14 Configuration export/import

Overview

Zabbix export/import functionality makes it possible to exchange various configuration entities between one Zabbix system and another.

Typical use cases for this functionality:

share templates or network maps - Zabbix users may share their configuration parameters
upload a template to Zabbix Community templates. Then others can download the template and import the file into Zabbix.
integrate with third-party tools - universal YAML, XML and JSON formats make integration and data import/export possible with third-party tools and applications

What can be exported/imported

Objects that can be exported/imported are:

host groups (through Zabbix API only)
templates
hosts
network maps
media types
images

Export format

Data can be exported using the Zabbix web frontend or Zabbix API. Supported export formats are YAML, XML and JSON.

Details about export

All supported elements are exported in one file.
Host and template entities (items, triggers, graphs, discovery rules) that are inherited from linked templates are not exported. Any changes made to those entities on a host level (such as changed item interval, modified regular expression or added prototypes to the low-level discovery rule) will be lost when exporting; when importing, all entities from linked templates are re-created as on the original linked template.
Entities created by low-level discovery and any entities depending on them are not exported. For example, a trigger created for an LLD-rule generated item will not be exported.

Details about import

Import stops at the first error.
When updating existing images during image import, "imagetype" field is ignored, i.e. it is impossible to change image type via import.
When importing hosts/templates using the "Delete missing" option, host/template macros not present in the import file will be deleted from
the host/template after the import.
Empty tags for items, triggers, graphs, discoveryRules, itemPrototypes, triggerPrototypes, graphPrototypes are meaningless i.e. it's the same as if it was missing.
Import supports YAML, XML and JSON, the import file must have a correct file extension: .yaml and .yml for YAML, .xml for XML and .json for JSON. See compatibility information about supported XML versions.
Import supports configuration files only in UTF-8 encoding (with or without BOM); other encodings (UTF16LE, UTF16BE, UTF32LE, UTF32BE, etc.) will result in an import conversion error.

YAML base format

The YAML export format contains the following nodes:

Root node for Zabbix YAML export
Export version
Date when export was created in ISO 8601 long format

zabbix_export:
         version: '6.0'
         date: '2020-04-22T06:20:11Z'

Other nodes are dependent on exported objects.

XML format

The XML export format contains the following tags:

Default header for XML documents
Root tag for Zabbix XML export
Export version
Date when export was created in ISO 8601 long format

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
       <zabbix_export>
           <version>6.0</version>
           <date>2020-04-22T06:20:11Z</date>
       </zabbix_export>

Other tags are dependent on exported objects.

JSON format

The JSON export format contains the following objects:

Root object for Zabbix JSON export
Export version
Date when export was created in ISO 8601 long format

{
           "zabbix_export": {
               "version": "6.0",
               "date": "2020-04-22T06:20:11Z"
           }
       }

Other objects are dependent on exported objects.

Documentation