Simple checks

The previously created items all required the Zabbix agent daemon to be installed, running, and able to make a connection in either direction. But what if you can't or don't want to install the agent on a remote host and only need to monitor simple things? This is where simple checks can help you. These checks do not require any specialized agent running on the remote end and only rely on basic network protocols such as Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) and TCP to query monitored hosts.

Host-availability icons only cover the Zabbix agent, SNMP, JMX, and IPMI status, that is, things where we expect the response to arrive. Our expectations for simple checks could go both ways—an open port could be good or bad. There is no status icon for simple checks.

Let's create a very basic check now:

Go to Configuration | Hosts
Click on Items next to Another host
Click on Create item

Use the following values:

Name: Enter SMTP server status
Type: Select Simple check
Key: Click on the Select button

The Type drop-down menu at the upper-right corner should already say Simple check. If it doesn't, change it to that. In the Key list, click on the net.tcp.service[service,<ip>,<port>] key and then edit it. Replace service with smtp and remove everything after it in the square brackets so that it becomes net.tcp.service[smtp], like so:

When configuring simple checks in Zabbix, beware of paranoid network security configurations that might trigger an alert if you check too many services too often.

When done, click on the Add button at the bottom. To check the result, go to Monitoring | Latest data—our new check should be there and, depending on whether you have the SMTP server running and accessible for the Zabbix server, should list either 1 (if running and accessible) or 0.

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Simple checks