OS: CentOS 6.2 x86_64
DB: postgresql-server-8.4.9
Hardware: VMWare virtual machine with 2GB RAM and 2 vCPU

Zabbix server is running Yes localhost:10051
Number of hosts (monitored/not monitored/templates) 129 47 / 0 / 82
Number of items (monitored/disabled/not supported) 8344 4235 / 3533 / 576
Number of triggers (enabled/disabled)[problem/unknown/ok] 3360 3354 / 6 [39 / 0 / 3315]
Required server performance, new values per second 67.04 -

Which update interval for the discovery rule is used at the moment?
How many similar discovery rules (for big switches) do you have?
I suppose for similar cases should be used the big update interval like one hour or even more.

Port

Alias IF-MIB-ifAlias.[

] 1800 30 365 SNMPv2 agent Enabled Network
Port

InCRC .1.3.6.1.4.1.9.2.2.1.1.12.[

] 1800 30 365 SNMPv2 agent Enabled Network
Port

InOctets IF-MIB-ifHCInOctets.[

] 180 30 365 SNMPv2 agent Enabled Network
Port

OutErrors IF-MIB-ifOutErrors.[

] 180 30 365 SNMPv2 agent Enabled Network
Port

OutUcastPkts IF-MIB-ifHCOutUcastPkts.[

] 3600 30 365 SNMPv2 agent Enabled Network

Here you are, 180 secs for most checks. I don't think that the interval is the issue anyway, as I said the high load happens even with all items disabled! And what's the point of monitoring port traffic ONCE in a hour

Sorry, I didn't understand you meant the discovery rule interval and not the items! It's every 3600 secs

Cristian, I meant the discovery rule but not item prototypes. They are different things.
And the update interval for discovery rules is VERY important for your big switches.

Find a text:
The field “Update interval (in sec)” specifies how often Zabbix performs discovery. In the beginning, when you are just setting up file system discovery, you might wish to set it to a small interval, but once you know it works you can set it to 30 minutes or more, because file systems usually do not change very often.
here:
http://www.zabbix.com/documentation/2.0/manual/discovery/low_level_discovery

I replied right above you, but I don't have "load spikes" very hour: the load is continuous. I can set the discovery interval to something like 86400 and see if things get better

> but I don't have "load spikes" very hour: the load is continuous. I can set the discovery interval to something like 86400 and see if things get better

Yes, try it.
5173 discovered items (I suppose it's count of interfaces, maybe even filtered) it's not a joke but enough serious task.

zabbix 2.0 cpu load with postgresql

As you can see from the attached image as soon as I added the switch the load skyrocketed adn didn't drop for many hours, so I don' think the discovery interval is the issue here.

As a test I dumped all the configuration and reimported into mysql. The load dropped from 1.6 to 0.3. I'll keep testing with mysql but I think the problem is linked to pgsql.

Thanks

I was being too optimist, I still have heavy load with MySQL but the situation is way better: average load around 0.7 as soon as I add the switch to the template. I still have the pgsql db in place so if you need some data just ask

Well, shame on me: I had a flexible interval of 50 secs on the discovery rule. Removed it and the load now is around 0.2. Thank Oleksiy for your time and again sorry. You can close.

Issue closed as Cannot reproduce

Cristian, btw, would be interesting to know how many time zabbix server spends to discover and process single discovery rule with creation 5173 items and 2792 triggers.
Could you somehow measure?

Well I can create a new empty db and only import the discovery template. I'll do some tests this evening and let you know

Bye

I created an empty db and populated it with the schema and so on, then I stopped zabbix_server and started with the new db.
Imported the discovery template, added the switch to it and logged everything with tcpdump. Surprisingly it lasted only 2 seconds to snmpwalk the switch and populate the items:

2012-03-21 20:43:04.946398 IP srvzabbix.xxxxx.xx.52670 > sw3570racka.xxxxx.xx.snmp: GetNextRequest(30) 31.1.1.1.1
...
2012-03-21 20:43:06.160733 IP sw3570racka.xxxxx.xx.snmp > srvzabbix.xxxxx.xx.52670: GetResponse(35) 31.1.1.1.1.14501="Nu0"

So I don't understand why with a discovery every 50 secs it was putting so much load on the db

You observed only network traffic, but probably would be correct to watch CPU utilization after that SNMP walk.