First of all, I tried to search a similar feature request in the issues but could not find it. I am surprised that nobody asked for it before. (except if I missed it maybe?)

Basic Information:

Currently there are 2 types of Zabbix Agent check functionality. Active and Passive. This is set using the item type per item in the template. In some cases there are multiple of same templates. Eg. Linux by zabbix agent and Linux by zabbix agent active. However not all templates are understandably (as this requires some extra work) duplicated in this manner.

If both types of templates are needed. This creates a certain amount of duplication and extra work. Especially since most templates are not provided in active type.

Problem Description:

As most templates are only available with passive checks, I had to download a template and convert it by mass updating zabbix-agent item types with zabbix-agent-active types (or with find/replace). This worked fine as I could rename the modified template and keep both templates in the system. However since the introduction of UUIDs, this is not feasible anymore. Now, one also needs to change UUIDs and in future keep them in sync. It is also impossible to import 2 templates with items which has same UUIDs. For example as described at: https://www.zabbix.com/forum/zabbix-help/458147-uuid-problem-making-same-template-for-agent-and-agent-active

Suggestion?:

It seems most items can work in active or passive mode. Some items have to be configured as active. (minor inconvenience)

Isn't it possible to have an item type, eg. zabbix-agent-auto, which can automatically determine if active or passive should be used for a specific host?

• If item type is "auto". To determine if active or passive is used. A preference list can be used on host settings: Eg. active, then passive or passive then active, or only active or passive.
• There can also be a more general system preference list which is global for all hosts. For hosts where there is no preferences defined, the preference list is inherited.

It is possible to easily determine if active checks are possible if the agent is connecting regularly and fetching items. I saw that a recent feature added to Zabbix is to determine if active checks are functioning or not.

As a plus, if the items are not Zabbix Agent (auto) type (agent or agent-active as they are right now), everything would work exactly the same as before. So there would be total compatibility with existing installations.

I hope the descriptions were clear and understandable. Please ask if they are not clear.