Table of Contents
2 Agent
Overview
Zabbix agent is deployed on a monitoring target to actively monitor local resources and applications (hard drives, memory, processor statistics, etc.).
The agent gathers operational information locally and reports data to Zabbix server for further processing. In case of failures (such as a hard disk running full or a crashed service process), Zabbix server can actively alert the administrators of the particular machine that reported the failure.
Zabbix agents are highly efficient because of the use of native system calls for gathering statistical information.
Passive and active checks
Zabbix agents can perform passive and active checks.
In a passive check the agent responds to a data request. Zabbix server (or proxy) asks for data, for example, CPU load, and Zabbix agent sends back the result.
Active checks require more complex processing. The agent must first retrieve a list of items from Zabbix server for independent processing. Then it will periodically send new values to the server.
Whether to perform passive or active checks is configured by selecting the respective monitoring item type. Zabbix agent processes items of type 'Zabbix agent' or 'Zabbix agent (active)'.
Supported platforms
Pre-compiled Zabbix agent binaries are available for the supported platforms:
- Windows (all desktop and server versions since XP)
- Linux (also available in distribution packages)
- macOS
- IBM AIX
- FreeBSD
- OpenBSD
- Solaris
It is also possible to download legacy Zabbix agent binaries for NetBSD and HP-UX, and those are compatible with current Zabbix server/proxy version.
Agent on UNIX-like systems
Zabbix agent on UNIX-like systems is run on the host being monitored.
Installation
See the package installation section for instructions on how to install Zabbix agent as package.
Alternatively see instructions for manual installation if you do not want to use packages.
In general, 32-bit Zabbix agents will work on 64-bit systems, but may fail in some cases.
If installed as package
Zabbix agent runs as a daemon process. The agent can be started by executing:
This will work on most of GNU/Linux systems. On other systems you may need to run:
Similarly, for stopping/restarting/viewing status of Zabbix agent, use the following commands:
Start up manually
If the above does not work you have to start it manually. Find the path to the zabbix_agentd binary and execute:
Agent on Windows systems
Zabbix agent on Windows runs as a Windows service.
Preparation
Zabbix agent is distributed as a zip archive. After you download the archive you need to unpack it. Choose any folder to store Zabbix agent and the configuration file, e. g.
Copy bin\zabbix_agentd.exe and conf\zabbix_agentd.conf files to c:\zabbix.
Edit the c:\zabbix\zabbix_agentd.conf file to your needs, making sure to specify a correct "Hostname" parameter.
Installation
After this is done use the following command to install Zabbix agent as Windows service:
Now you should be able to configure "Zabbix agent" service normally as any other Windows service.
See more details on installing and running Zabbix agent on Windows.
Options
It is possible to run multiple instances of the agent on a host. A single instance can use the default configuration file or a configuration file specified in the command line. In case of multiple instances each agent instance must have its own configuration file (one of the instances can use the default configuration file).
The following command-line parameters can be used with Zabbix agent:
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| UNIX and Windows agent | |
| -c --config <config-file> | Path to the configuration file. You may use this option to specify a configuration file that is not the default one. On UNIX, default is /usr/local/etc/zabbix_agentd.conf or as set by compile-time variables --sysconfdir or --prefix On Windows, default is C:\Program Files\Zabbix Agent\zabbix_agentd.conf |
| -f --foreground | Run Zabbix agent in foreground (default: true). |
| -p --print | Print known items and exit. Note: To return user parameter results as well, you must specify the configuration file (if it is not in the default location). |
| -t --test <item key> | Test specified item and exit. Note: To return user parameter results as well, you must specify the configuration file (if it is not in the default location). |
| -T --test-config | Validate configuration file and exit. |
| -h --help | Display help information. |
| -V --version | Display version number. |
| UNIX agent only | |
| -R --runtime-control <option> | Perform administrative functions. See runtime control. |
| Windows agent only | |
| -m --multiple-agents | Use multiple agent instances (with -i, -d, -s, -x options). To distinguish service names of instances, each service name will include the Hostname value from the specified configuration file. |
| -S --startup-type <value> | Set the startup type of the Zabbix Windows agent service. Allowed values:automatic - (default) start the service automatically at Windows startup;delayed - delay starting the service after the automatically started services have completed startup (available on Windows Server 2008/Vista and later versions);manual - start the service manually (by a user or application);disabled - disable the service, so that it cannot be started by a user or application.You may use this option together with the -i option, or separately to modify the startup type of an already installed service. |
| -i --install | Install Zabbix Windows agent as service. |
| -d --uninstall | Uninstall Zabbix Windows agent service. |
| -s --start | Start Zabbix Windows agent service. |
| -x --stop | Stop Zabbix Windows agent service. |
Specific examples of using command-line parameters:
- printing all built-in agent items with values
- testing a user parameter with "mysql.ping" key defined in the specified configuration file
- installing a "Zabbix Agent" service for Windows using the default path to configuration file C:\Program Files\Zabbix Agent\zabbix_agentd.conf
- installing a "Zabbix Agent [Hostname]" service for Windows using the configuration file zabbix_agentd.conf located in the same folder as agent executable and making the service name unique by extending it by Hostname value from the config file
- modifying the startup type of an installed "Zabbix Agent" service for Windows using the configuration file zabbix_agentd.conf located in the same folder as agent executable
zabbix_agentd --print
zabbix_agentd -t "mysql.ping" -c /etc/zabbix/zabbix_agentd.conf
zabbix_agentd.exe -i
zabbix_agentd.exe -i -m -c zabbix_agentd.conf
zabbix_agentd.exe -c zabbix_agentd.conf -S delayedRuntime control
With runtime control options you may change the log level of agent processes.
| Option | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| log_level_increase[=<target>] | Increase log level. If target is not specified, all processes are affected. |
Target can be specified as: process type - all processes of specified type (e.g., listener) See all agent process types. process type,N - process type and number (e.g., listener,3) pid - process identifier (1 to 65535). For larger values specify target as 'process-type,N'. |
| log_level_decrease[=<target>] | Decrease log level. If target is not specified, all processes are affected. |
|
| userparameter_reload | Reload values of the UserParameter and Include options from the current configuration file. |
Examples:
- increasing log level of all processes
- increasing log level of the third listener process
- increasing log level of process with PID 1234
- decreasing log level of all active check processes
zabbix_agentd -R log_level_increase
zabbix_agentd -R log_level_increase=listener,3
zabbix_agentd -R log_level_increase=1234
zabbix_agentd -R log_level_decrease="active checks"Runtime control is not supported on OpenBSD, NetBSD and Windows.
Agent process types
active checks- process for performing active checkscollector- process for data collectionlistener- process for listening to passive checks
The agent log file can be used to observe these process types.
Process user
Zabbix agent on UNIX is designed to run as a non-root user. It will run as whatever non-root user it is started as. So you can run agent as any non-root user without any issues.
If you will try to run it as 'root', it will switch to a hardcoded 'zabbix' user, which must be present on your system. You can only run agent as 'root' if you modify the 'AllowRoot' parameter in the agent configuration file accordingly.
Configuration file
For details on configuring Zabbix agent see the configuration file options for zabbix_agentd or Windows agent.
Locale
Note that the agent requires a UTF-8 locale so that some textual agent items can return the expected content. Most modern Unix-like systems have a UTF-8 locale as default, however, there are some systems where that may need to be set specifically.
Exit code
Zabbix agent returns 0 in case of successful exit and 1 in case of failure.