PRTG Looks Up Names in the OID Tree

In order to create names for new sensors on SNMP devices, PRTG scans an interface for available counters. At the respective OID address of a counter, there are usually several fields with description information available. They are different for every device/OID. PRTG will use the information in these fields to name the sensors.

There is a standard set of fields that PRTG uses for initial sensor naming, but you can change it if you like. (Of course, you always have the option to manually change a sensor name in a sensor's settings.)

Changing the Port Name Template

In a device's settings, or in the settings of a group containing devices, remove the check mark symbol in front of the Inherit SNMP Compatibility Settings line. You can now change these settings. Navigate to the Port Name Template field.

The standard port name template is ([port]) [ifalias] which can create names such as (001) Ethernet1, for example (the actual values depend on your device).

You can use any field names available at a certain OID of your device, among which are:

• [port]
• [ifalias]
• [ifname]
• [ifindex]
• [ifdescr]

Combine them as you like to obtain suitable sensor names. Besides these field names in square brackets [ ] you can add other characters to the template for nicer formatting, such as space, or round brackets ( ), for example.

If a field is actually available depends on the device you're scanning. If a field is empty or not available, an empty string is added to the name; this may even result in completely empty sensor names when only using empty fields.

See Also

How do SNMP, MIBs and OIDs work?