1. Introduction
The purpose of this guide is to briefly introduce Pandora FMS to someone who is not familiar with the tool. The purpose is not to make a tour through all of Pandora FMS features, but to talk about the most relevant ones, in order to start working and managing it in record time.
Pandora FMS architecture is made up of different services:
- Database server (Percona/MySQL).
- Web console.
- Pandora FMS server (which runs different types of services).
- A small optional application (software agent) that runs on the servers you wish to collect information from (both Windows and Linux) and send it to the central server.
We call agent to any network device that can be monitored. That is to say, everything you may obtain data from and that has an associated IP, such as servers, routers or switches. The number of these agents is what is used to license a Pandora FMS Enterprise installation, for example, a 100-agent license. The information collected in each agent is not relevant, it does not matter if it is a router with just a few simple metrics or a 48-port switch full of information. These metrics in Pandora FMS are known as modules. A software agent is the piece of software that collects information, an agent is just how this information is displayed and managed. They only share names.
Minimum hardware requirements
The requirements set out in this table are the minimum recommended for the different installations. These recommendations are calculated assuming that 80% of the modules have history data, that each agent has an average of about 10 modules and that the average sampling is five minutes. These recommendations are specified for an environment where they are installed in the same database server, server and console.
| Hardware | SMALL | MEDIUM | BIG |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | 2 cores at 2 GHz | 2 cores at 2,5 GHz | 4 cores at 3 GHz |
| RAM | 4 GB | 8 GB | 16 GB |
| HD | 7200 rpm | 15K RPM o SSD | SSD |
| Storage | ~20GB | ~60GB | ~120 GB |
| Capacity | Up to 500 agents | Up to 2000 agents |
5000 agents |
In addition to the previous recommendations, it is recommended for you to install MySQL on a separate server and install Percona XTraDB instead of the standard MySQL.