What should be done when an item's key contains special characters such as commas or square brackets?

When dealing with item keys that contain special characters like commas or square brackets in Zabbix, the correct approach is to escape these characters with a backslash. This method ensures that the Zabbix server correctly interprets the characters as part of the item key itself, rather than misinterpreting them as syntax with a special meaning.

Using a backslash to escape special characters helps maintain the integrity of the key and prevents any potential errors or misunderstandings when Zabbix processes the data. This is crucial for ensuring that data is collected correctly and that users can effectively query and utilize items without encountering parsing issues related to the presence of these characters.

In contrast, simply removing special characters could lead to loss of important identification details within the item key, potentially causing confusion and making it harder to differentiate between similar items. Utilizing single quotes would not effectively address the issue of special characters in this context, as they do not serve the purpose of escaping those characters. Replacing special characters with underscores might also compromise the original meaning or context of the item key. Therefore, escaping them with a backslash is the most effective and technically sound solution.