[ZBX-7034] Aliases (item keys) for zabbix agent should be better described Created: 2013 Sep 22  Updated: 2017 May 30  Resolved: 2013 Nov 22

Status: Closed
Project: ZABBIX BUGS AND ISSUES
Component/s: Documentation (D), Installation (I)
Affects Version/s: 2.0.9rc1, 2.1.6
Fix Version/s: 2.2.1rc1

Type: Incident report Priority: Minor
Reporter: Oleksii Zagorskyi Assignee: Martins Valkovskis
Resolution: Fixed Votes: 0
Labels: aliases, configfile, consistency, documentation
Remaining Estimate: Not Specified
Time Spent: Not Specified
Original Estimate: Not Specified

Issue Links:
Duplicate
is duplicated by ZBX-7035 Point out more clearly the usage of a... Closed

 Description   

1. Regarding an "Alias" parameter a page:
https://www.zabbix.com/documentation/2.0/manual/appendix/config/zabbix_agentd
doesn't have clear description and example for the parameter.
since this page:
https://www.zabbix.com/documentation/2.0/manual/appendix/config/zabbix_agentd_win
is much better.

Need to extend *nix page and review windows' one. For example this sentence looks complicated:

Aliases cannot be used for parameters defined in "PerfCounter" configuration file records.

I think it could be:
"Aliases cannot be reused in "PerfCounter" parameters."

Description also should provide a hint that it allows to create several items in zabbix frontend with different custom keys, which will return identical value from agent.
Might be single workaround in case: need several LLD rules with identical keys but with different filters.

2. Default zabbix_agentd.conf must have the parameter syntax example. Also need to mention that multiple aliases are allowed.

3. For both 1 and 2: why we say "Sets an alias for parameter" ?
Why not "Sets an alias for item key" ?
Which would be more correct! IMO.

 Comments   
Comment by Oleksii Zagorskyi [ 2013 Sep 23 ]

(1) Some doc changes were made in duplicated ZBX-7035.
But not all aspects described in current issue were included.

Also several other doc pages have to be "synced", according to Sasha's comment in the ZBX-7035.

<richlv> note - this will be done after config files themselves will be reviewed & merged

synced config file changes to the manual. please, reopen if any issues are found - CLOSED.

Comment by richlv [ 2013 Nov 20 ]

fixed in dev branch svn://svn.zabbix.com/branches/dev/ZBX-7034

zalex_ua The changes look great for me.

Comment by Aleksandrs Saveljevs [ 2013 Nov 22 ]

(2) File conf/zabbix_agent.conf was not updated.

<richlv> totally forgot about that one - added in r40427 and omitted the part about it being usable/not in *Item parameters which do not seem to be relevant here. used linux example as this file seems to be linux oriented and we do not have agent on windows, as far as i know.

RESOLVED

asaveljevs Looks good, CLOSED.

Comment by Aleksandrs Saveljevs [ 2013 Nov 22 ]

(3) In file conf/zabbix_agentd.conf, example is given as:

Alias=zabbix.userid=vfs.file.regexp[/etc/passwd,^zabbix:.:([0-9]+),,,,\1]

After "zabbix.userid", there should be ":", not "=".

So our agent adds the alias as follows:

26448:20131122:093911.942 Alias added: "zabbix.userid=vfs.file.regexp[/etc/passwd,^zabbix" -> ".:([0-9]+),,,,\1]"

Which returns ZBX_NOTSUPPORTED when queried:

$ zabbix_get -s 127.0.0.1 -k 'zabbix.userid=vfs.file.regexp[/etc/passwd,^zabbix'
ZBX_NOTSUPPORTED

<richlv> whoops. given that i tested it, i don't understand where did that equal sign come from. apparently i need copypaste course. sorry.
RESOLVED in r40426.

asaveljevs CLOSED.

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