2 Problems

Overview

In Monitoring → Problems you can see what problems you currently have. Problems are those triggers that are in the "Problem" state.

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 a 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 nodata(/host/key) 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 nodata(/host/key) 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.

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

The button to the right offers the following option:

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. Favorite filter settings can be saved as tabs and then quickly accessed by clicking on the tabs above the filter.

Tabs for favorite filters

Frequently used sets of filter parameters can be saved in tabs.

To save a new set of filter parameters, open the main tab, and configure the filter settings, then press the Save as button. In a new popup window, define Filter properties.

When saved, the filter is created as a named filter tab and immediately activated.

To edit the filter properties of an existing filter, press the gear symbol next to the active tab name.

Notes:

• To hide the filter area, click on the name of the current tab. Click on the active tab name again to open the filter area again.
• Keyboard navigation is supported: use arrows to switch between tabs, press Enter to open.
• The left/right buttons above the filter may be used to switch between saved filters. Alternatively, the downward pointing button opens a drop-down menu with all saved filters and you can click on the one you need.
• Filter tabs can be re-arranged by dragging and dropping.
• If the settings of a saved filter have been changed (but not saved), a green dot is displayed after the filter name. To update the filter according to the new settings, click on the Update button, which is displayed instead of the Save as button.
• Current filter settings are remembered in the user profile. When the user opens the page again, the filter settings will have stayed the same.

Filter buttons

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)
• execute global scripts (these scripts need to have their scope defined as 'Manual event action'). This feature may be handy for running scripts used for managing problem tickets in external systems.

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
• - a 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)
• - a remote command has been executed
• - problem event has recovered
• - the problem has been closed manually