Another idea would be to add support for suffixed time types like we have for sizes:

monitor_interval=5s

monitor_interval=2000ms

monitor_interval=1m

Time suffixes is the way to go. That way it's completely unambiguous what the number means.

Looks good. One item though - if they don't add a suffix they should IMO either error out or default to the same grain (seconds or milleseconds)

It's going to be like this;

• The suffixes h, m, s and ms are introduced, using which a duration can be specified in hours, minutes, seconds or milliseconds, respectively.
• In MaxScale 2.4, if no explicit unit is specified, a value without a unit will be interpreted the way it is interpreted now (i.e. either as seconds or milliseconds), and a warning will be logged that a unit should be provided.
• Not providing an explicit unit is deprecated in MaxScale 2.4.
• Not providing an explicit unit will cause an error in some version after MaxScale 2.4.