zabbix-api

Zabbix Automation Skill

Overview

This skill provides guidance for automating Zabbix monitoring operations via the API and official Python library zabbix_utils.

Quick Start

Installation

pip install zabbix-utils --break-system-packages

Authentication

from zabbix_utils import ZabbixAPI

# Option 1: Username/password
api = ZabbixAPI(url="https://zabbix.example.com")
api.login(user="Admin", password="zabbix")

# Option 2: API token (Zabbix 5.4+, preferred)
api = ZabbixAPI(url="https://zabbix.example.com")
api.login(token="your_api_token")

# Verify connection
print(api.api_version())

Environment Variables Pattern

import os
from zabbix_utils import ZabbixAPI

api = ZabbixAPI(url=os.environ.get("ZABBIX_URL", "http://localhost/zabbix"))
api.login(token=os.environ["ZABBIX_TOKEN"])

Core API Methods

All APIs follow pattern: api.<object>.<method>() with methods: get, create, update, delete.

Host Operations

# Get hosts
hosts = api.host.get(output=["hostid", "host", "name"],
                     selectInterfaces=["ip"])

# Create host
api.host.create(
    host="server01",
    groups=[{"groupid": "2"}],  # Linux servers
    interfaces=[{
        "type": 1,  # 1=agent, 2=SNMP, 3=IPMI, 4=JMX
        "main": 1,
        "useip": 1,
        "ip": "192.168.1.100",
        "dns": "",
        "port": "10050"
    }],
    templates=[{"templateid": "10001"}]
)

# Update host
api.host.update(hostid="10084", status=0)  # 0=enabled, 1=disabled

# Delete host
api.host.delete("10084")

Template Operations

# Get templates
templates = api.template.get(output=["templateid", "host", "name"],
                             selectHosts=["hostid", "name"])

# Link template to host
api.host.update(hostid="10084",
                templates=[{"templateid": "10001"}])

# Import template from XML
with open("template.xml") as f:
    api.configuration.import_(
        source=f.read(),
        format="xml",
        rules={
            "templates": {"createMissing": True, "updateExisting": True},
            "items": {"createMissing": True, "updateExisting": True},
            "triggers": {"createMissing": True, "updateExisting": True}
        }
    )

Item Operations

# Get items
items = api.item.get(hostids="10084",
                     output=["itemid", "name", "key_"],
                     search={"key_": "system.cpu"})

# Create item
api.item.create(
    name="CPU Load",
    key_="system.cpu.load[percpu,avg1]",
    hostid="10084",
    type=0,  # 0=Zabbix agent
    value_type=0,  # 0=float, 3=integer, 4=text
    delay="30s",
    interfaceid="1"
)

Trigger Operations

# Get triggers
triggers = api.trigger.get(hostids="10084",
                          output=["triggerid", "description", "priority"],
                          selectFunctions="extend")

# Create trigger
api.trigger.create(
    description="High CPU on {HOST.NAME}",
    expression="last(/server01/system.cpu.load[percpu,avg1])>5",
    priority=3  # 0=not classified, 1=info, 2=warning, 3=average, 4=high, 5=disaster
)

Host Group Operations

# Get groups
groups = api.hostgroup.get(output=["groupid", "name"])

# Create group
api.hostgroup.create(name="Production/Web Servers")

# Add hosts to group
api.hostgroup.massadd(groups=[{"groupid": "5"}],
                      hosts=[{"hostid": "10084"}])

Maintenance Windows

import time

# Create maintenance
api.maintenance.create(
    name="Server Maintenance",
    active_since=int(time.time()),
    active_till=int(time.time()) + 3600,  # 1 hour
    hostids=["10084"],
    timeperiods=[{
        "timeperiod_type": 0,  # One-time
        "period": 3600
    }]
)

Events and Problems

# Get current problems
problems = api.problem.get(output=["eventid", "name", "severity"],
                          recent=True)

# Get events
events = api.event.get(hostids="10084",
                       time_from=int(time.time()) - 86400,
                       output="extend")

History Data

# Get history (value_type must match item's value_type)
# 0=float, 1=character, 2=log, 3=integer, 4=text
history = api.history.get(
    itemids="28269",
    history=0,  # float
    time_from=int(time.time()) - 3600,
    output="extend",
    sortfield="clock",
    sortorder="DESC"
)

Zabbix Sender (Trapper Items)

from zabbix_utils import Sender

sender = Sender(server="zabbix.example.com", port=10051)

# Send single value
response = sender.send_value("hostname", "trap.key", "value123")
print(response)  # {"processed": 1, "failed": 0, "total": 1}

# Send multiple values
from zabbix_utils import ItemValue
values = [
    ItemValue("host1", "key1", "value1"),
    ItemValue("host2", "key2", 42),
]
response = sender.send(values)

Zabbix Getter (Agent Query)

from zabbix_utils import Getter

agent = Getter(host="192.168.1.100", port=10050)
response = agent.get("system.uname")
print(response.value)

Common Patterns

Bulk Host Creation from CSV

import csv
from zabbix_utils import ZabbixAPI

api = ZabbixAPI(url="https://zabbix.example.com")
api.login(token="your_token")

with open("hosts.csv") as f:
    for row in csv.DictReader(f):
        try:
            api.host.create(
                host=row["hostname"],
                groups=[{"groupid": row["groupid"]}],
                interfaces=[{
                    "type": 1, "main": 1, "useip": 1,
                    "ip": row["ip"], "dns": "", "port": "10050"
                }]
            )
            print(f"Created: {row['hostname']}")
        except Exception as e:
            print(f"Failed {row['hostname']}: {e}")

Find Hosts Without Template

# Get all hosts
all_hosts = api.host.get(output=["hostid", "host"],
                         selectParentTemplates=["templateid"])

# Filter hosts without specific template
template_id = "10001"
hosts_without = [h for h in all_hosts
                 if not any(t["templateid"] == template_id
                           for t in h.get("parentTemplates", []))]

Disable Triggers by Pattern

triggers = api.trigger.get(
    search={"description": "test"},
    output=["triggerid"]
)
for t in triggers:
    api.trigger.update(triggerid=t["triggerid"], status=1)  # 1=disabled

Item Types Reference

Type	Value	Description
Zabbix agent	0	Active checks
Zabbix trapper	2	Passive, data pushed via sender
Simple check	3	ICMP, TCP, etc.
Zabbix internal	5	Server internal metrics
Zabbix agent (active)	7	Agent-initiated
HTTP agent	19	HTTP/REST API monitoring
Dependent item	18	Derived from master item
Script	21	Custom scripts

Value Types Reference

Type	Value	Description
Float	0	Numeric (float)
Character	1	Character string
Log	2	Log file
Unsigned	3	Numeric (integer)
Text	4	Text

Trigger Severity Reference

Severity	Value	Color
Not classified	0	Gray
Information	1	Light blue
Warning	2	Yellow
Average	3	Orange
High	4	Light red
Disaster	5	Red

Error Handling

from zabbix_utils import ZabbixAPI
from zabbix_utils.exceptions import APIRequestError

try:
    api.host.create(host="duplicate_host", groups=[{"groupid": "2"}])
except APIRequestError as e:
    print(f"API Error: {e.message}")
    print(f"Code: {e.code}")

Debugging

import logging
logging.basicConfig(level=logging.DEBUG)
# Now all API calls will be logged

Scripts Reference

See scripts/ directory for ready-to-use automation:

• zabbix-bulk-hosts.py - Bulk host management from CSV
• zabbix-maintenance.py - Create/manage maintenance windows
• zabbix-export.py - Export hosts/templates to JSON/XML

Best Practices

1. Use API tokens over username/password when possible
2. Limit output fields - Always specify output=["field1", "field2"] instead of output="extend"
3. Use search/filter - Never fetch all objects and filter in Python
4. Handle pagination - Large result sets may need limit and offset
5. Batch operations - Use massadd, massupdate for bulk changes
6. Error handling - Always wrap API calls in try/except
7. Idempotency - Check if object exists before creating

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Gotchas

• api.history.get requires the correct history value_type or returns empty: Passing history=0 (float) on an integer item silently returns [] instead of an error. Always read the item's value_type first; the four-way mismatch (0/1/3/4) is the most common "no data" cause.
• output="extend" on large queries melts the server: Fetching every field for thousands of hosts or items causes multi-second responses and OOMs the API frontend. Always pass output=["field1","field2"] with only the columns you need — the API has no implicit pagination protection.
• Trigger expressions reference host+key, not item IDs: Renaming a host or key breaks every trigger expression that references it, with no warning until evaluation. Use templates and macros ({HOST.HOST}) instead of hardcoded names in expressions.
• API token vs session token confusion in zabbix_utils: api.login(token=...) uses a permanent API token (Zabbix 5.4+); api.login(user=..., password=...) issues a session token. Mixing token auth with api.logout() invalidates the permanent token for everyone using it.
• massadd does not deduplicate — massupdate replaces: hostgroup.massadd happily adds the same host to a group twice in some versions; hostgroup.massupdate silently removes hosts not in the payload. Read the verb carefully before bulk operations or you'll detach hosts you meant to keep.
• maintenance.create with past active_since is accepted but ignored: Backdating a maintenance window does not retroactively suppress alerts that already fired. Set active_since slightly in the future and verify with maintenance.get before assuming alerts are muted.