Project Documentation:

Network Monitoring & Auto Ticketing System

1. Project Overview
This project modernizes and unifies network monitoring, visualization, and incident
management by integrating:

Component Tool Used Replaces

Monitoring Zabbix Nagios

Visualization Grafana Cacti, Old Dashboards

ITSM & Ticketing GLPI OTRS

Objectives

●​ Automate incident detection and ticket creation.

●​ Reduce manual workflows and improve incident response times.
●​ Centralized monitoring, performance visualization, and ticketing.
●​ Real-time visibility into network health and trends.

2. Previous Setup
Tools Used:

●​ Nagios – Monitoring (basic alerts, manual ticket association)

●​ Cacti – Graphs (resource utilization, bandwidth)
●​ Grafana – Separate dashboards for host descriptions
 ●​ OTRS – Ticket creation for network incidents

Problems:

●​ Limited Integration - Poor integration between monitoring, visualization, and

ticketing tools.
●​ No centralized dashboard combining health and performance metrics
●​ Delayed response times due to manual workflows
●​ Fragmented toolchain with limited integration

2. New Solution Architecture

Tools Used
Component Tool

Monitoring Zabbix

Visualization Grafana

Ticketing & ITSM GLPI

Integration Flow

1.​ Zabbix monitors devices and detects issues.

2.​ Zabbix triggers alerts and calls a webhook.
3.​ Webhook creates a ticket in GLPI.
4.​ Grafana visualizes real-time performance metrics directly from Zabbix.
5.​ GLPI sends email notifications for new and updated tickets.

4. Implementation Phases
Phase 1 - Device Onboarding in Zabbix

●​ Devices Added: 230+ (FortiGate, Teltonika, etc.)

●​ Discovery Method: SNMP v2/v3
●​ Templates Applied:
○​ Fortinet Templates for FortiGate
 ○​ Network Templates for Teltonika
○​ ICMP Ping Template
●​ Grouping: Host groups by customer (Ujjivan, Expereo, Appnomics, etc.)
●​ Monitored Parameters:
○​ CPU, Memory, Bandwidth, Uptime, Interface Status, Signal Strength
(Teltonika)

Phase 2 - Zabbix Alert Configuration

●​ Triggers Configured:
○​ Device Down
○​ Critical Interface Down
●​ Notification Flow:
○​ Trigger → Zabbix Action → Webhook (GLPI API Call)

Phase 3 - Zabbix & Grafana Integration

●​ Direct Integration via: Zabbix Datasource Plugin

●​ Dashboard Elements:
○​ Host Uptime
○​ CPU Usage
○​ Memory Usage
○​ Network Traffic
○​ Signal Strength (Teltonika)

Benefits

●​ Unified performance and health dashboards.

●​ Real-time metrics without manual data entry.

Phase 4 - Zabbix & GLPI Integration (Auto Ticketing)

●​ GLPI Setup:
○​ Categories, Impact, Urgency Matrix defined.
○​ Dedicated Zabbix API User created.
●​ Webhook Process:
○​ Trigger detected in Zabbix.
○​ Webhook calls GLPI API.
 ○​ New Ticket created with:
■​ Device Name, IP, Issue, Timestamp, Severity
○​ Category = Network Issue
○​ Assigned to Network Team
●​ Recovery Handling: Zabbix updates/auto-closes ticket on recovery.

Phase 5 - Email Notifications (GLPI)

●​ Notification Events:
○​ New Ticket Created
○​ Ticket Updated (Recovery, Status Change)
●​ Recipients: Network Support Team
●​ Customization: Device, IP, Issue, Priority in email body.

Phase 6 - Documentation & Knowledge Base

●​ Knowledge Base Articles: Common network issues (e.g., Teltonika Low Signal).
●​ Internal Process Docs:
○​ Adding new devices.
○​ Creating monitoring templates.
○​ Customizing Grafana dashboards.
○​ Configuring auto-ticketing rules.

5. Technical Highlights
Component Key Features

Zabbix Monitoring SNMP Polling, Device Discovery, Custom Triggers, Multi-grouping

Zabbix Alerting Webhook to GLPI, Multi-condition triggers

Grafana Real-time Panels, Auto-refresh, Template Variables

Dashboards

GLPI Ticketing Auto Ticketing, Priority Mapping, Notifications, Auto Closure

 Notifications SMTP Alerts, GLPI API Ticket Updates

6. SNMP Role in Monitoring

●​ Why SNMP?
○​ Lightweight, widely supported.
●​ Devices Polled:
○​ FortiGate, Teltonika
●​ Parameters:
○​ CPU, Memory, Uptime, Interface Status, Signal Strength
●​ SNMP Versions:
○​ v2c for standard devices
○​ v3 for secure devices

7. Database Involvement
Component Database Data Stored

Zabbix MariaDB Hosts, Metrics, Events, Trends

GLPI MySQL Tickets, Users, Assets, Notifications, Knowledge Base

●​ Zabbix Webhook writes directly to the GLPI database via API.

8. Overall Workflow Diagram

Device Status → Zabbix Polling (SNMP) → Trigger Fires

Trigger → Zabbix Action → GLPI Webhook

Webhook → GLPI Ticket Created → Email Sent

Zabbix Metrics → Grafana Dashboard

Device Recovers → Zabbix Recovery Action → GLPI Ticket Updated/Closed

9. Benefits Comparison
Feature Old Setup New Setup

Ticket Creation Manual Automated (Zabbix to GLPI)

Monitoring Basic (Nagios) Advanced (Zabbix SNMP + Triggers)

Graphing Cacti (manual data) Real-time (Grafana)

Alert-Ticket Link None Direct API Link

Incident Response Time Delayed Real-time

Historical Data Limited Full Trends in Grafana

10. Detailed Technical Zabbix, Grafana & GLPI
Integration

Integration 1: Zabbix & Grafana - Monitoring and Visualization

Steps for Integration:

1. Install Zabbix Plugin on Grafana

Run:​
grafana-cli plugins install alexanderzobnin-zabbix-app

systemctl restart grafana-server

●​ Verify:
○​ In Grafana UI, navigate to Configuration > Plugins.
○​ Confirm Zabbix App Plugin is installed and enabled.

2. Add Zabbix Data Source to Grafana

●​ In Grafana, go to: Configuration > Data Sources > Add Data Source.
●​ Select Zabbix.
●​ Provide the following details:
○​ Zabbix API URL:
[Link]
○​ Zabbix Username & Password (create a dedicated Grafana user in Zabbix if
required).
●​ Test and Save.

3. Create Grafana Dashboards

●​ Create a new dashboard under Dashboards > New Dashboard.

●​ Add panels using Zabbix data source.

4. Customize Dashboard with Filters and Auto-refresh

●​ Set auto-refresh intervals (30s, 1m, 5m, etc.).

●​ Add dynamic filters for:
○​ Hosts
○​ Groups
○​ Locations
Result

●​ Grafana will directly query the Zabbix API for real-time and historical data.
●​ Clean, user-friendly dashboards replace old Cacti visualizations.

Integration 2: Zabbix & GLPI - Automated Incident Ticketing

Steps for Integration:

1. Enable API Access in GLPI

●​ In GLPI, go to: Setup > General > API.

●​ Enable API Access.
●​ Generate:
○​ App Token (for application-level access).
○​ User Token (for user-level access, if needed).
●​ Create user zabbix_bot (with appropriate permissions to create and update tickets).

2. Configure Webhook Media Type in Zabbix

●​ In Zabbix, navigate to Administration > Media Types.

●​ Create a new Webhook media type.
 ●​ Configure required parameters for payload:
○​ GLPI App Token.
○​ GLPI User Token.
○​ Ticket fields such as title, description, priority, etc..

3. Configure Zabbix Action for Incident Handling

●​ In Zabbix, navigate to: Configuration > Actions.

●​ Create new Trigger Action for critical events (e.g., "Host Down").
●​ Set action conditions (e.g., Trigger = "ICMP Ping Unavailable").
●​ Configure operations to:
○​ Call Webhook (create ticket in GLPI).
○​ Next add a Recovery Operation to update or close the ticket when the
issue is resolved.

4. Test the Full Workflow

●​ Simulate a device failure (e.g., bring down a monitored interface).

●​ Confirm:
○​ Alert triggers in Zabbix.
○​ Ticket is automatically created in GLPI (with correct details).
○​ Ticket is updated or closed if the issue recovers.

Result

●​ Automatic, real-time ticket creation and updates in GLPI based on Zabbix

alerts.
●​ Eliminates manual incident reporting and improves incident response times.
●​ Full incident lifecycle management integrated with monitoring.
Integration 3: GLPI Email Notifications - Automated Email
Alerts

Steps for Configuration:

1. Create Notification Template in GLPI

●​ In GLPI, navigate to: Administration > Notifications > Templates.

●​ Create a New Template.
●​ Customize subject and body using placeholders (e.g., Ticket ID, Title, Description,
Priority).

2. Configure SMTP Settings

●​ Navigate to: Setup > Notifications > Email Follow Ups.

●​ Enter SMTP server details (hostname, port, authentication credentials, etc.).
●​ Test email delivery to confirm.

3. Automate Notification Delivery

●​ Modify the notification mode from GUI to CLI (for faster queue processing).
On the GLPI Server, edit crontab:

●​ crontab -e

●​ Add a cron job to process the email queue every minute:​

*/1 * * * * /usr/bin/php /var/www/glpi/front/[Link]

●​ This ensures queued notifications (such as ticket creation alerts) are sent promptly.

Overall Process Flow Recap

1.​ Zabbix detects an issue (e.g., device down).
2.​ Zabbix Trigger fires an alert.
3.​ Zabbix Action invokes Webhook (linked to GLPI API).
4.​ Webhook creates a new ticket in GLPI.
5.​ GLPI sends email notifications to relevant teams.
6.​ When the issue is resolved, Zabbix can update or close the ticket (optional).

Summary of Benefits
 Function Tool Benefit

Monitoring Zabbix Comprehensive monitoring across devices and

services

Visualization Grafana Real-time, customizable dashboards replacing Cacti

Incident GLPI Automated ticket creation and lifecycle management

Management replacing OTRS

Notifications GLPI Instant email notifications to teams

Overall Outcome

●​ Single integrated workflow for monitoring, visualization, incident

management, and team notifications.
●​ Replaces multiple legacy tools (Cacti, OTRS, Nagios) with streamlined
Zabbix-Grafana-GLPI stack.
●​ Reduces manual effort, accelerates incident resolution, and improves
visibility.