For the correct functioning of the VMware FQDN template, each monitored virtual machine should have a unique OS name adhering to FQDN rules. Additionally, VMware Tools/Open Virtual Machine tools must be installed on every machine. If these prerequisites are met, using the VMware FQDN template is recommended. The VMware FQDN template has been available since Zabbix 5.2 with the introduction of the ability to create hosts with custom interfaces.

A classic VMware template is also available and can be used if FQDN requirements are unmet. However, the VMware template has a known issue. Hosts for discovered virtual machines are created with names that are saved in vCenter (for example, "VM1", "VM2", etc.). If Zabbix agent is installed on these hosts, and active Zabbix agent autoregistration is enabled, the autoregistration process will read host names as they were registered during launch (for example, "vm1.example.com", "vm2.example.com", etc.). This can lead to the creation of new hosts for existing virtual machines (since no name matches have been found), resulting in duplicate hosts with different names.