabbix agents were automatically deployed from Ansible to approximately 1,000 target servers for monitoring within the corporate system. Ansible was also used for configuring the agents, and the processes leading up to the start of monitoring were automated. This approach to using Ansible was also advised by Ashisuto.
In September 2023, OPTAGE successfully migrated their monitoring system from a JP1-only environment to a combination of Zabbix and JP1. By doing so, “We expect this will save approximately 10 million yen annually in licensing and maintenance costs alone. This also eliminated the need to install monitoring agents, which used to take about 2 hours per server. As a result, we can now quickly respond to virtual server allocation requests from the application department. We also believe that the centralized visualization of resource information for the monitored virtual machines has enabled more advanced operation of the monitoring infrastructure,” adds Mr. Kei Hirai, Team Manager of IT Infrastructure and Technical Support Team, Corporate IT Systems Department, Corporate Management Division, OPTAGE. Thus, the solution of combining Zabbix and JP1 solved all the initial issues: reduction of the cost, reduction of the workload for installing agents, and visualization of resources.
When implementing the solution, “We found that the cooperation from Ashisuto, who provided expertise and knowledge, was extremely valuable,” recalls Mr. Hirai. “We were not only able to solve all current issues but also to develop an operational design that takes into account future requirements based on the life cycle of the OSS products. All of this was made possible thanks to the expertise of Ashisuto. As a vendor-neutral company, Ashisuto is able to select the best products and propose the most suitable solution for us. We really appreciate their support. I have always been impressed by the high standard of service from Ashisuto's support center: we can inquire about Zabbix and JP1 even though we have limited knowledge of them, which is very helpful.” (Mr. Hirai)
The company is considering expanding the use of Zabbix in the future and is interested in implementing more advanced monitoring systems, such as monitoring middleware parameters and services. They are also looking into further simplifying the configuration of monitoring settings by utilizing the API.
Since it is now possible to visualize resource information, they are planning to analyze server resources, such as CPU, memory, and disks, in order to promote resource optimization. “We would like to increase the use of Ansible in the future and may consider running tasks that can be triggered by events detected in Zabbix,” says Mr. Taenaka, showing his willingness to develop further advanced system environments.
OPTAGE provides telecommunications services based on its independent optical fiber network distributed throughout the Kansai region. Services for consumer include the Internet, telephone, and TV. For corporations, it offers customized solutions using various services in response to companies’ diverse demands.
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