Smart Admin

Introduction to Smart Admin

Smart Admin is an utility that helps in the daily management and maintenance tasks of your Zentyal Server. It offers automatic alerts and reports and eases the management of old kernels. In addition, if you are a Zentyal Distributor, it provides remote monitoring and management options of multiple Zentyal Server deployments. These Smart Admin features are available through the GUI in System –> Smart Admin, in the commercial versions. Otherwise, these features are made available through scripts located in the /usr/share/zentyal:

  • Automatic alerts to a Telegram group regarding the usage of server resources: CPU, RAM and disk.
  • Management of old kernels installed on Zentyal.
  • Automatic reporting of relevant aspects of your Zentyal server.
Smart Admin features available

Smart Admin features available

Smart alerts

This feature allows you to receive alerts to a Telegram group [1] as soon as one of the resources exceeds the defined alert threshold.

Configuration of Smart alerts

Configuration of Smart alerts

The alerts that are available include:

Enable RAM monitoring:
If enabled, the alert will be sent in case the available RAM will be less than 30%. The checks will be run every two minutes.
Enable free space monitoring:
If you check this box, you enable the monitoring of free space on partitions mounted on the Zentyal server. The alert will be sent in case any of the partitions has less than 30% of space available. The check will be made every hour.
Enable CPU monitoring:
If enabled, the alerts will be sent in case the CPU load of the last minute exceeds 80%. The checks will be made every three minutes.
Telegram Chat ID:
ID of the Telegram chat where the notification will be sent.
Telegram Bot API token:
The Telegram Bot API token that will send the notifications to the Telegram group.
[1]Telegram API: https://core.telegram.org/

Examples of the alerts

Below you can see examples of the Smart alerts received on Telegram:

RAM alert:

RAM alert on Telegram

RAM alert on Telegram

Free available space alert:

Available disk space alert on Telegram

Available disk space alert on Telegram

CPU alert:

CPU alert on Telegram

CPU alert on Telegram

Kernel management

In general, GNU/Linux systems store the successive kernel versions. Eventually, the /boot partition can run out of storage space and prevent the normal operation of the package system. This feature allows Zentyal to manage the number of kernels installed in the system by configuring a ‘queue’ that stores only the three latest kernels.

Enable kernel management

Enable kernel management

System status reports

This feature allows you to generate detailed reports of the most important operating parameters of the server and the enabled modules. Additionally it is also possible to send the reports by email. Some of the data provided by Smart Admin are:

Through the graphical interface you can configure the time when the report is generated and where it will be sent automatically by email, once a day. You can also generate a report manually at any time and download it through the graphical interface.

Configuration of the Smart Admin report

Configuration of the Smart Admin report

UCP

The UCP (Unified Control Panel) module is aimed at distributors of the Commercial Zentyal Editions, allowing them to monitor and manage remotely their Zentyal installations.

Configuration of the UCP module

Warning

To be able to fill in all the required information of this form you will need to be an Authorized Zentyal Distributor. For more information, contact with Zentyal Team [2].

To configure the module, go to UCP, once there, you will see the following options:

UCP configuration

UCP configuration

Email:
Email address registered in the application.
Password:
Password used for login in the application.
Your API id:
Unique identifier of the user for accessing the application API.
API key:
API password for the application.
[2]Contact form: https://zentyal.com/contact-us/