5 What's new in Zabbix 7.4.0

See breaking changes for this version.

Managing history cache

In some data collection scenarios, specific items can temporarily block the server/proxy history cache. This may delay writing history data to the database and slow down the system. To help manage the history cache, the following improvements have been introduced:

• Manual cache clearing: The new history_cache_clear=target runtime command for Zabbix server/proxy allows you to manually clear the history cache for a specific item by its ID.
• Automatic cache clearing: When you disable an item, it is immediately removed from the history cache (except for its last value, which is kept for logs). Similarly, when you disable a host, all its items are removed from the history cache (except for their last values).
• Cache diagnostics logging: When the history cache is full, Zabbix server/proxy now logs history cache diagnostic information starting from DebugLevel=3 (previously DebugLevel=4). The log contains items with the most values in the history cache.

For long-term system stability, make sure that data collection is balanced with available resources (database performance, cache size, collection intervals, log item parameters, etc.). You can monitor Zabbix history cache using the zabbix[wcache] internal item. You can also consider increasing the size of the history cache for Zabbix server/proxy.

Host prototypes on discovered hosts

Host prototypes are now supported on discovered hosts, enabling Zabbix to automatically discover and monitor entities within other discovered entities (e.g., hypervisors, their virtual machines, and containers inside those virtual machines).

You can create host prototypes on discovered hosts by creating low-level discovery rules with host prototypes or by linking a template with host prototypes. Alternatively, you can link a template to the host prototype used for discovery, which will cause discovered hosts to inherit the host prototypes from the template.

If your current configuration includes host prototypes that use templates containing other host prototypes, please see Upgrade notes.

Widgets

Item history

• In the Item history widget the scrolling position will now be bottom if new values are configured to be positioned at the bottom. This is useful for reading the latest values of logs.

Items

ICMP ping item with retry option

A new icmppingretry[<target>,<retries>,<backoff>,<size>,<timeout>,<options>] simple check has been added for host accessibility monitoring by ICMP ping with the ability to modify retries.

Functions

Timestamp tracking

New history functions have been added for timestamp tracking:

• firstclock - timestamp of the oldest value within the defined evaluation period;
• lastclock - timestamp of the Nth most recent value within the defined evaluation period;
• logtimestamp - log message timestamp of the Nth most recent log item value.

Macros

Item value time tracking

New macros have been added for item-value time tracking:

Notifications

Separate menu section for user notifications

For better visibility of user media, user notifications now have their own menu section under User settings.

The new Notifications section contains two tabs - Media and Frontend notifications, which previously were part of the user profile section.

Managing own user media

All users are now allowed to manage their own media by default.

However, user permissions to change media details for themselves can be granted/revoked based on their user role (see Create and edit own media option).

Additionally, Super admin user permissions to change media details for others can also be granted/revoked based on their user role (see Create and edit user media option).

Maps

Auto-hide labels

It is now possible to configure map element/link labels to be displayed only when they are hovered on or selected. This setting helps to reduce visual clutter in maps with many elements close to each other.

Auto-hiding of labels can be configured for all map elements/links globally or for an individual map element/link.

Proportional scaling of background images

It is now possible to proportionally scale background images to fit the map size.

Element ordering

It is now possible to bring one element in front of the other (or vice versa) by clicking on the element with the right mouse button and selecting Bring forward/Bring to front or Send backward/Send to back options.

Additionally, if map elements contain both a link between them and a highlight, the link will now appear below the highlight.

Link indicators based on item value

In the previous versions it was possible to adjust link style and color if some trigger went into a problem state. Now similar functionality is available based on item values.

It is possible to have link style and color adjusted if an item value:

• reaches a defined threshold (for numeric items);
• matches a regular expression (for text items).

Processes

History syncer transaction statistics

The history syncer process title now displays detailed statistics about history syncer transactions for Zabbix server and proxy.

Security

Resolving secret vault macros by server/proxy independently

It is now possible to configure that vault secret macro values are retrieved by Zabbix server and Zabbix proxy independently if Resolve secret vault macros by is set to "Zabbix server and proxy".

Plugins

Custom query path configuration for loadable plugins

The Plugins.*.CustomQueriesPath parameter in Zabbix agent 2 plugin configuration files for MySQL, Oracle, and PostgreSQL, as well as Plugins.MSSQL.CustomQueriesDir for MSSQL, now has a default value. This functionality is disabled by default and can be enabled using the newly introduced Plugins.*.CustomQueriesEnabled parameter.

Frontend

Easier copying for preprocessing test results

It is now easier to copy values in preprocessing test results using the added Copy to clipboard button.

Note that a similar button now replaces the Copy link for created API tokens.