# Help Understanding Zabbix proxy



## fred974 (Sep 15, 2020)

Hi,

Do I still need to have a Zabbix agent when running a Zabbix proxy?
I am not clear about the situation.

Thank you


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## wolffnx (Sep 15, 2020)

fred974 said:


> Hi,
> 
> Do I still need to have a Zabbix agent when running a Zabbix proxy?
> I am not clear about the situation.
> ...



Yes (at least for my instalation)
I have the agent installed in the same zabbix server(also is my firewall)


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## Eric A. Borisch (Sep 16, 2020)

fred974 said:


> Hi,
> 
> Do I still need to have a Zabbix agent when running a Zabbix proxy?
> I am not clear about the situation.
> ...



Yes, the zabbix proxy primarily serves to either act as a collection point (reducing main server load for _large_ installations) or as a forwarder (for when the proxy straddles two network segments that are otherwise not routed across). You don’t _need_ a proxy if the agent and server can see each other on the network.

The agent is the primary source of per-computer metrics.


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## fred974 (Nov 29, 2020)

thank you all for the reply.
I have a bunch of server in datacenter1 and 2. The Zabbix server is located in Datacenter3.
In DC 1 and DC2, I installed 1x zabbix proxy.
Each DC has several servers all containing the zabbix agent.
Should the zabbix agent point to the IP of the zabbix proxy and should they all carry on pointing at te zabbix server?


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## pvuchetich (Nov 29, 2020)

In order to use the proxy, the Zabbix agent for each server must point to a Zabbix proxy.
Each Zabbix proxy must relay to the Zabbix server.

However:


> Eric A. Borisch said:
> 
> 
> > You don’t _need_ a proxy if the agent and server can see each other on the network.



You mentioned that the servers with agents running are currently pointing directly to the Zabbix Server.  If that is working, is there a reason you need to add a proxy?  A proxy will help with large scale data collection and firewall/network access issues.  If you have a reliable connection between data centers, and the agents can connect directly to the Zabbix server, you might not need to use proxies.


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