Linux

Zabbix’s default templates cover the basics pretty well, but accepting only the defaults, puts you in the spectator seat: green or red, up or down, basic alerting. The moment you want to know in-depth why a server feels off, not just that something’s wrong, you’re on your own. As in yo can tweak and get more from Zabbix, but some efforts is required.

Hold your seat, I’ll explain myself.

This post covers the metrics I found myself missing, the problems that i faced once I started paying closer attention, and how I closed those gaps with a set of custom user parameters checks.

After posting my earlier project, where I pulled a small, open-source infrastructure out of a hat for a small business that had nothing and now has real infrastructure, some people reached out and started asking questions. One of those turned into a hands-down agreement on a job.

A tight budget and no Windows Domain

One of the people who reached out was a business owner I know personally. They run a small local company with about 10 Windows PCs, a few printers, one NAS, and a lot of sensitive data handled daily. Budget is tight, and the owner has no interest in cloud-based identity services like Azure AD or M365.

A small retailer asked me for help. They had nothing. No backups. No monitoring. No remote access. Budget: roughly zero, or a discount on groceries. They promised.

I said yes. Mostly because I like a good challenge. Partly because the groceries were decent.

What followed was one of the most honest projects I have worked on in years. No safety net. No team to escalate to. No budget for the right tool. Just me, a 12-year-old HP desktop gathering dust, and the question: what can actually be built with what is here?

Overview

Two separate small-business engagements, both with essentially zero budget and no existing infrastructure. The first, paid partly in groceries, came first and proved the approach. It spurred the second: a mixed Windows/Linux environment for a second business, built on the same philosophy but with a wider scope.

The problem

Neither business had any of the basics most infrastructure takes for granted: backups that actually restore, visibility into what’s running, secure remote access, or any monitoring at all. Budget in both cases ruled out new hardware or commercial licensing.