development_plan.md

Zabbix Load Testing Tool: Development Plan

This document outlines the development steps for the zbx-load-testing tool, based on the technical design document.

Phase 1: Core Application & Configuration

• Project Setup: Initialize Go module and basic project structure (e.g., cmd/, internal/).
• Configuration:
  • Define Go structs to represent config.yaml.
  • Implement YAML parsing to load configuration into structs.
• CLI Framework:
  • Integrate a CLI library (e.g., Cobra).
  • Create stub commands: setup, run, cleanup.
• Zabbix API Client:
  • Create a wrapper/client for interacting with the Zabbix API.
  • Implement authentication logic.

Phase 2: setup Command

• Entity Creation:
  • Implement hostgroup.create.
  • Implement host.create to create hosts and link specified templates.
• Template & LLD Processing:
  • Implement template.get to fetch template details.
  • Parse templates to identify regular items and LLD rules.
  • Implement initial LLD data submission for all hosts.
• Discovery Verification:
  • Implement polling logic using item.get to wait until Zabbix creates items from LLD prototypes.

Phase 3: cleanup Command

• Entity Deletion:
  • Implement host.delete to remove the test hosts.
  • Implement hostgroup.delete to remove the test host group.

Phase 4: run Command - Metric & LLD Generation

• Core Runner Logic:
  • Implement the main loop for the run command.
  • Implement the per-host goroutine structure.
  • Implement the startup staggering logic (staggering_window_sec).
• Data Submission:
  • Integrate the go-zabbix sender library.
  • Implement scheduled metric sending for regular items based on their update interval.
  • Implement scheduled LLD data submission for trapper discovery rules.
• Data Generation:
  • Implement basic data generation for different item types.
  • Implement logic to make a percentage of triggers enter a "PROBLEM" state (firing_percentage).

Phase 5: Terminal User Interface (TUI)

• TUI Integration:
  • Integrate the tcell library or a higher-level TUI framework.
  • Design and implement the static layout.
• Dynamic Data Display:
  • Load Generator Stats:
    • Display number of simulated hosts and active items.
    • Calculate and display theoretical and actual NVPS.
    • Display LLDs / sec.
  • Zabbix Server Health:
    • Implement periodic polling of Zabbix internal metrics (zabbix[queue,1m], etc.).
    • Display the fetched health metrics in the TUI.
  • Logs & Events:
    • Implement a logging pane to show key events during the test run.

Phase 6: Advanced Features & Reporting

• Graceful Shutdown:
  • Implement signal handling (Ctrl+C) to trigger a clean shutdown.
• Reporting:
  • On shutdown, gather summary statistics.
  • Generate and save a report.json file.
• Self-Throttling:
  • Implement the logic to check Zabbix health metrics against thresholds from config.yaml.
  • If throttling.enabled is true, pause or reduce metric sending rate when thresholds are breached.