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18 Agent vs agent 2 comparison

This section describes the differences between the Zabbix agent and the Zabbix agent 2.

Parameter Zabbix agent Zabbix agent 2
Programming language C Go with some parts in C
Daemonization yes no (yes on Windows since 5.0.4)
Supported extensions Custom loadable modules in C. Custom plugins in Go.
Requirements
Supported platforms Linux, IBM AIX, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, HP-UX, Mac OS X, Solaris: 9, 10, 11, Windows: all desktop and server versions since XP Linux, Windows: all desktop and server versions since XP.
Supported crypto libraries GnuTLS 3.1.18 and newer
OpenSSL 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.1.0, 1.1.1
LibreSSL - tested with versions 2.7.4, 2.8.2 (certain limitations apply, see the Encryption page for details).
Linux: OpenSSL 1.0.1 and later is supported since Zabbix 4.4.8.
MS Windows: OpenSSL 1.1.1 or later.
The OpenSSL library must have PSK support enabled. LibreSSL is not supported.
Monitoring processes
Processes A separate active check process for each server/proxy record. Single process with automatically created threads.
The maximum number of threads is determined by the GOMAXPROCS environment variable.
Metrics UNIX: see a list of supported items.

Windows: see a list of additional Windows-specific items.
UNIX: All metrics supported by Zabbix agent.
Additionally, the agent 2 provides Zabbix-native monitoring solution for: Docker, Memcached, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Redis, systemd (see a list of agent 2 specific items).

Windows: All metrics supported by Zabbix agent, and also net.tcp.service* checks of HTTPS, LDAP.
Additionally, the agent 2 provides Zabbix-native monitoring solution for: PostgreSQL, Redis.
Concurrency Active checks for single server are executed sequentially. Checks from different plugins or multiple checks within one plugin can be executed concurrently.
Scheduled/flexible intervals Supported for passive checks only. Supported for passive and active checks.
Third party traps no yes
Additional features
Persistent storage no yes
Persistent files for log*[] metrics yes (only on Unix) no
Timeout settings Defined on an agent level only. Plugin timeout can override the timeout defined on an agent level.
Drop user privileges yes (Unix-like systems only) no
User-configurable ciphersuites yes no

See also: