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Type:
Problem report
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Resolution: Unresolved
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Priority:
Trivial
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None
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Affects Version/s: 7.0.31
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Component/s: Proxy (P)
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None
Environment
- Server: Zabbix Cloud (vss.zabbix.cloud), 7.0.31
- Proxy: RWR1, 7.0.31, active mode, PSK encryption, MySQL 8.0.46 backend, Ubuntu 24.04
- Default ProxyConfigFrequency (10s). No ConfigFrequency override. No settings in include files.
- Six proxy groups, each with exactly one proxy (failover period 1m, minimum online 1). Other proxies run 7.0.26 to 7.0.31.
Summary
When we add a host monitored by a proxy, the proxy receives the configuration and writes it to its local database, but often never loads the host into its in-memory configuration cache. Items are never polled. “Execute now” returns “item is not in cache.” Refresh configuration from the UI and zabbix_proxy -R config_cache_reload don’t fix it. Only restarting the proxy service does. This happens repeatedly whenever we add hosts.
Affected objects
- Host: RWR-EHCL-WAN-Probe (hostid 11171), template “ICMP Ping”
- Items: 94777 icmpping, 94778 icmppingloss, 94779 icmppingsec, all with a 1m interval
- Interface: 523 (Agent type, connects by DNS to ehcl-wanx1.eggharborcitylake.com)
- At creation the host was monitored by proxy group “RWR”. It was later changed to proxy “RWR1” directly as a troubleshooting step.
Timeline (2026-10-12, proxy local time, from zabbix_proxy.log)
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| 09:51:43 | Received configuration data from server, datalen 397 |
| 09:51:53 | Received configuration data from server, datalen 16058 (host and items created around this time) |
| 09:52:15 | Execute now: cannot perform check now for itemid [94777]/[94778]/[94779]: item is not in cache |
| 10:20:00 | forced reloading of the configuration cache (Refresh configuration from the UI). Host still not polled. |
| 10:23:42 to 10:38:39 | Several configuration pushes received (other template changes made during this window) |
| [time] | Host changed from proxy group RWR to proxy RWR1 directly |
| 10:48:55 | Execute now: item is not in cache again for 94777, 94778 and 94779 |
| 10:50:23 | systemctl restart zabbix-proxy. Full configuration received (datalen 775301). Items polled immediately and values appeared in Latest data. |
Verification before the restart (10:48 to 10:50)
- Proxy DB hosts/items: host 11171 status 0 and all three items status 0 with delay 1m and interfaceid 523. The configuration was in the proxy database.
- Proxy DB hosts: monitored_by, proxyid and proxy_groupid for 11171 were identical to a working host on the same proxy (hostid 10771): 0 / NULL / NULL.
- Proxy DB host_proxy: no rows for hostid 11171.
- Proxy DB proxy_history: no rows for itemids 94777 to 94779. The items had never been polled.
- DNS and fping were tested as the zabbix user: getent hosts resolved the name, and sudo -u zabbix /usr/bin/fping -c1 ehcl-wanx1.eggharborcitylake.com succeeded. This rules out ICMP or resolution problems.
- Proxy health was normal: CPU, memory and disk were low, poller utilization was low, the buffer was empty, and the proxy showed Online with last seen under 5 seconds.
Expected behavior: New hosts and items load into the proxy’s configuration cache within one config sync cycle (about 10s plus server cache refresh) and start polling without a restart.
Actual behavior: The configuration reaches the proxy database but not the in-memory cache. A forced cache reload doesn’t help. Only a service restart works.