PRTG Manual: Script v2 Sensor

Enabled Beta Sensors experimental feature

This sensor requires that the Beta Sensors experimental feature of PRTG is enabled.

For more information, see the Knowledge Base: What are beta sensors and how can I use them?

Python

This sensor requires that Python is installed for the Windows user account that the probe runs under.

Script

This sensor requires that the script file is stored in the \Custom Sensors\scripts subfolder of the PRTG program directory of the probe system on Windows systems or in the /var/local/prtg/scripts directory of the probe system on Linux systems.

Sensor Name

Enter a name to identify the sensor. By default, PRTG shows this name in the device tree, as well as in alarms, logs, notifications, reports, maps, libraries, and tickets.

If the name contains angle brackets (<>), PRTG replaces them with braces ({}) for security reasons. For more information, see the Knowledge Base: What security features does PRTG include?

Parent Tags

The tags that the sensor inherits from its parent device, parent group, and parent probe.

This setting is for your information only. You cannot change it.

Tags

Enter one or more tags. Confirm each tag with the Spacebar key, a comma, or the Enter key. You can use tags to group objects and use tag-filtered views later on. Tags are not case-sensitive. Tags are automatically inherited.

It is not possible to enter tags with a leading plus (+) or minus (-) sign, nor tags with parentheses (()) or angle brackets (<>).

For performance reasons, it can take some minutes until you can filter for new tags that you added.

The sensor has the following default tags that are automatically predefined in the sensor's settings when you add the sensor:

• exesensor

Priority

Select a priority for the sensor. This setting determines the position of the sensor in lists. The highest priority is at the top of a list. Choose from the lowest priority () to the highest priority ().

Name

Select one or more Python scripts from the list. PRTG creates one sensor for each script that you select. The sensor executes it with every scanning interval.

This list shows all Python script files that are available in the \Custom Sensors\scripts subfolder of the PRTG program directory of the probe system on Windows systems or in the /var/local/prtg/scripts directory of the probe system on Linux systems. For the files to appear in this list, store the files in this subfolder with the extension .py.

To show the expected values and sensor status, your scripts must return the expected JSON format to standard output (stdout). The Script v2 sensor validates the results that the script returns against the provided JSON schema. For more information, see the Knowledge Base: Where can I find the JSON schema against which the Script v2 sensor validates my script output?.

If you use custom sensors on the cluster probe, copy your files to every cluster node.

You cannot change this value after sensor creation.

Type

The type of the script file.

Timeout (Sec.)

Enter a timeout in seconds for the request. Enter an integer. The maximum timeout value is 900 seconds (15 minutes).

If the reply takes longer than this value, the sensor cancels the request and shows a corresponding error message.

Parameters

If your script file uses parameters, you can enter them here. You can use placeholders as well. Enter a string or leave the field empty.

You can define placeholders in the credentials for script sensors in the settings of a parent object and use the %host and %sensorid placeholders. The sensor replaces the parameters with their values and passes them to the script as strings via stdin.

Primary Channel

Select a channel from the list to define it as the primary channel. In the device tree, the last value of the primary channel is always displayed below the sensor's name. The available options depend on what channels are available for this sensor.

You can set a different primary channel later by clicking below a channel gauge on the sensor's Overview tab.

Graph Type

Define how different channels are shown for this sensor:

• Show channels independently (default): Show a graph for each channel.
• Stack channels on top of each other: Stack channels on top of each other to create a multi-channel graph. This generates a graph that visualizes the different components of your total traffic.
  You cannot use this option in combination with manual Vertical Axis Scaling (available in the channel settings).

Stack Unit

This setting is only visible if you enable Stack channels on top of each other as Graph Type. Select a unit from the list. All channels with this unit are stacked on top of each other. By default, you cannot exclude single channels from stacking if they use the selected unit. However, there is an advanced procedure to do so.

Result Handling

Define what PRTG does with the sensor result:

• Discard result: Do not store the sensor result.

• Store result: Store the last sensor result in the \Logs\sensors subfolder of the PRTG data directory on the probe system. The file name is Result of Sensor [ID].log. This setting is for debugging purposes. PRTG overwrites this file with each scanning interval.

If you enable Store result, the sensor writes the standard error (stderr) streams in clear text to the last sensor result file. Do not return sensitive information via the scripts that you run with this sensor.

In a cluster, PRTG stores the result in the PRTG data directory of the master node.

Downtime

In the channel table on the Overview tab, this channel never shows any values. PRTG uses this channel in graphs and reports to show the amount of time in which the sensor was in the Down status

Execution Time

The execution time of the script

Status

The status that the script returns

• Up status: OK
• Warning status: Warning
• Down status: Error
• Unknown status: Unknown

This channel is the primary channel by default.

[Value]

The values that the script file returns in several channels