Table of Contents
16 Agent vs agent 2 comparison
This section describes the differences between the Zabbix agent and the Zabbix agent 2.
| Parameter | Zabbix agent | Zabbix agent 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Programming language | C | Go with some parts in C |
| Daemonization | yes | by systemd only (yes on Windows) |
| Supported extensions | Custom loadable modules in C. | Custom plugins in Go. |
| Requirements | ||
| Supported platforms | Linux, IBM AIX, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, HP-UX, Mac OS X, Solaris: 9, 10, 11, Windows: all desktop and server versions since XP | Linux, Windows: all desktop and server versions, on which an up-to-date supported Go version can be installed. |
| Supported crypto libraries | GnuTLS 3.1.18 and newer OpenSSL 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.1.0, 1.1.1, 3.0.x LibreSSL - tested with versions 2.7.4, 2.8.2 (certain limitations apply, see the Encryption page for details). |
Linux: OpenSSL 1.0.1 and later is supported since Zabbix 4.4.8. MS Windows: OpenSSL 1.1.1 or later. The OpenSSL library must have PSK support enabled. LibreSSL is not supported. |
| Monitoring processes | ||
| Processes | A separate active check process for each server/proxy record. | Single process with automatically created threads. The maximum number of threads is determined by the GOMAXPROCS environment variable. |
| Metrics | UNIX: see a list of supported items. Windows: see a list of additional Windows-specific items. |
UNIX: All metrics supported by Zabbix agent. Additionally, the agent 2 provides Zabbix-native monitoring solution for: Docker, Memcached, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Redis, systemd, and other monitoring targets - see a full list of agent 2 specific items. Windows: All metrics supported by Zabbix agent, and also net.tcp.service* checks of HTTPS, LDAP. Additionally, the agent 2 provides Zabbix-native monitoring solution for: PostgreSQL, Redis. |
| Concurrency | Active checks for single server are executed sequentially. | Checks from different plugins or multiple checks within one plugin can be executed concurrently. |
| Scheduled/flexible intervals | Supported for passive checks only. | Supported for passive and active checks. |
| Third-party traps | no | yes |
| Additional features | ||
| Persistent storage | no | yes |
| Persistent files for log*[] metrics | yes (only on Unix) | no |
| Log data upload | Can be performed during log gathering to free the buffer. | Log gathering is stopped when the buffer is full, therefore the BufferSize parameter must be at least MaxLinesPerSecond x 2. |
| Timeout settings | Defined on an agent level only. | Plugin timeout can override the timeout defined on an agent level. |
| Changes user at runtime | yes (Unix-like systems only) | no (controlled by systemd) |
| User-configurable ciphersuites | yes | no |
See also:
- Zabbix processes description: Zabbix agent, Zabbix agent 2
- Configuration parameters: Zabbix agent UNIX / Windows, Zabbix agent 2 UNIX / Windows