diff --git a/Documentation/Monitors/MariaDB-Monitor.md b/Documentation/Monitors/MariaDB-Monitor.md
index 792d45e8a..a1b59a6ba 100644
--- a/Documentation/Monitors/MariaDB-Monitor.md
+++ b/Documentation/Monitors/MariaDB-Monitor.md
@@ -676,11 +676,18 @@ settings when redirecting a slave connection.
 
 #### `failover_timeout` and `switchover_timeout`
 
-Time limit for failover and switchover operations, in seconds. The default
+Time limit for failover and switchover operations. The default
 values are 90 seconds for both. `switchover_timeout` is also used as the time
 limit for a rejoin operation. Rejoin should rarely time out, since it is a
 faster operation than switchover.
 
+The timeouts are specified as documented
+[here](../Getting-Started/Configuration-Guide.md#durations). If no explicit unit
+is provided, the value is interpreted as seconds in MaxScale 2.4. In subsequent
+versions a value without a unit may be rejected. Note that since the granularity
+of the timeouts is seconds, a timeout specified in milliseconds will be rejected,
+even if the duration is longer than a second.
+
 If no successful failover/switchover takes place within the configured time
 period, a message is logged and automatic failover is disabled. This prevents
 further automatic modifications to the misbehaving cluster.
@@ -689,14 +696,20 @@ further automatic modifications to the misbehaving cluster.
 
 Enable additional master failure verification for automatic failover.
 `verify_master_failure` is a boolean value (default: true) which enables this
-feature and `master_failure_timeout` defines the timeout in seconds (default:
-10).
+feature and `master_failure_timeout` defines the timeout (default: 10 seconds).
+
+The master failure timeout is specified as documented
+[here](../Getting-Started/Configuration-Guide.md#durations). If no explicit unit
+is provided, the value is interpreted as seconds in MaxScale 2.4. In subsequent
+versions a value without a unit may be rejected. Note that since the granularity
+of the timeout is seconds, a timeout specified in milliseconds will be rejected,
+even if the duration is longer than a second.
 
 Failure verification is performed by checking whether the slave servers are
 still connected to the master and receiving events. An event is either a change
 in the *Gtid_IO_Pos*-field of the `SHOW SLAVE STATUS` output or a heartbeat
 event. Effectively, if a slave has received an event within
-`master_failure_timeout` seconds, the master is not considered down when
+`master_failure_timeout` duration, the master is not considered down when
 deciding whether to failover, even if MaxScale cannot connect to the master.
 `master_failure_timeout` should be longer than the `Slave_heartbeat_period` of
 the slave connection to be effective.
diff --git a/server/modules/monitor/mariadbmon/mariadbmon.cc b/server/modules/monitor/mariadbmon/mariadbmon.cc
index db4468af2..d9643600d 100644
--- a/server/modules/monitor/mariadbmon/mariadbmon.cc
+++ b/server/modules/monitor/mariadbmon/mariadbmon.cc
@@ -219,13 +219,13 @@ bool MariaDBMonitor::configure(const MXS_CONFIG_PARAMETER* params)
     m_detect_standalone_master = params->get_bool(CN_DETECT_STANDALONE_MASTER);
     m_assume_unique_hostnames = params->get_bool(CN_ASSUME_UNIQUE_HOSTNAMES);
     m_failcount = params->get_integer(CN_FAILCOUNT);
-    m_failover_timeout = params->get_integer(CN_FAILOVER_TIMEOUT);
-    m_switchover_timeout = params->get_integer(CN_SWITCHOVER_TIMEOUT);
+    m_failover_timeout = params->get_duration<std::chrono::seconds>(CN_FAILOVER_TIMEOUT).count();
+    m_switchover_timeout = params->get_duration<std::chrono::seconds>(CN_SWITCHOVER_TIMEOUT).count();
     m_auto_failover = params->get_bool(CN_AUTO_FAILOVER);
     m_auto_rejoin = params->get_bool(CN_AUTO_REJOIN);
     m_enforce_read_only_slaves = params->get_bool(CN_ENFORCE_READONLY);
     m_verify_master_failure = params->get_bool(CN_VERIFY_MASTER_FAILURE);
-    m_master_failure_timeout = params->get_integer(CN_MASTER_FAILURE_TIMEOUT);
+    m_master_failure_timeout = params->get_duration<std::chrono::seconds>(CN_MASTER_FAILURE_TIMEOUT).count();
     m_promote_sql_file = params->get_string(CN_PROMOTION_SQL_FILE);
     m_demote_sql_file = params->get_string(CN_DEMOTION_SQL_FILE);
     m_switchover_on_low_disk_space = params->get_bool(CN_SWITCHOVER_ON_LOW_DISK_SPACE);
@@ -1008,10 +1008,12 @@ extern "C" MXS_MODULE* MXS_CREATE_MODULE()
                 CN_AUTO_FAILOVER,                    MXS_MODULE_PARAM_BOOL,   "false"
             },
             {
-                CN_FAILOVER_TIMEOUT,                 MXS_MODULE_PARAM_COUNT,  "90"
+                CN_FAILOVER_TIMEOUT,                 MXS_MODULE_PARAM_DURATION, "90s",
+                MXS_MODULE_OPT_DURATION_S
             },
             {
-                CN_SWITCHOVER_TIMEOUT,               MXS_MODULE_PARAM_COUNT,  "90"
+                CN_SWITCHOVER_TIMEOUT,               MXS_MODULE_PARAM_DURATION,  "90s",
+                MXS_MODULE_OPT_DURATION_S
             },
             {
                 CN_REPLICATION_USER,                 MXS_MODULE_PARAM_STRING
@@ -1026,7 +1028,8 @@ extern "C" MXS_MODULE* MXS_CREATE_MODULE()
                 CN_VERIFY_MASTER_FAILURE,            MXS_MODULE_PARAM_BOOL,   "true"
             },
             {
-                CN_MASTER_FAILURE_TIMEOUT,           MXS_MODULE_PARAM_COUNT,  "10"
+                CN_MASTER_FAILURE_TIMEOUT,           MXS_MODULE_PARAM_DURATION, "10s",
+                MXS_MODULE_OPT_DURATION_S
             },
             {
                 CN_AUTO_REJOIN,                      MXS_MODULE_PARAM_BOOL,   "false"