Since this book is focused on a large environment, we need to define or at least provide basic fixed points to identify a large environment. There are various things to consider in this definition; basically, we can identify an environment as large when:
There are more than one different physical locations
The number of monitored devices is high (hundreds or thousands)
The number of checks and items retrieved per second is high (more than 500)
There are lots of items, triggers, and data to handle (the database is larger than 100 GB)
The availability and performance are both critical
All of the preceding points define a large environment; in this kind of environment, the installation and maintenance of Zabbix infrastructure play a critical role.
The installation, of course, is a task that is defined well on a timely basis and, probably, is one of the most critical tasks; it is really important to go live with a strong and reliable monitoring infrastructure. Also, once...