Master Zabbix API Calls with Curl: From Authentication to Historical Data

Overview

This document provides step‑by‑step curl commands for interacting with the Zabbix monitoring system via its JSON‑RPC API. It covers authentication, obtaining host and item identifiers, retrieving historical data, and accessing various system details.

1. Authenticate and obtain a token

Use the user.login method to get an authentication token.

curl -i -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"user.login","params":{"user":"admin","password":"zabbix"},"auth":null,"id":0}' http://192.168.1.222/zabbix/api_jsonrpc.php

2. Get host IDs

Retrieve a specific host ID or all host IDs.

curl -i -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"host.get","params":{"output":["hostid"],"filter":{"host":"192.168.1.223"}},"auth":"b61b7168931be1065cd722ab44e32d2a","id":0}' http://192.168.1.222/zabbix/api_jsonrpc.php

All hosts:

curl -i -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"host.get","params":{"output":["hostid"]},"auth":"b61b7168931be1065cd722ab44e32d2a","id":0}' http://192.168.1.222/zabbix/api_jsonrpc.php

3. Get item IDs for a host

Obtain item IDs for a given host, optionally filtering by key.

curl -i -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"item.get","params":{"output":"itemids","hostids":"10119","search":{"key_":"system.cpu.util[,idle]"}},"auth":"91aca8c1fe89c89c2e457ab18a28e79b","id":0}' http://192.168.1.222/zabbix/api_jsonrpc.php

All items of the host:

curl -i -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"item.get","params":{"output":["itemids"],"hostids":"10119"},"auth":"91aca8c1fe89c89c2e457ab18a28e79b","id":0}' http://192.168.1.222/zabbix/api_jsonrpc.php

4. Retrieve historical values for an item

Fetch all history records for an item ID.

curl -i -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"history.get","params":{"history":0,"itemids":["23902"],"output":"extend"},"auth":"91aca8c1fe89c89c2e457ab18a28e79b","id":0}' http://192.168.1.222/zabbix/api_jsonrpc.php

Fetch data for a specific time range (e.g., 2014‑05‑01 to 2014‑05‑03). Convert the dates to Unix timestamps (seconds since 1970‑01‑01) before using them.

curl -i -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"history.get","params":{"history":0,"itemids":["23902"],"time_from":"1398873600","time_till":"1399046400","output":"extend"},"auth":"91aca8c1fe89c89c2e457ab18a28e79b","id":0}' http://192.168.1.222/zabbix/api_jsonrpc.php

5. Get the value at a specific timestamp

Filter the history by the exact clock value.

curl -i -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"history.get","params":{"history":0,"itemids":["23902"],"time_from":"1398873600","time_till":"1399046400","output":"extend","filter":{"clock":"1399026180"}},"auth":"91aca8c1fe89c89c2e457ab18a28e79b","id":0}' http://192.168.1.222/zabbix/api_jsonrpc.php

Additional useful API calls

Get all host information

curl -i -X POST -H 'Content-Type:application/json' -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"host.get","params":{"output":"extend"},"auth":"91aca8c1fe89c89c2e457ab18a28e79b","id":4}' http://192.168.1.222/zabbix/api_jsonrpc.php

Check Zabbix version

curl -i -X POST -H 'Content-Type:application/json' -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"apiinfo.version","params":{},"auth":"91aca8c1fe89c89c2e457ab18a28e79b","id":1}' http://192.168.1.222/zabbix/api_jsonrpc.php

Get defined macros

curl -i -X POST -H 'Content-Type:application/json' -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"usermacro.get","params":{"output":"extend"},"auth":"91aca8c1fe89c89c2e457ab18a28e79b","id":1}' http://192.168.1.222/zabbix/api_jsonrpc.php

List user media (alerting methods)

curl -i -X POST -H 'Content-Type:application/json' -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"usermedia.get","params":{"output":"extend"},"auth":"91aca8c1fe89c89c2e457ab18a28e79b","id":1}' http://192.168.1.222/zabbix/api_jsonrpc.php

Notes

The Zabbix API specifications without the “draft” label are stable for production use. When working with date strings, convert them to epoch seconds (e.g., using a shell command) before inserting them into the time_from and time_till parameters.