Zabbix ifInOctets Multiplier .125 or 8???

[bwebb]

Okay, I have been going round and round with this one and I see .125 and 8 as the custom multiplier value for the ifInOctets OID in templates everywhere so which one is actually right?

Logically, as the data received by the ifInOctets OID is received in OCTETS (bytes), if we are trying to obtain bits per second we must divide by 8 which is the equivalent of multiplying by .125. This is what I currently do, but I even see some templates and several users reporting a multiplier of 8.

http://www.zabbix.com/forum/showthre...ets+multiplier <-- One example of a user having the same issue who currently uses 8 as a multiplier

http://www.zabbix.com/wiki/howto/monitor/snmp/snmp <-- Even in the Zabbix Wiki it shows 8 as the custom multiplier but gives no explanation for why!!

Can someone please clarify once and for all? I have used .125 multiplier on every other monitoring platform I have ever used and there are so many other posts in this exact same vein with zero real clarification that I have to believe this is a common problem for new users. Zabbix admins, what is right? There is no circumstance under which one would need to 'multiply' an octet by 8 so I can't believe that a custom multiplier of 8 is correct but having so many people say so and having the wiki say so give me doubt.

[pburns]

I would very much appreciate some clarity on this as well.

[alixen]

Hi,

There is no circumstance under which one would need to 'multiply' an octet by 8 so I can't believe that a custom multiplier of 8 is correct but having so many people say so and having the wiki say so give me doubt.

This is the setup I have for ifInOctets OIDs:

Type of information: Numeric (float)
Units : bps
Use multiplier : Custom multiplier
Custom multiplier : 8
Store value : Delta (speed per second)

Since ifInOctets unit is in bytes (1 octet = 1 byte), if you don't multiply, you get bytes/s. If you want bits/s, you have to multiply by 8 since there are 8 bits in a byte.

This seems obvious to me but maybe I misunderstand your question.

Regards,
Alixen

[bwebb]

Issue Resolved

I finally clarified what the difference is:

Multiplying by .125, as I have done in previous software, gives you the mbps equivalent of the octet value (which is exactly what I wanted before) whereas multiplying by 8 gives you the bps equivalent (which is exactly what I wanted this time).

Basically I'm an idiot and was confusing myself...to my credit, I did pretty much crash-course learn Zabbix in a period of two weeks so there's a lot of new information floating around up there. Thanks again, Alixen - it should have been obvious to me as well, hehe.