Chart Zabbix Problems and Config Data Without a BI Stack

Sometimes you do not need Grafana. You need answers like:

Which problem names dominate the last week?
Which hours of day are noisy?
How uneven are tags / groups / hosts after a cleanup?

ZbxWizz can import problem / event (or any sheet you already have) and open Data → Chart data: Chart.js frequency bars/pies (top 20) plus optional time histograms. Charts respect visible rows, so filters are part of the analysis.

Chart data — category frequency and hour-of-day histogram

Workflow

Import problems/events (or hosts/tags)
        → Filter out noise in the sheet
        → Data → Chart data
        → Export PNG / CSV for the ticket or standup

No warehouse, no scheduled ETL — just the same workbench you use for Push campaigns.

1. Import recent problems

Data → Import → From Zabbix · Resource: problem:

{
  "output": ["eventid", "objectid", "name", "severity", "clock", "r_clock", "r_eventid"],
  "recent": true,
  "sortfield": ["eventid"],
  "sortorder": "DESC",
  "limit": 500
}

Time window with Unix seconds when you need a fixed range:

{
  "output": "extend",
  "time_from": 1719792000,
  "time_till": 1722470400,
  "sortfield": ["clock"],
  "sortorder": "ASC",
  "limit": 1000
}

For trigger-oriented history, resource event works similarly (see Examples).

2. Make clocks human (optional)

Column menu on clock → Format as date/time, or Transform:

formatUnix(self)

Keep a raw numeric clock column if you still want time-bucket charts (the chart dialog parses Unix seconds or ms).

3. Filter before you chart

Examples:

Exclude flapping names you already accept
Severity ≥ 4 only
One host group’s hosts (if you joined/Pulled host data)

Footer Visible count should match the story you want to tell. Charts default to visible records.

Hosts / inventory sheets chart the same way

4. Open Chart data

Data → Chart data (under Export):

Control	Use
Records	`visible` (default), `selected`, or `all`
Category column	e.g. `name`, `host`, `severity`, a tag column
Chart type	`bar` or `pie` (top 20 values)
Clock column	optional — enables time histogram
Time bucket	`hour of day` or `calendar day`

Refresh after changing controls. Empty categories show as (empty).

Export PNG — attach to Slack/Jira. Export CSV — aggregated series for further work.

Pie chart of category frequencies

5. Config audits, not only problems

Same feature on configuration sheets:

Sheet	Category column	Question
Hosts	`groups` / a derived `env` tag	Is prod over-represented in the cleanup set?
Hosts	Transformed `tier`	Template coverage by role
Macros	`macro`	Which macros appear most often?
Macros	`value` (filtered to one macro)	Value drift distribution

Example: after importing hosts with tags, Transform an env column, filter to the estate you care about, chart env.

6. From chart → action

Charts are for finding the shape of the mess. Fixing it is the rest of ZbxWizz:

Filter the sheet to the hot category
Select visible rows
Transform + Push (tags, macros, disable, …)
Re-import / re-chart to show the before/after in the next meeting

That loop beats exporting to Excel, charting there, then reinventing the write path.

Limits (so expectations stay honest)

Top 20 categories by design — filter first for long-tail analysis
Not a replacement for long-term metrics storage
Large imports need an explicit API limit and patience

For write-side tutorials: Mass tags & groups · Macro audit

— Sergiu, Creator of ZbxWizz

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