6 Unit symbols

Overview

Having to use some large numbers, for example '86400' to represent the number of seconds in one day, is both difficult and error-prone. This is why you can use some appropriate unit symbols (or suffixes) to simplify Zabbix trigger expressions and item keys.

Instead of '86400' you can simply enter '1d'. Suffixes function as multipliers.

Trigger expressions

Time and memory size suffixes are supported in trigger expression constants and function parameters.

For time you can use:

• s - seconds (when used, works the same as the raw value)
• m - minutes
• h - hours
• d - days
• w - weeks

Time suffixes are also supported in parameters of the zabbix[queue,<from>,<to>] internal item and the last parameter of aggregate checks.

For memory size you can use:

• K - kilobyte
• M - megabyte
• G - gigabyte
• T - terabyte

Other uses

Unit symbols are also used for a human-readable representation of data in the frontend.

In both Zabbix server and frontend these symbols are supported:

• K - kilo
• M - mega
• G - giga
• T - tera

When item values in B, Bps are displayed in the frontend, base 2 is applied (1K = 1024). Otherwise a base of 10 is used (1K = 1000).

Additionally the frontend also supports the display of:

• P - peta
• E - exa
• Z - zetta
• Y - yotta

Usage examples

By using some appropriate suffixes you can write trigger expressions that are easier to understand and maintain, for example these expressions:

{host:zabbix[proxy,zabbix_proxy,lastaccess]}>120
       {host:system.uptime[].last(0)}<86400
       {host:system.cpu.load.avg(600)}<10
       {host:vm.memory.size[available].last(0)}<20971520

could be changed to:

{host:zabbix[proxy,zabbix_proxy,lastaccess]}>2m
       {host:system.uptime.last(0)}<1d
       {host:system.cpu.load.avg(10m)}<10
       {host:vm.memory.size[available].last(0)}<20M