Table of Contents
2 Problems
Overview
In Monitoring → Problems you can see what problems you currently have. Problems are those triggers that are in the "Problem" state.
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Time | Problem start time is displayed. |
| Severity | Problem severity is displayed. Problem severity is originally based on the severity of the underlying problem trigger, however, after the event has happened it can be updated using the Update problem screen. Color of the problem severity is used as cell background during problem time. |
| Recovery time | Problem resolution time is displayed. |
| Status | Problem status is displayed: Problem - unresolved problem Resolved - recently resolved problem. You can hide recently resolved problems using the filter. New and recently resolved problems blink for 2 minutes. Resolved problems are displayed for 5 minutes in total. Both of these values are configurable in Administration → General → Trigger displaying options. |
| Info | A green information icon is displayed if a problem is closed by global correlation or manually when updating the problem. Rolling a mouse over the icon will display more details: The following icon is displayed if a suppressed problem is being shown (see Show suppressed problems option in the filter). Rolling a mouse over the icon will display more details:  |
| Host | Problem host is displayed. |
| Problem | Problem name is displayed. Problem name is based on the name of the underlying problem trigger. Macros in the trigger name are resolved at the time of the problem happening and the resolved values do not update any more. Note that it is possible to append the problem name with operational data showing some latest item values. Clicking on the problem name brings up the event menu. Hovering on the  icon after the problem name will bring up the trigger description (for those problems that have it). |
| Operational data | Operational data are displayed containing latest item values. Operational data can be a combination of text and item value macros, if configured on a trigger level. If no operational data is configured on a trigger level, latest values of all items from the expression are displayed. This column is only displayed if Separately is selected for Show operational data in the filter. |
| Duration | Problem duration is displayed. See also: Negative problem duration |
| Ack | The acknowledgment status of the problem is displayed: Yes - green text indicating that the problem is acknowledged. A problem is considered to be acknowledged if all events for it are acknowledged. No - a red link indicating unacknowledged events. If you click on the link you will be taken to the problem update screen where various actions can be taken on the problem, including commenting and acknowledging the problem. |
| Actions | History of activities about the problem is displayed using symbolic icons: - comments have been made. The number of comments is also displayed. - problem severity has been increased (e.g. Information → Warning) - problem severity has been decreased (e.g. Warning → Information) - problem severity has been changed, but returned to the original level (e.g. Warning → Information → Warning) - actions have been taken. The number of actions is also displayed. - actions have been taken, at least one is in progress. The number of actions is also displayed. - actions have been taken, at least one has failed. The number of actions is also displayed.When rolling the mouse over the icons, popups with details about the activity are displayed. See viewing details for the explanation on icons used in the popup for actions taken. |
| Tags | Event tags are displayed (if any). In addition, tags from an external ticketing system may also be displayed (see the Process tags option when configuring webhooks). |
Operational data of problems
It is possible to display operational data for current problems, i.e. the latest item values as opposed to the item values at the time of the problem.
Operational data display can be configured in the filter of Monitoring → Problems or in the configuration of the respective dashboard widget, by selecting one of the three options:
- None - no operational data is displayed
- Separately - operational data is displayed in a separate column
- With problem name - operational data is appended to the problem name and in parentheses. Operational data are appended to the problem name only if the Operational data field is non-empty in the trigger configuration.
The content of operational data can be configured with each trigger, in the Operational data field. This field accepts an arbitrary string with macros, most importantly, the {ITEM.LASTVALUE<1-9>} macro.
{ITEM.LASTVALUE<1-9>} in this field will always resolve to the latest values of items in the trigger expression. {ITEM.VALUE<1-9>} in this field will resolve to the item values at the moment of trigger status change (i.e. change into problem, change into OK, being closed manually by user or being closed by correlation).
Note that closing the problem manually does not produce a new value so the resolved value of {ITEM.LASTVALUE<1-9>} or {ITEM.VALUE<1-9>} will still show the value from the problem time.
{ITEM.LASTVALUE<1-9>} or {ITEM.VALUE<1-9>} will resolve to *UNKNOWN* if the latest history value has been collected more than the Max history display period time ago (see Administration → General).
Negative problem duration
It is actually possible in some common situations to have negative problem duration i.e. when the problem resolution time is earlier than problem creation time, e. g.:
- If some host is monitored by proxy and a network error happens, leading to no data received from the proxy for a while, the item.nodata() trigger will be fired by the server. When the connection is restored, the server will receive item data from the proxy having a time from the past. Then, the item.nodata() problem will be resolved and it will have a negative problem duration;
- When item data that resolve the problem event are sent by Zabbix sender and contain a timestamp earlier than the problem creation time, a negative problem duration will also be displayed.
Negative problem duration is not affecting SLA calculation or Availability report of a particular trigger in any way; it neither reduces nor expands problem time.
Mass editing options
Buttons below the list offer some mass-editing options:
- Mass update - update the selected problems by navigating to the problem update screen
To use this option, mark the checkboxes before the respective problems, then click on the Mass update button.
Buttons
Button to the right offers the following option:
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Export content from all pages to a CSV file. |
View mode buttons being common for all sections are described on the Monitoring page.
Using filter
You can use the filter to display only the problems you are interested in. For better search performance, data is searched with macros unresolved.
The filter is located above the table.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| Show | Filter by problem status: Recent problems - unresolved and recently resolved problems are displayed (default) Problems - unresolved problems are displayed History - history of all events is displayed |
| Host groups | Filter by one or more host groups. Specifying a parent host group implicitly selects all nested host groups. |
| Hosts | Filter by one or more hosts. |
| Application | Filter by application name. |
| Triggers | Filter by one or more triggers. |
| Problem | Filter by problem name. |
| Severity | Filter by trigger (problem) severity. |
| Age less than | Filter by how old the problem is. |
| Host inventory | Filter by inventory type and value. |
| Tags | Filter by event tag name and value. Several conditions can be set. There are two calculation types for conditions: And/Or - all conditions must be met, conditions having same tag name will be grouped by Or condition Or - enough if one condition is met There are two ways of matching the tag value: Contains - case-sensitive substring match (tag value contains the entered string) Equals - case-sensitive string match (tag value equals the entered string) When filtered, the tags specified here will be displayed first with the problem, unless overridden by the Tag display priority (see below) list. |
| Show tags | Select the number of displayed tags: None - no Tags column in Monitoring → Problems 1 - Tags column contains one tag 2 - Tags column contains two tags 3 - Tags column contains three tags To see all tags for the problem roll your mouse over the three dots icon. |
| Tag name | Select tag name display mode: Full - tag names and values are displayed in full Shortened - tag names are shortened to 3 symbols; tag values are displayed in full None - only tag values are displayed; no names |
| Tag display priority | Enter tag display priority for a problem, as a comma-separated list of tags (for example: Services,Applications,Application). Tag names only should be used, no values. The tags of this list will always be displayed first, overriding the natural ordering by alphabet. |
| Show operational data | Select the mode for displaying operational data: None - no operational data is displayed Separately - operational data is displayed in a separate column With problem name - append operational data to the problem name, using parentheses for the operational data |
| Show suppressed problems | Mark the checkbox to display problems which would otherwise be suppressed (not shown) because of host maintenance. |
| Compact view | Mark the checkbox to enable compact view. |
| Show details | Mark the checkbox to display underlying trigger expressions of the problems. Disabled if Compact view checkbox is marked. |
| Show unacknowledged only | Mark the checkbox to display unacknowledged problems only. |
| Show timeline | Mark the checkbox to display the visual timeline and grouping. Disabled if Compact view checkbox is marked. |
| Highlight whole row | Mark the checkbox to highlight the full line for unresolved problems. The problem severity color is used for the highlighting. Enabled only if the Compact view checkbox is marked in the standard blue and dark themes. Highlight whole row is not available in the high-contrast themes. |
Event menu
Clicking on the problem name brings up the event menu:
The event menu allows to:
- filter the problems of the trigger
- access the trigger configuration
- access a simple graph/item history of the underlying item(s)
- access an external ticket of the problem (if configured, see the Include event menu entry option when configuring webhooks)
Viewing details
The times for problem start and recovery in Monitoring → Problems are links. Clicking on them opens more details of the event.
Note how the problem severity differs for the trigger and the problem event - for the problem event it has been updated using the Update problem screen.
In the action list, the following icons are used to denote the activity type:
- problem event generated
- message has been sent
- problem event acknowledged
- problem event unacknowledged
- comment has been added- - problem severity has been increased (e.g. Information → Warning)
- - problem severity has been decreased (e.g. Warning → Information)
- - problem severity has been changed, but returned to the original level (e.g. Warning → Information → Warning)
- remote command has been executed
- problem event has recovered
- problem has been closed manually