Sensor of the Week: SNMP Custom Advanced Sensor

Originally published on February 15, 2016 by Florian Staffort
Last updated on March 03, 2022 • 7 minute read

Monitoring via Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is one of the easiest ways to stay on top of your IT infrastructure. PRTG Network Monitor uses this common, robust and well-established protocol to gather various information you need to know about your network devices. Just have a look at the various SNMP sensors PRTG offers from the get-go. However, sometimes you might want PRTG to show certain values that are not included in PRTG's standard libraries. Well, in this case, you can now use the SNMP Custom Advanced sensor: It monitors numerical values returned by one or more specific OIDs (Object Identifiers) using SNMP.

 

After having determined the necessary OIDs (please see our Knowledge Base article on "How do I find out what OID I need to use for a custom sensor?"), which provide numerical values, you can use these values on an SNMP device in up to 10 different channels. Do you wonder how to get started with your customized SNMP monitoring? Just specify the channel's name, the relevant OID(s), the value types and units. Value types include the expected numeric type of the results at the given OID. You can choose between:

  • Gauge (unsigned Integer): For integer values, such as 10 or 120,
  • Gauge (signed integer): For integer values, such as -12 or 120,
  • Gauge (float): For float values, such as -5.80 or 8.23, or
  • Delta (counter): PRTG will calculate the difference between the last and the current value.

To learn more about the OID values you can choose in the sensor settings, have a look at the PRTG manual entry on the SNMP Custom Advanced sensor. This sensor type is currently in beta status, so we'd really appreciate your feedback on your experience with it.

 

All Sensors of the Week

You have missed other articles of our "Sensors of the Week" blog series? You have missed other articles of our "Sensors of the Week" blog series? Just take a look at the last 10 sensors:

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