Zabbix modern dashboard using DASHING

This page explains how to setup Ruby on Rails + Dashing + Zabbix monitoring dashboard.

This is an alternative to the ugly Zabbix default dashboard.

Sources

• Dashing official website: http://shopify.github.io/dashing/
• Zabbix dashboards:
  • Nice looking dashboard: https://github.com/tolleiv/dashing-zabbix
  • Simple dashboard: https://gist.github.com/chojayr/7401426

Requirements

Firewall

Dashing is running on the port TCP 3030.

IPTABLES=`which iptables`
$IPTABLES -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dport 3030 -j ACCEPT
$IPTABLES -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 3030 -j ACCEPT

Ruby

Before starting you need to install some packages:

# Install Ruby
sudo apt-get install ruby
sudo apt-get install rbenv

# Ruby dependencies manager
sudo apt-get install bundler

# Javascript library for Ruby
sudo apt-get install ruby-execjs

# Ensure version is >= 1.9.0
sudo ruby --version

To work with Dashing & Zabbix you need some libraries as well:

# Common Ruby libraries
sudo gem install activesupport
sudo gem install execjs
sudo gem install thin
sudo gem install daemon
sudo gem install bundler

# Zabbix required libraries to work with Dashing
sudo gem install zabby

# Dashing library
sudo gem install dashing

Zabbix dashboard

Create a new dashboard

cd ~
dashing new zabbix_dashboard
cd ~/zabbix_dashboard

Remove the Twitter board (if you're not using it)

rm jobs/twitter.rb

[!] If you want to use Twitter dashboard you must adjust the Gemfile.

Get Zabbix dashboard sources

# Get Zabbix dashboard files
cd /tmp
wget https://github.com/tolleiv/dashing-zabbix/archive/master.zip
unzip master.zip
cd dashing-zabbix-master

# Backup default files
mv ~/zabbix_dashboard/Gemfile ~/zabbix_dashboard/Gemfile.backup
mv ~/zabbix_dashboard/README.md ~/zabbix_dashboard/README_dashing.md

# Copy files to your local installation
cp -r * ~/zabbix_dashboard/

Configure dashboard

Set your zabbix credentials

cd ~/zabbix_dashboard/
cp zabbix_credentials.example.rb zabbix_credentials.rb
vim zabbix_credentials.rb

>> You need to set your server URL + credentials. The user must have admin rights.

Dashboard generation

You have to build the dashboard before using it!

cd ~/zabbix_dashboard/
bundle install

[!] NOTE: If you change some files then you need to update instead of install == bundle update

Start dashboard

To start the dashboard you need to launch dashing:

cd ~/zabbix_dashboard/
dashing start

Point your browser at http://localhost:3030 or http://myServer:3030 and have fun!

To see the zabbix dashboard => http://localhost:3030/zabbix_status

Hints

Start dashboard on boot

If you want to start your dashboard on boot you must create a new init.d script.

cd /etc/init.d/
sudo vim dashboard

Put the following content:

#!/bin/bash
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:             dashboard
# Required-Start:       $all
# Required-Stop:        $remote_fs $syslog
# Default-Start:        2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop:         0 1 6
# Short-Description:    Zabbix dashing dashboard
### END INIT INFO

# This script is based upon: https://gist.github.com/gregology/5313326


set -e
. /lib/lsb/init-functions

# Must be a valid filename
NAME=dashing
DASHING_DIR=/home/vadmin/zabbix_dashboard
PIDFILE="$DASHING_DIR/$NAME.pid"
DAEMON=/usr/local/bin/$NAME
GEM_HOME=/var/lib/gems/1.9.1


PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:$GEM_HOME



DASHING_PORT=3030
DAEMON_OPTS="start -d -p $DASHING_PORT -P $PIDFILE --tag $NAME -D"

### Ensure DASHING is installed
test -x $DAEMON || { log_failure_msg "$NAME not installed";exit 1; }

### This script must be executed as root
function checkuser() {
  if [[ $UID != 0 ]]; then
    if [[ `whoami` != "$RUNUSER" ]]; then
      log_failure_msg "$1 must be run as root or $RUNUSER"
      exit 1
    fi
  fi
}

function start_dashing() {
  log_action_msg "Starting daemon: $NAME" || true
  sleep 5
  start-stop-daemon --verbose --quiet --start --chdir $DASHING_DIR --exec $DAEMON -- $DAEMON_OPTS
  log_end_msg 0
}

function stop_dashing() {
  log_action_msg "Stopping daemon: $NAME" || true
  start-stop-daemon --quiet --stop --pidfile $PIDFILE --retry 30 --oknodo
  log_end_msg 0
}


case "$1" in
  start)
    checkuser start
    start_dashing
  ;;
  stop)
    checkuser stop
    stop_dashing
  ;;
  restart)
    checkuser restart
    log_action_msg "Restarting daemon: $NAME"
    stop_dashing
    start_dashing
  ;;
  status)
    status_of_proc -p $DAEMON $NAME
  ;;
  logs)
    tail -F $DASHING_DIR/log/thin.log
  ;;
  *)
  echo "Usage: "$1" {start|stop|restart|status}"
  exit 1
esac

exit 0

Set the rights and register the script

sudo chmod 755 dashboard
sudo update-rc.d dashboard defaults

Create symlink

sudo ln -s /etc/init.d/dashboard /usr/bin/zabbix_dashboard

Restart your server to ensure it works!

sudo update-rc.d -f dashboard defaults