5 Zabbix agent (Windows)

Overview

This section lists parameters supported in a Zabbix agent (Windows) configuration file (zabbix_agentd.conf).

Note that:

  • The default values reflect daemon defaults, not the values in the shipped configuration files;
  • Zabbix supports configuration files only in UTF-8 encoding without BOM;
  • Comments starting with "#" are only supported in the beginning of the line.

Parameters

Parameter Mandatory Range Default Description
Alias no Sets an alias for an item key. It can be used to substitute long and complex item key with a smaller and simpler one.
Multiple Alias parameters may be present. Multiple parameters with the same Alias key are not allowed.
Different Alias keys may reference the same item key.
Aliases can be used in HostMetadataItem but not in HostnameItem or PerfCounter parameters.

Examples:

1. Retrieving paging file usage in percents from the server.
Alias=pg_usage:perf_counter[\Paging File(_Total)\% Usage]
Now shorthand key pg_usage may be used to retrieve data.

2. Getting CPU load with default and custom parameters.
Alias=cpu.load:system.cpu.load
Alias=cpu.load[*]:system.cpu.load[*]
This allows use cpu.load key to get CPU utilization percentage with default parameters as well as use cpu.load[percpu,avg15] to get specific data about CPU load.

3. Running multiple low-level discovery rules processing the same discovery items.
Alias=vfs.fs.discovery[*]:vfs.fs.discovery
Now it is possible to set up several discovery rules using vfs.fs.discovery with different parameters for each rule, e.g., vfs.fs.discovery[foo], vfs.fs.discovery[bar], etc.
AllowKey no Allow execution of those item keys that match a pattern. Key pattern is a wildcard expression that supports "*" character to match any number of any characters.
Multiple key matching rules may be defined in combination with DenyKey. The parameters are processed one by one according to their appearance order.
This parameter is supported since Zabbix 5.0.0.
See also: Restricting agent checks.
BufferSend no 1-3600 5 Do not keep data longer than N seconds in buffer.
BufferSize no 2-65535 100 Maximum number of values in a memory buffer. The agent will send
all collected data to Zabbix server or proxy if the buffer is full.
DebugLevel no 0-5 3 Specifies debug level:
0 - basic information about starting and stopping of Zabbix processes
1 - critical information
2 - error information
3 - warnings
4 - for debugging (produces lots of information)
5 - extended debugging (produces even more information)
DenyKey no Deny execution of those item keys that match a pattern. Key pattern is a wildcard expression that supports "*" character to match any number of any characters.
Multiple key matching rules may be defined in combination with AllowKey. The parameters are processed one by one according to their appearance order.
This parameter is supported since Zabbix 5.0.0.
See also: Restricting agent checks.
EnableRemoteCommands no 0 Whether remote commands from Zabbix server are allowed. This parameter is deprecated, use AllowKey=system.run[*] or DenyKey=system.run[*] instead
It is internal alias for AllowKey/DenyKey parameters depending on value: 0 - DenyKey=system.run[*]
1 - AllowKey=system.run[*].
HostInterface no 0-255 characters Optional parameter that defines host interface.
Host interface is used at host autoregistration process.
An agent will issue an error and not start if the value is over the limit of 255 characters.
If not defined, value will be acquired from HostInterfaceItem.
Supported since Zabbix 4.4.0.
HostInterfaceItem no Optional parameter that defines an item used for getting host interface.
Host interface is used at host autoregistration process.
During an autoregistration request an agent will log a warning message if the value returned by specified item is over limit of 255 characters.
The system.run[] item is supported regardless of AllowKey/DenyKey values.
This option is only used when HostInterface is not defined.
Supported since Zabbix 4.4.0.
HostMetadata no 0-255 characters Optional parameter that defines host metadata. Host metadata is used only at host autoregistration process (active agent).
If not defined, the value will be acquired from HostMetadataItem.
An agent will issue an error and not start if the specified value is over the limit or a non-UTF-8 string.
HostMetadataItem no Optional parameter that defines a Zabbix agent item used for getting host metadata. This option is only used when HostMetadata is not defined.
Supports UserParameters, performance counters and aliases. Supports system.run[] regardless of EnableRemoteCommands value.
HostMetadataItem value is retrieved on each autoregistration attempt and is used only at host autoregistration process (active agent).
During an autoregistration request an agent will log a warning message if the value returned by the specified item is over the limit of 255 characters.
The value returned by the item must be a UTF-8 string otherwise it will be ignored.
Hostname no Set by HostnameItem List of comma-delimited unique, case-sensitive hostnames.
Required for active checks and must match hostnames as configured on the server. Value is acquired from HostnameItem if undefined.
Allowed characters: alphanumeric, '.', ' ', '_' and '-'.
Maximum length: 128 characters per hostname, 2048 characters for the entire line.
HostnameItem no system.hostname Optional parameter that defines a Zabbix agent item used for getting host name. This option is only used when Hostname is not defined.
Does not support UserParameters, performance counters or aliases, but does support system.run[] regardless of EnableRemoteCommands value.
See also a more detailed description.
Include no You may include individual files or all files in a directory in the configuration file (located in C:\Program Files\Zabbix Agent by default if Zabbix agent is installed using Windows MSI installer packages; located in the folder specified during installation if Zabbix agent is installed as a zip archive). All included files must have correct syntax, otherwise agent will not start.
To only include relevant files in the specified directory, the asterisk wildcard character is supported for pattern matching. For example: C:\Program Files\Zabbix Agent\zabbix_agentd.d\*.conf.
See special notes about limitations.
ListenBacklog no 0 - INT_MAX SOMAXCONN The maximum number of pending connections in the TCP queue.
Default value is a hard-coded constant, which depends on the system.
Maximum supported value depends on the system, too high values may be silently truncated to the 'implementation-specified maximum'.
ListenIP no 0.0.0.0 List of comma-delimited IP addresses that the agent should listen on.
ListenPort no 1024-32767 10050 Agent will listen on this port for connections from the server.
LogFile yes, if LogType is set to file, otherwise
no
C:\zabbix_agentd.log Name of the agent log file.
LogFileSize no 0-1024 1 Maximum size of log file in MB.
0 - disable automatic log rotation.
Note: If the log file size limit is reached and file rotation fails, for whatever reason, the existing log file is truncated and started anew.
LogType no file Log output type:
file - write log to file specified by LogFile parameter,
system - write log Windows Event Log,
console - write log to standard output.
This parameter is supported since Zabbix 3.0.0.
LogRemoteCommands no 0 Enable logging of executed shell commands as warnings.
0 - disabled
1 - enabled
MaxLinesPerSecond no 1-1000 20 Maximum number of new lines the agent will send per second to Zabbix server
or proxy processing 'log', 'logrt' and 'eventlog' active checks.
The provided value will be overridden by the parameter 'maxlines',
provided in 'log', 'logrt' or 'eventlog' item keys.
Note: Zabbix will process 10 times more new lines than set in MaxLinesPerSecond to seek the required string in log items.
PerfCounter no Defines a new parameter <parameter_name> which is an average value for system performance counter <perf_counter_path> for the specified time period <period> (in seconds).
Syntax: <parameter_name>,"<perf_counter_path>",<period>
For example, if you wish to receive average number of processor interrupts per second for last minute, you can define a new parameter "interrupts" as the following:
PerfCounter = interrupts,"\Processor(0)\Interrupts/sec",60
Please note double quotes around performance counter path.
The parameter name (interrupts) is to be used as the item key when creating an item.
Samples for calculating average value will be taken every second.
You may run "typeperf -qx" to get list of all performance counters available in Windows.
PerfCounterEn no Defines a new parameter <parameter_name> which is an average value for system performance counter <perf_counter_path> for the specified time period <period> (in seconds).
Syntax: <parameter_name>,"<perf_counter_path>",<period>
Compared to PerfCounter, perfcounter paths must be in English.
Supported only on Windows Server 2008/Vista and above.
For example, if you wish to receive average number of processor interrupts per second for last minute, you can define a new parameter "interrupts" as the following:
PerfCounterEn = interrupts,"\Processor(0)\Interrupts/sec",60
Please note double quotes around performance counter path.
The parameter name (interrupts) is to be used as the item key when creating an item.
Samples for calculating average value will be taken every second.
You can find the list of English strings by viewing the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Perflib\009.
This parameter is supported since Zabbix 4.0.13 and 4.2.7.
RefreshActiveChecks no 60-3600 120 How often list of active checks is refreshed, in seconds.
Note that after failing to refresh active checks the next refresh will be attempted after 60 seconds.
Server yes, if StartAgents is not explicitly set to 0 List of comma delimited IP addresses, optionally in CIDR notation, or DNS names of Zabbix servers.
Incoming connections will be accepted only from the hosts listed here.
If IPv6 support is enabled then '127.0.0.1', '::127.0.0.1', '::ffff:127.0.0.1' are treated equally and '::/0' will allow any IPv4 or IPv6 address.
'0.0.0.0/0' can be used to allow any IPv4 address.
Note that "IPv4-compatible IPv6 addresses" (0000::/96 prefix) are supported but deprecated by RFC4291.
Example: Server=127.0.0.1,192.168.1.0/24,::1,2001:db8::/32,zabbix.example.com
Spaces are allowed.
ServerActive no (*) Zabbix server/proxy address or cluster configuration to get active checks from.
Server/proxy address is IP address or DNS name and optional port separated by colon.
Cluster configuration is one or more server addresses separated by semicolon.
Multiple Zabbix servers/clusters and Zabbix proxies can be specified, separated by comma.
More than one Zabbix proxy should not be specified from each Zabbix server/cluster.
If Zabbix proxy is specified then Zabbix server/cluster for that proxy should not be specified.
Multiple comma-delimited addresses can be provided to use several independent Zabbix servers in parallel. Spaces are allowed.
If port is not specified, default port is used.
IPv6 addresses must be enclosed in square brackets if port for that host is specified.
If port is not specified, square brackets for IPv6 addresses are optional.
If this parameter is not specified, active checks are disabled.
Example for Zabbix proxy:
ServerActive=127.0.0.1:10051
Example for multiple servers:
ServerActive=127.0.0.1:20051,zabbix.domain,[::1]:30051,::1,[12fc::1]
Example for high availability:
ServerActive=zabbix.cluster.node1;zabbix.cluster.node2:20051;zabbix.cluster.node3
Example for high availability with two clusters and one server:
ServerActive=zabbix.cluster.node1;zabbix.cluster.node2:20051,zabbix.cluster2.node1;zabbix.cluster2.node2,zabbix.domain
SourceIP no Source IP address for:
- outgoing connections to Zabbix server or Zabbix proxy;
- making connections while executing some items (web.page.get, net.tcp.port, etc.)
StartAgents no 0-63 (*) 3 Number of pre-forked instances of zabbix_agentd that process passive checks.
If set to 0, disables passive checks and the agent will not listen on any TCP port.
Timeout no 1-30 3 Spend no more than Timeout seconds on processing
TLSAccept yes, if TLS certificate or PSK parameters are defined (even for unencrypted connection), otherwise no What incoming connections to accept. Used for a passive checks. Multiple values can be specified, separated by comma:
unencrypted - accept connections without encryption (default)
psk - accept connections with TLS and a pre-shared key (PSK)
cert - accept connections with TLS and a certificate
This parameter is supported since Zabbix 3.0.0.
TLSCAFile no Full pathname of a file containing the top-level CA(s) certificates for peer certificate verification, used for encrypted communications between Zabbix components.
This parameter is supported since Zabbix 3.0.0.
TLSCertFile no Full pathname of a file containing the agent certificate or certificate chain, used for encrypted communications with Zabbix components.
This parameter is supported since Zabbix 3.0.0.
TLSConnect yes, if TLS certificate or PSK parameters are defined (even for unencrypted connection), otherwise no How the agent should connect to Zabbix server or proxy. Used for active checks. Only one value can be specified:
unencrypted - connect without encryption (default)
psk - connect using TLS and a pre-shared key (PSK)
cert - connect using TLS and a certificate
This parameter is supported since Zabbix 3.0.0.
TLSCRLFile no Full pathname of a file containing revoked certificates. This parameter is used for encrypted communications with Zabbix components.
This parameter is supported since Zabbix 3.0.0.
TLSKeyFile no Full pathname of a file containing the agent private key used for encrypted communications with Zabbix components.
This parameter is supported since Zabbix 3.0.0.
TLSPSKFile no Full pathname of a file containing the agent pre-shared key used for encrypted communications with Zabbix components.
This parameter is supported since Zabbix 3.0.0.
TLSPSKIdentity no Pre-shared key identity string, used for encrypted communications with Zabbix server.
This parameter is supported since Zabbix 3.0.0.
TLSServerCertIssuer no Allowed server (proxy) certificate issuer.
This parameter is supported since Zabbix 3.0.0.
TLSServerCertSubject no Allowed server (proxy) certificate subject.
This parameter is supported since Zabbix 3.0.0.
UnsafeUserParameters no 0-1 0 Allow all characters to be passed in arguments to user-defined parameters.
0 - do not allow
1 - allow
The following characters are not allowed:
\ ' " ` * ? [ ] { } ~ $ ! & ; ( ) < > | # @
Additionally, newline characters are not allowed.
UserParameter no User-defined parameter to monitor. There can be several user-defined parameters.
Format: UserParameter=<key>,<shell command>
Note that shell command must not return empty string or EOL only.
Shell commands may have relative paths, if UserParameterDir parameter is specified.
Examples:
UserParameter=system.test,who|wc -l
UserParameter=check_cpu,./custom_script.sh
UserParameterDir no Default search path for UserParameter commands. If used, the agent will change its working directory to the one specified here before executing a command. Thereby, UserParameter commands can have a relative ./ prefix instead of a full path.
Only one entry is allowed.
Example: UserParameterDir=/opt/myscripts

(*) The number of active servers listed in ServerActive plus the number of pre-forked instances for passive checks specified in StartAgents must be less than 64.

See also

  1. Differences in the Zabbix agent configuration for active and passive checks starting from version 2.0.0.