There’s nothing as tedious as setting up the same type of server over and over, adding the same Items and Triggers. In any environment, we tend to use the same types of servers because we’ve standardized on them. It could be in your house (“My family is all on Apple products”) or at work (“We’re a Linux and Windows shop”).  So if you’re setting up 20 laptops, it’s the same Items and Triggers on each one.

To handle this headache, Zabbix uses Templates to make the configuration easier. At the Host level, you can add Items and Triggers one by one or save yourself a lot of time an use the Templates field. Choosing a Template for the server allows the addition of pre-defined Items and Triggers so you don’t have to type them all in, but there an extra bonus. If you change the Template, the changes ripple out and affect all your Items and Triggers using that Template. Imaging configuring 20 Hosts, each with 30 Items, each with 60 Triggers, and realizing you made an error and need to update most of them – but if you use a Template you only have to make a few changes.

My Zabbix server monitors hundreds of Hosts, but even if you only have a few, try a few pre-fined Templates to save yourself a lot of time. In a future post, I’ll show you how you can create your own Templates, and you’ll be stunned at their power.