PRTG Manual: HTTP Push Data Advanced Sensor
The HTTP Push Data Advanced sensor displays data from received messages that are pushed via an HTTP request to PRTG. It provides a URL that you can use to push messages to the probe system via HTTP (secured with TLS 1.2 or not secure).
For detailed information about the sensor usage, see section How to Use.
HTTP Push Data Advanced Sensor
For a detailed list and descriptions of the channels that this sensor can show, see section Channel List.
- Dutch: HTTP Push Data geavanceerd
- French: Données HTTP Push – avancé
- German: HTTP Push-Daten (Erweitert)
- Japanese: HTTP プッシュデータ（アドバンスト）
- Portuguese: Dados de push (avançado) (HTTP)
- Russian: HTTP: Данные push-объекта (расширенный)
- Simplified Chinese: HTTP 高级推送数据
- Spanish: Datos push (avanzado) (HTTP)
- If you want to add this sensor to a remote probe and use an HTTPS connection to send push notifications, you must import a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate into the \cert subfolder of the PRTG program directory on the remote probe. However, this certificate does not have to match the certificate that you use on the PRTG core server. For more information about SSL certificates, see the Paessler website: How to use your own SSL certificate with the PRTG web server
- This sensor does not support cluster probes. You can only set it up on local probes or remote probes.
- This sensor supports IPv6.
- This sensor has a low performance impact.
- If you use this sensor with multiple channels, we recommend that you simultaneously push the data for all your channels to PRTG. You can push data to only one of your channels. However, all other channels record the value of 0 for this push message.
- This sensor might result in false alerts if the parent probe disconnects from the PRTG core server. In this case, the sensor shows the error message: The latest push message that the sensor received is older than the specified time threshold allows. (code: PE222).
You cannot add this sensor to the hosted probe of a PRTG Hosted Monitor instance. If you want to use this sensor, add it to a remote probe device.
Basic Sensor Settings
Setting |
Description |
|---|---|
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.
|
Parent Tags |
The tags that the sensor inherits from its parent device, parent group, and parent probe.
|
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.
The sensor has the following default tags that are automatically predefined in the sensor's settings when you add the sensor:
|
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 ( |
HTTP Push
Setting |
Description |
|---|---|
TLS Settings |
Define the security of the incoming HTTP push requests:
|
Port |
This setting is only visible if you select HTTP (unsecure) above. Enter the number of the port on which this sensor listens for incoming HTTP requests. The default port is 5050.
|
TLS Port |
This setting is only visible if you select HTTPS low security (TLS 1.0 to 1.3 and weak ciphers) or HTTPS high security (TLS 1.2 to 1.3 and strong ciphers) above. Enter the number of the port on which this sensor listens for incoming HTTPS requests. The default port is 5051.
|
Request Method |
Select the request method of the webhook:
|
Identification Token |
This is the token that PRTG uses to find the matching sensor for the incoming message. When you create the sensor, this token is {__guid__}. PRTG replaces this token with an automatically generated token after sensor creation. If you want to use a different identification token, you can edit it during or after sensor creation.
|
Request Handling |
Define what PRTG does with the incoming messages:
|
HTTP Push Data
Setting |
Description |
|---|---|
No Incoming Data |
Define which status the sensor shows if it does not receive a push message for at least two scanning intervals:
|
Time Threshold (Minutes) |
This setting is only visible if you select Switch to down status after x minutes above. Enter a time threshold in minutes. If this time elapses, the sensor shows the Down status if it does not receive a push message within this time span. Enter an integer. The maximum threshold is 1440 minutes. |
Sensor Display
Setting |
Description |
|---|---|
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.
|
Graph Type |
Define how different channels are shown for this sensor:
|
Stack Unit |
This setting is only visible if you select Stack channels on top of each other above. 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. |
By default, all of these settings are inherited from objects that are higher in the hierarchy. We recommend that you change them centrally in the root group settings if necessary. To change a setting for this object only, click 
under the corresponding setting name to disable the inheritance and to display its options.
For more information, see section Inheritance of Settings.
Scanning Interval
For more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Scanning Interval.
Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window
You cannot interrupt the inheritance for schedules, dependencies, and maintenance windows. The corresponding settings from the parent objects are always active. However, you can define additional schedules, dependencies, and maintenance windows. They are active at the same time as the parent objects' settings.
Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window
For more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window.
Access Rights
For more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Access Rights.
This function is known as webhook. Basically, a webhook works like a push notification. Webhooks are usually triggered by some event (for example, a new comment on a blog post) and send according information to a specified URL. The HTTP Push Data Advanced sensor then displays the data of pushed and received messages.
The data that is pushed to this sensor must be valid XML or JSON.
For details about the return value format, see section Custom Sensors.
The HTTP Push Data Advanced sensor uses the following URLs depending on the type of HTTP request.
- GET requests: http://<probe_ip>:<port_number>/<token>?content=<valid XML_or_JSON>
The XML encoded value of the content parameter has to match the format as defined in section Custom Sensors. - POST requests: http://<probe_ip>:<port_number>/<token>
This HTTP request method sends the XML or JSON encoded HTTP body as POST data. The body has to match the format as defined in section Custom Sensors. For POST requests, use an HTTP content type other than application/x-www-form-urlencoded. We strongly recommend the HTTP content type application/xml or application/json.
Replace the parameters <probe_ip>, <port_number>, <token>, and <valid XML_or_JSON> (for GET requests) with the corresponding values:
- You can define port number and identification token in the sensor settings.
- The probe IP is the IP address of the probe system with this sensor.
- The content of GET requests has to be valid XML or JSON in the PRTG API format.
The content has to be URL encoded (for example, the whitespaces in the sample URL below). Most browsers do URL-encoding automatically.
Minimum example for the GET method that returns one static channel value:
http://127.0.0.1:5050/XYZ123?content=<prtg><result><channel>MyChannel</channel><value>10</value></result><text>this%20is%20a%20message</text></prtg>
By default, values within the <value> tags in the returned XML or JSON must be integers to be processed. If float values are returned, you must explicitly define this value type as defined in section Custom Sensors with <float> tags, otherwise the sensor shows 0 values in affected channels. Example:
http://127.0.0.1:5050/XYZ123?content=<prtg><result><channel>MyChannel</channel><value>10.45</value><float>1</float></result><text>this%20is%20a%20message</text></prtg>
You can use several sensors with the same port and identification token. In this case, the data of push messages is shown in each of these sensors.
Which channels the sensor actually shows might depend on the target device, the available components, and the sensor setup.
Channel |
Description |
|---|---|
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 |
[Value] |
The data received from the message encoded in valid XML or JSON in several channels
|
KNOWLEDGE BASE
What security features does PRTG include?
My HTTP sensors don't work. What can I do?
