2 Problems

Overview

In Monitoring → Problems you can see what problems you currently have. Problems are those triggers that are in the “Problem” state.

Column	Description
Time	Problem start time is displayed.
Severity	Problem severity is displayed. Problem severity is originally based on the severity of the underlying problem trigger, however, after the event has happened it can be updated using the Update problem screen. Color of the problem severity is used as cell background during problem time.
Recovery time	Problem resolution time is displayed.
Status	Problem status is displayed: Problem - unresolved problem Resolved - recently resolved problem. You can hide recently resolved problems using the filter. New and recently resolved problems blink for 2 minutes. Resolved problems are displayed for 5 minutes in total. Both of these values are configurable in Administration → General → Trigger displaying options.
Info	A green information icon is displayed if a problem is closed by global correlation or manually when updating the problem. Rolling a mouse over the icon will display more details: The following icon is displayed if a suppressed problem is being shown (see Show suppressed problems option in the filter). Rolling a mouse over the icon will display more details:
Host	Problem host is displayed.
Problem	Problem name is displayed. Problem name is based on the name of the underlying problem trigger. Macros in the trigger name are resolved at the time of the problem happening and the resolved values do not update any more. Note that it is possible to append the problem name with operational data showing some latest item values. Clicking on the problem name brings up the event menu. Hovering on the icon after the problem name will bring up the trigger description (for those problems that have it). (Note that resolved values of {ITEM.VALUE} and {ITEM.LASTVALUE} macros in trigger descriptions are truncated to 20 characters. To see the entire values you may use macro functions with these macros, e.g. {{ITEM.VALUE}.regsub(“(.)”, \1)}, {{ITEM.LASTVALUE}.regsub(“(.)”, \1)} as a workaround.)
Operational data	Operational data are displayed containing latest item values. Operational data can be a combination of text and item value macros, if configured on a trigger level. If no operational data is configured on a trigger level, latest values of all items from the expression are displayed. This column is only displayed if Separately is selected for Show operational data in the filter.
Duration	Problem duration is displayed. See also: Negative problem duration
Ack	The acknowledgment status of the problem is displayed: Yes - green text indicating that the problem is acknowledged. A problem is considered to be acknowledged if all events for it are acknowledged. No - a red link indicating unacknowledged events. If you click on the link you will be taken to the problem update screen where various actions can be taken on the problem, including commenting and acknowledging the problem.
Actions	History of activities about the problem is displayed using symbolic icons: - comments have been made. The number of comments is also displayed. - problem severity has been increased (e.g. Information → Warning) - problem severity has been decreased (e.g. Warning → Information) - problem severity has been changed, but returned to the original level (e.g. Warning → Information → Warning) - actions have been taken. The number of actions is also displayed. - actions have been taken, at least one is in progress. The number of actions is also displayed. - actions have been taken, at least one has failed. The number of actions is also displayed. When rolling the mouse over the icons, popups with details about the activity are displayed. See viewing details for the explanation on icons used in the popup for actions taken.
Tags	Event tags are displayed (if any). In addition, tags from an external ticketing system may also be displayed (see the Process tags option when configuring webhooks).

Operational data of problems

It is possible to display operational data for current problems, i.e. the latest item values as opposed to the item values at the time of the problem.

Operational data display can be configured in the filter of Monitoring → Problems or in the configuration of the respective dashboard widget, by selecting one of the three options:

• None - no operational data is displayed

• Separately - operational data is displayed in a separate column

• With problem name - operational data is appended to the problem name and in parentheses. Operational data are appended to the problem name only if the Operational data field is non-empty in the trigger configuration.

The content of operational data can be configured with each trigger, in the Operational data field. This field accepts an arbitrary string with macros, most importantly, the {ITEM.LASTVALUE<1-9>} macro.

{ITEM.LASTVALUE<1-9>} in this field will always resolve to the latest values of items in the trigger expression. {ITEM.VALUE<1-9>} in this field will resolve to the item values at the moment of trigger status change (i.e. change into problem, change into OK, being closed manually by user or being closed by correlation).

Negative problem duration

It is actually possible in some common situations to have negative problem duration i.e. when the problem resolution time is earlier than problem creation time, e. g.:

• If some host is monitored by proxy and a network error happens, leading to no data received from the proxy for a while, the item.nodata() trigger will be fired by the server. When the connection is restored, the server will receive item data from the proxy having a time from the past. Then, the item.nodata() problem will be resolved and it will have a negative problem duration;

• When item data that resolve the problem event are sent by Zabbix sender and contain a timestamp earlier than the problem creation time, a negative problem duration will also be displayed.

Negative problem duration is not affecting SLA calculation or Availability report of a particular trigger in any way; it neither reduces nor expands problem time.

Mass editing options

Buttons below the list offer some mass-editing options:

• Mass update - update the selected problems by navigating to the problem update screen

To use this option, mark the checkboxes before the respective problems, then click on the Mass update button.

Buttons

Button to the right offers the following option:

Export content from all pages to a CSV file.

View mode buttons being common for all sections are described on the Monitoring page.

Using filter

You can use the filter to display only the problems you are interested in. The filter is located above the table.

Event menu

Clicking on the problem name brings up the event menu:

The event menu allows to:

• filter the problems of the trigger

• access the trigger configuration

• access a simple graph/item history of the underlying item(s)

• access an external ticket of the problem (if configured, see the Include event menu entry option when configuring webhooks)

Viewing details

The times for problem start and recovery in Monitoring → Problems are links. Clicking on them opens more details of the event.

Note how the problem severity differs for the trigger and the problem event - for the problem event it has been updated using the Update problem screen.

In the action list, the following icons are used to denote the activity type:

• - problem event generated

• - message has been sent

• - problem event acknowledged

• - problem event unacknowledged

• - comment has been added

• - problem severity has been increased (e.g. Information → Warning)

• - problem severity has been decreased (e.g. Warning → Information)

• - problem severity has been changed, but returned to the original level (e.g. Warning → Information → Warning)

• - remote command has been executed

• - problem event has recovered

• - problem has been closed manually