Zabbix was released in 2004 and is a robust web-based network monitoring tool capable of monitoring many hundreds of hosts and running thousands of checks per host at any set time. Zabbix is completely open source and does not have enterprise or paid versions. Zabbix takes just a few minutes to install, even by a beginner, and it can be fully configured through a web-based interface. The following screenshot shows the Zabbix 3.0 dashboard after logging in through the web GUI:

Zabbix has a very active community and many downloadable templates used to monitor a variety of devices or equipment. It is also comparatively easier to create our own custom Zabbix template for nonstandard devices. More details on Zabbix can be found on the official Zabbix site at http://www.zabbix.com/.

Why give preference to Zabbix over mainstream monitoring systems, such as Nagios or Icinga, or any other solutions currently available? The reason is that Zabbix offers simplicity, without sacrificing any of the features that make a great monitoring system. Zabbix is fully managed through the GUI, without requiring you to edit any script file through the CLI. This eases the burden of device configuration through the script file, such as in the case of a Nagios-based monitoring system. Whether it is a small network environment or a large one spread across regions, Zabbix is up to the challenge.