Getting started

By following these steps, you can set up DataForge, ensuring proper user management, Zabbix integration, and customization based on your specific requirements.

1. Add an account

To log into DataForge, you need to add an account:

Login interface: Add an account

Here you need to choose whether you are logging in as a DataForge User or an DataForge Manager. A DataForge Manager is a user, which does not originate from a Zabbix server and is created within DataForge. A manager is used for administrative tasks such as creating companies, adding Zabbix servers to DataForge, manage and create roles, media types and DataForge users.

Choose DataForge Manager:

Create login account: Type selection

The login form for a DataForge manager requires the address of your DataForge server and your user credentials. Fill out the following form:

Create login account: Admin form

• DataForge Server: The URL of the DataForge server without https:// or http://. The URL prefix will be selected via the dropdown.
• Username: Your designated username.
• Password: Your designated password.
• API guard token: Configure this if you’re using the IntelliTrend API Guard, which adds an extra layer of security to the API.

2. Add a Zabbix server

Adding a Zabbix server effectively enables DataForge to access the data the Zabbix server monitors. To add a Zabbix server navigate to Zabbix servers and click the Blue plus icon. This opens a form.

General

On the first page of the form, you will be asked to enter general information about your Zabbix server:

Add Zabbix server: General

The identifier will later be used to create a user account. Click Continue to proceed to the next page.

Connection

On this page you will need to enter the connection data of the Zabbix server:

Add Zabbix server: Connection

Enter your Zabbix frontend URL and a green badge indicates whether a connection to the specified Zabbix server can be established and select a security mode (Plain, Basic Auth or API Guard*). Click Continue to proceed to the next page.

Authentication

Select an authentication method for your root account. You can choose any Zabbix user with the Super admin role as the root account of your Zabbix server. DataForge uses this account to perform administrative tasks on your Zabbix server. You can choose whether to specify the root user’s password or use an API token.

Add Zabbix server: Authentication

A green badge indicates that the authentication was successful. Click Continue to proceed to the next page.

S3 object storage

The S3 object storage is required for DataForge Reporting and AI. If you are not using Reporting or AI simply set the storage mode to Disabled, otherwise keep the storage mode at Internal and continue with the default quota of one GiB (Storage quota can be changed at anytime).

Add Zabbix server: S3 object storage

Click Create Zabbix server to finish the process.

More details and configuration options on Zabbix server integrations can be found in chapter Zabbix server integration.

3. Import Zabbix users

A Zabbix user that is imported into DataForge is called a DataForge User and are necessary to access the DataForge user mode. The features of the DataForge user mode are described in the user manual.

To import users to DataForge navigate to your newly added Zabbix server and click it. This will open the configuration page. Scroll to the bottom of the page to User configuration and click Imported Zabbix users:

Import user: Configuration

This will open the Zabbix users page, which lists all imported Zabbix users. To use the import wizard click the Cogwheel icon in the bottom right corner:

Import user: Manage users

If you click on the Zabbix user field, a selection of all available users on your Zabbix server will open. You can select which users to add and click Done to finalize the selection. Click the Save changes button and the selected users will be imported. In case the dfu_import user group does not exist on your Zabbix server, it will be automatically created and selected users will be added.

Further details and configuration options can be found in the chapter Importing Zabbix users.

4. Assign user groups

A DataForge user group is one of the prerequisites for accessing the Reporting and AI sections. Members of a DataForge user group work via a service user and the Zabbix permissions of that service user determine which data of a Zabbix server the group members can access.

Manage user group

To add users to a user group, navigate to your imported Zabbix server configuration and scroll down to the DataForge User Groups section.

User group section

Click on New DataForge user group and a form will open:

User group: Manage DataForge user group

Enter a name for your user group, the prefix dfu_group will be added automatically. Click on Create new DataForge user group: dfu_group:Your_group and then on Next. The Create service user page will then open:

Create service user

A service user guarantees consistent permissions for all members of a user group.

User group: Create service user

Select a role for your service user. Depending on the role of the service user, some functions are not available for group members. For example, the Audit-log widget of Reporting requires a service user with the role Super Admin. After selecting a role, click Next.

Manage group members

Here you can add Zabbix users to the user group. Only Zabbix users that have been imported from DataForge can be added to a user group.

User group: Manage members

Click Next after you have selected the users to be added to the group.

Review changes

All changes are listed here in an overview. Click on Apply changes to complete the process. The success of the individual steps is indicated by a green checkmark:

User group: Review and apply changes

If errors occur during this step, you can refer to the chapter User group wizard.

User account

You are now ready to create a user account and test the various functions of DataForge. You can find out how to create a user account and where to start in this chapter.