Auto-Disabling of Unused Network Interfaces in Discovery Rules

[HorselessName]

Hi Zabbix Community,

I am managing multiple firewalls, and I have a discovery rule in two templates that brings in all interfaces, including those with default names like ethX (e.g., eth1, eth2, etc.). Since the naming is standard, it is not possible to filter out these interfaces during discovery.

The problem is that a large number of interfaces without traffic appear in my dashboards and traffic analysis graphs, creating visual clutter and making troubleshooting more difficult for analysts.

I would like to know if there is a way to automatically disable discovered interfaces that have no relevant traffic, so they do not show up in the dashboards.

So far, I have considered:

• Writing a Zabbix API script to disable items with no traffic, but I want to avoid this extra maintenance effort.
• A preprocessing step that automatically disables items with no meaningful data, but I am unsure if such an option exists in Zabbix.

Has anyone else faced this issue? How do you deal with unnecessary interfaces showing up in dashboards?

Would this be a good feature request for future Zabbix versions?

Thanks in advance!

[HorselessName]

Update:

I’ve found another possible way to handle this issue **without needing API scripts**.

By adding the SNMP OID `1.3.6.1.2.1.31.1.1.1.6.{#SNMPINDEX}` (Bits Received) to the discovery rule and applying a filter `{#BITSRECEIVED} > 0`, it should be possible to **prevent interfaces with no traffic from being discovered at all**.

This would **automatically keep dashboards cleaner**, without requiring manual intervention or post-discovery cleanup.

Has anyone tried this method before? Would it be a reliable long-term solution?

Would love to hear feedback from the community. Thanks!