This time we created a new host, added several normal or passive items, active items, and simple checks to two different hosts. We also explored many tricks and mechanisms to ease managing in the frontend, like item cloning, copying, and value mapping.
It might be worth remembering how connections are made for each of these item types that's important when you have to decide on monitoring mechanisms based on existing network topology and configuration.
Let's look at a simplistic diagram. The arrow direction denotes how connections are made.
Listed are default ports that can be changed, if necessary.
Normal or passive item: A Zabbix server connects to a Zabbix agent, which in turn gathers the data
Active item: A Zabbix agent connects to a Zabbix server, retrieves list of things to monitor, gathers the data, and then periodically reports back to the server
Simple check: A Zabbix server directly queries exposed network interfaces of the monitored host, no agent required
This covers the two...