You’ve done it before, every Zabbix user has. You’ve added an item directly to a host and later re-created that item on another host, and then another, and another… You should’ve used templates from the beginning!
Even though you’re only adding one item to one host, you might as well do that inside of a template. It takes very little extra work to do so and will save you oodles of time in the long run. That one “Simple check – icmpping” item on that one host, might need adding on several other hosts when your environment grows.
Naming your Templates
Naming your new template in a sensible and structured manner is key. Bad examples are:
- Template for checking web connectivity
- SAN
- Ping webserver
Think of linking a template as assigning roles or applications to your hosts. That’s why Zabbix has a bunch of default templates like “Template App Zabbix Server” and “Template OS Windows”. Template names should point to a role or a purpose. That way you’ll have a much easier time managing them and assigning them correctly when adding new hosts at a later date.
Read more about templates and what they can do here: https://www.zabbix.com/documentation/3.0/manual/config/templates