PRTG Manual: Event Log (Windows API) Sensor

This sensor might not work anymore after Windows updates of June 2021. For more information, see the Knowledge Base: My Event Log (Windows API) sensors fail after installing Windows updates. What can I do?

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

Shows 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:

▪wmiapieventlogsensor

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 ().

Log File

Specify the log file that this sensor monitors. The Windows event log provides several log files:

▪Application

▪System

▪Security

▪Directory Service

▪DNS Server

▪File Replication Service

Event Type

Specify the type of event that this sensor processes:

▪Any

▪Error

▪Warning

▪Information

▪Security Audit Success

▪Security Audit Failure

The sensor cannot process other event types.

Filter by Source

Filter all events for a certain event source:

▪Off: Do not filter by event source.

▪On: Filter by event source.
If you enable this option, this sensor only processes messages that match the value that you define below.

Filter Type

This setting is only visible if you enable Filter by Source above. Select the filter type:

▪Include filter: Include the specified value and disregard all other values.

▪Exclude filter: Exclude the specified value and regard all other values.

Match String (Event Source)

This setting is only visible if you enable Filter by Source above. Enter an event source that you want to filter for. Depending on the kind of filter, the sensor either processes the event source (Include filter option) or it does not process it (Exclude filter option). Enter a string.

Filter by ID

Filter all events for a certain event ID:

▪Off: Do not filter by event ID.

▪On: Filter by event ID.
If you enable this option, this sensor only processes messages that match the value that you define below.

Filter Type

This setting is only visible if ID filtering is On above. Select a filter type:

▪Include filter: Include the specified value and disregard all other values.

▪Exclude filter: Exclude the specified value and regard all other values.

Match Values (Event ID)

This setting is only visible if you enable Filter by ID above. Enter an event ID that you want to filter for. Depending on the kind of filter, the sensor either processes the event ID (Include filter option) or it does not process it (Exclude filter option).

The Event Log (Windows API) supports more than one event ID. You can enter a comma-separated list of event IDs to filter for more than one ID. For example, 1100,4627,4747,4884,5050,6422.

Filter by Category

Filter all events for a certain event category:

▪Off: Do not filter by event category.

▪On: Filter by event category.
If you enable this option, this sensor only processes messages that match the value that you define below.

Filter Type

This setting is only visible if you enable Filter by Category above. Select a filter type:

▪Include filter: Include the specified value and disregard all other values.

▪Exclude filter: Exclude the specified value and regard all other values.

Match String (Event Category)

This setting is only visible if you enable Filter by Category above. Enter a category that you want to filter for. Depending on the kind of filter, the sensor either processes the event category (Include filter option) or it does not process it (Exclude filter option). Enter a string.

Filter by User

Filter all received events for a certain event user:

▪Off: Do not filter by event user.

▪On: Filter by event user.
If you enable this option, this sensor only processes messages that match the value that you define below.

Filter Type

This setting is only visible if you enable Filter by User above. Select a filter type:

▪Include filter: Include the specified value and disregard all other values.

▪Exclude filter: Exclude the specified value and regard all other values.

Match String (Event User)

This setting is only visible if you enable Filter by User above. Enter a user name that you want to filter for. Depending on the kind of filter, the sensor either processes the event user (Include filter option) or it does not process it (Exclude filter option). Enter a string.

Filter by Computer

Filter all received events for a certain event computer:

▪Off: Do not filter by event computer.

▪On: Filter by event computer.
If you enable this option, this sensor only processes messages that match the value that you define below.

Filter Type

This setting is only visible if you enable Filter by Computer above. Select a filter type:

▪Include filter: Include the specified value and disregard all other values.

▪Exclude filter: Exclude the specified value and regard all other values.

Match String (Event Computer)

This setting is only visible if you enable Filter by Computer above. Enter a computer name that you want to filter for. Depending on the kind of filter, the sensor either processes the event computer (Include filter option) or it does not process it (Exclude filter option). Enter a string.

Filter by Message

Filter all received events for a certain event message:

▪Off: Do not filter by event message.

▪On: Filter by event message.
If you enable this option, this sensor only processes messages that match the value that you define below.

Filter Type

This setting is only visible if you enable Filter by Message above. Select a filter type:

▪Include filter: Include the specified value and disregard all other values.

▪Exclude filter: Exclude the specified value and regard all other values.

Match String (Event Message)

This setting is only visible if message filtering is On above. Enter a message that you want to filter for. Depending on the kind of filter, the sensor either processes the event message (Include filter option) or it does not process it (Exclude filter option). Enter a string.

This sensor only checks the last line of the event message for the entered string. This matches the <Data> section of the XML that you can see on the Details tab in the Event Viewer. If you want to check the entire event message, use the WMI Event Log sensor instead.

You must use the percent sign (%) as wildcard for any or no character if you want to check if the string is part of the last line of the event message. Otherwise, the whole last line of the event message must match the string.

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.

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

New Records

The number of new records per second

This channel is the primary channel by default.