PRTG Manual: Account Settings—Notifications

Notification Name

Enter a meaningful name for the notification, for example, SMS to service team.

Tags

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

Status

Select the status of the notification. Choose between:

• Started: This notification is active. PRTG executes this notification when it is triggered.
• Paused: Pause this notification. If a notification is paused, PRTG does not execute this notification when it is triggered.

Schedule

Define intervals for notifications to pause. You might want the notifications to pause for scheduled maintenance periods or regular server reboots at certain intervals. For continuous notification select None. This selection will make your notifications be active 24/7 without pause. You can also choose one of the suggested schedules from the list. Usually schedules define when this notification will be active. Schedules defined as period list set this notification to inactive at the corresponding time spans. The available options depend on your setup.

To add or change existing schedules, see Account Settings—Schedules.

Postpone

Define whether PRTG should send you notifications that were triggered while the notification was Paused later on, when the notification status is in Started again.

• No: Discard all notifications that are triggered while the notification is paused.
• Yes: Collect all notifications that are triggered while the notification is paused. Send out all these notifications once the Paused status ends.

Method

Define if and how PRTG summarizes several notifications into one or more messages (max. 1,000 characters). Define if several notification triggers are to be collected over a specified time period and then send as a single summarized notification. Choose between:

• Always notify ASAP, never summarize: Always send out one notification for each received notification trigger as soon as possible (for example, immediately).
• Send first DOWN message ASAP, then summarize: When receiving several DOWN triggers, send the first notification immediately, then keep summarizing notification triggers into one message, regardless of sensor state.
• Send first DOWN and UP message ASAP, then summarize: When receiving several DOWN or UP triggers, send each first notification immediately, then keep summarizing notification triggers into one message, regardless of sensor state.
• Send all DOWN messages ASAP, summarize the others: When receiving several DOWN triggers, send out one notification for each trigger received, but summarize notifications for all non-DOWN triggers into one message.
• Send all DOWN and UP messages ASAP, summarize the others: When receiving several DOWN or UP triggers, send out one notification for each trigger received, but summarize the notifications for all non-DOWN and non-UP triggers into one message.
• Always summarize notifications, regardless of type: When receiving several notification triggers, summarize notifications, regardless of the kind of trigger received. Please note, the maximum number of notifications (see below) still applies.
   

Regardless of the option you choose, PRTG always executes notifications of the types Ticket, Execute HTTP Action and Execute Program immediately. PRTG will always send out one message for each of these notifications immediately. All other notification types can be summarized.

'first DOWN' and 'first UP' messages refer to trigger condition and clear condition respectively. You can also define 'WARNING' or 'UNUSUAL' states as trigger conditions or even thresholds or other triggers notification summarizations. The condition clear triggers, if applicable, are defined in the respective trigger conditions as well. The triggers all qualify as "first DOWN" or "first UP" messages.

PRTG collects up to 25 single notifications for one summarization and will send out the message as soon as this number is reached (or when the gathering time has passed). If there are more than 25 notifications within the defined time span, you will receive more than one message with up to 25 entries each. For example, 74 collected notifications would result in 3 summarized messages with 25, 25, and 24 collected notifications.

Subject for Summarized Messages

Define a subject that PRTG will include when sending summarized notifications. You can use the placeholder %SUMMARYCOUNT for the number of messages that are summarized.

The subject you define is only used for Send Email and Amazon SNS messages.

Timespan for Summarizing Messages (in Minutes)

Define a time span in minutes to define how long PRTG collects notifications for summarization. Please enter an integer value.

If you enter a rather long time span, for example, 60 minutes, PRTG will collect notifications for one hour before sending them out summarized unless other features (see above) require an earlier message dispatch.

User Group Access

Define which user group(s) will have access to the object that you are editing. A table with user groups and rights is shown; it contains all user groups from your setup. For each user group you can choose from the following access rights:

• Inherited: Use the settings of the parent object.
• None: Users in this group cannot see or edit the object. The object does not show up in lists.
• Read: Users in this group can see the object and review its settings.
• Write: Users in this group can see the object, as well as review and edit its settings. However, they cannot edit access rights settings.
• Full: Users in this group can see the object, as well as review and edit its settings as well as edit access rights.

You can create new user groups in the System Administration—User Groups settings.

This notification method uses notification contacts to deliver the messages. Please set up and check them for the desired user accounts in advance under Account Settings—Notification Contacts.

The three options for recipients below (user, user group, email address) work simultaneously. Because of this, you can define more than one user as recipient of this notification. PRTG sends the notification email to the active email contacts of the user you select, to the active email contacts of all members of the user group you select, and to all email addresses you enter into the Send to Email Address field.

You can include custom email headers and footers into PRTG HTML emails. For details, see this Knowledge Base article How can I include my own logo into HTML emails?

Send to User

Select a user of your PRTG installation to send the notification email to. PRTG sends this notification to each email contact of this user account. You can add and edit email contacts of a user in Account Settings—Notification Contacts. Choose None to not use this feature.

Send to User Group

Select a user group to send an email with the notification to all members of this group. PRTG sends this notification to the email contact of every group member. You can edit user groups under System Administration—User Groups and email contacts under Account Settings—Notification Contacts. Choose None to not use this feature.

If you select a user group and a specific member of this group as recipients, the user will only receive a single email. This also applies if you enter an individual email address below that is already defined as an email contact of the selected user.

If you define individual email addresses (see below), to a specific user (see above), and a user group, PRTG sends the message to the individual email addresses, to the individual user, as well as to the members of the selected user group. In all cases, PRTG sends one message with all recipients in the "To" field of the email.

Send to Email Address

Enter one or more recipient email addresses to which PRTG sends the notification email. If you enter more than one address, separate them with commas. Leave this field empty to send this notification only to the email contacts of the user or members of the user group you choose above.

We recommend that you use the options Send to User and/or Send to User Group instead because you can manage the notification contacts of users more easily this way.

Subject

Enter the subject of the email notification.

Several placeholders (variables) are used here by default: [%sitename] %device %name %status %down (%message)

Format

Define the kind of email that PRTG sends when the notification is triggered. Choose between:

• HTML: PRTG uses the default HTML email template for the message part of the email.
  Please use an email client that can show HTML emails, otherwise you cannot read emails from PRTG.
   
• Text: PRTG uses the default plain text email template for the message part of the email.
• Text with custom content: PRTG uses custom plain text for the message part of the email. You can enter your individual text below.

Custom Content

This field is only visible if you select the custom text option above. Enter the desired message for this email notification in plain text format. You can use placeholders here.

Priority

Define the priority that PRTG sets for the email. Most email clients can show this priority flag. Choose between:

• highest
• high
• normal
• low
• lowest

Push notifications only work with the apps PRTG for Android and PRTG for iOS. You have to activate push notifications in the settings of your app first. For details about the setup, see this Knowledge Base article: How can I send push notifications with PRTG?

This notification method uses notification contacts to deliver the messages. Please set up and check them for the desired user accounts in advance under Account Settings—Notification Contacts.

The PRTG server needs to communicate on port 443 to the PRTG Cloud to send push notifications, which is https://api.prtgcloud.com:443 (the same as for the Cloud HTTP Sensor, the Cloud Ping Sensor and support tickets).

The two options for recipients below (user, user group) work simultaneously. Because of this, you can define more than one user as recipient of this notification. PRTG sends the notification to the active push contacts of the user you select and to the active push contacts of all members of the user group you select.

Send to a User

Select a user of your PRTG installation to send the push notification to. PRTG sends this notification to each push contact of this user account. You can edit push contacts of a user in Account Settings—Notification Contacts and add push contacts by activating push notifications in the Android or iOS app with this user. Choose None to not use this feature.

Send to a User Group

Select a user group to send the push notification to all members of this group. PRTG sends this notification to each push contact of every member of this group. You can edit user groups under System Administration—User Groups and push contacts under Account Settings—Notification Contacts. Choose None to not use this feature.

If you select a user group and a specific member of this group as recipients at the same time, this user receives the text message only one time.

Message

Define the message. A message with information about the sensor status is already predefined. Several placeholders (variables) are used here: [%sitename] %device %name %status %down (%message)

You can change the message to your liking. To reset this field to its default value, enter a single star symbol * (and nothing else).

You have to set up this notification method in the System Administration—Notification Delivery settings first.
 

This notification method uses notification contacts to deliver the messages. Please set up and check them for the desired user accounts in advance under Account Settings—Notification Contacts.

The three options for recipients below (user, user group, email address) work simultaneously. Because of this, you can define more than one user as recipient of this notification. PRTG sends the notification to the active SMS contacts of the user you select, to the active SMS contacts of all members of the user group you select, and to every phone number you enter into the Send to Number field.

This notification method uses the central proxy settings that you define for your PRTG core server. For details, see System Administration—Core & Probes (section Proxy Configuration).

This option is not available in PRTG hosted by Paessler.

Send to User

Select a user of your PRTG installation to send the notification to. PRTG sends this notification to each SMS contact of this user account. You can add and edit SMS contacts of a user in Account Settings—Notification Contacts. Choose None to not use this feature.

Send to User Group

Select a user group to send a text message with the notification to all members of this group. PRTG sends this notification to each SMS contact of every member of this group. You can edit user groups under System Administration—User Groups and SMS contacts under Account Settings—Notification Contacts. Choose None to not use this feature.

If you select a user group and a specific member of this group as recipients at the same time, this user receives the text message only one time. This also counts if you enter an individual phone number below that is already defined as an SMS contact of the selected user.

Send to Number

Define the number to which PRTG sends the text message. The format depends on the SMS provider. Usually, you use a plus sign "+", followed by country code and number. For example, enter +1555012345.

Ensure the number format meets the requirements of your SMS provider or the hardware that you use in combination with an API call. Sometimes a preceded plus sign is not required. A wrong format may result in undelivered messages!

If you enter more than one number, separate them by comma. Leave this field empty to send this notification only to the SMS contacts of the user or members of the user group you choose above.

We recommend that you use the options Send to User and/or Send to User Group instead because you can manage the notification contacts of users more easily this way.

Message

Define the message. A message with information about the sensor status is already predefined. Several placeholders (variables) are used here: [%sitename] %device %name %status %down (%message)

You can change the message to your liking. To reset this field to its default value, enter a single star symbol * (and nothing else).

This option is not available in PRTG hosted by Paessler.

Logfile

Define the logfile into which PRTG writes the message. Choose between:

• Application: Use the Windows application logfile in the event log.
• PRTG Network Monitor: Write messages to the PRTG Network Monitor logfile in the Windows event log.

Event Source

This setting is only relevant when using the Application logfile. Enter the source for the event. Usually, this is the name of the application.

Event Type

Select the type of the event. Choose between:

• Error
• Warning
• Information

Event Log Message

Define the message. A message with information about the sensor status is already predefined. Several placeholders (variables) are used here. You can change it to your liking. To reset this field to its default value, enter a single star symbol * (and nothing else).

This option is not available in PRTG hosted by Paessler.

Host/IP

Define the IP address or DNS name of the computer running the syslog server.

You can receive and analyze syslog messages with the Syslog Receiver Sensor.

Syslog Port

Enter the port number on which syslog messages are sent. By default, this is port number 514.

Only User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is supported.

Facility

Define the facility information. There are several options available from the list.

Encoding

Define the encoding of the syslog message that PRTG sends to your syslog receiver. Choose between:

• ANSI
• UTF-8

Message

Define the message. A message with information about the sensor status is already predefined. Several placeholders (variables) are used here. You can change it to your liking. To reset this field to its default value, enter a single star symbol * (and nothing else).

Depending on the status of the sensor that triggers the syslog notification, PRTG sets the Severity level of the message automatically.

OK

Severity level: Notice (5)

Warning

Severity level: Warning (4)

Error

Severity level: Error (3)

For information about the OIDs that PRTG uses in the content of the SNMP traps, see this Knowledge Base article: Is it possible to send SNMP traps using PRTG?
 

This option is not available in PRTG hosted by Paessler.

Host/IP

Define the IP address or DNS name of the computer running the trap receiver.

You can receive and analyze SNMP trap messages with the SNMP Trap Receiver Sensor.

SNMP Port

Enter the port number on which trap messages are sent. By default, this is port number 162.

Community String

Enter the community string of the device. By default, this is set to public. Please enter a string or leave the field empty.

Specific Trap Code

Enter a code that can help you identify the purpose of the trap. Default value is 0. Please enter an integer value.

Message ID

Enter an ID that helps you identify the origin of the trap. Please enter an integer value. PRTG sends it on the OID 1.3.6.1.4.1.32446.1.1.1.

Message

Define the message. A message with information about the sensor status is already predefined. Several placeholders (variables) are used here. You can change it to your liking. To reset this field to its default value, enter a single star symbol * (and nothing else).

Agent IP

Define the IP address of the agent. Leave this field empty to use the IP address of your PRTG web server.

Regardless of the Notification Summarization method chosen above, PRTG sends notifications of the type Execute HTTP Action always as soon as possible (ASAP). They are never summarized.

This notification method uses the central proxy settings that you define for your PRTG core server. For details, see System Administration—Core & Probes (section Proxy Configuration).

For more details, see the PRTG Application Programming Interface (API) Definition in your PRTG web interface. You can find ready-to-use custom notifications in the PRTG Script World, see below.

URL

Enter the URL to which PRTG sends the request.

HTTP notifications work with and without SSL.

SNI (Server Name Indication)

Select if PRTG will send the SNI extension to the TLS protocol along with the HTTP request. Choose between:

• Do not send SNI (default): PRTG will not send an SNI when executing the HTTP action.
• Send SNI: PRTG will send an SNI when calling the target URL. Specify the SNI below.

Virtual Host (SNI)

This field is only visible if you select the SNI option above. Enter the SNI name that your endpoint configuration requires. Usually, this is the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) of the virtual host.

Postdata

Enter postdata if you want to send this data to the URL. You can use placeholders here. Line breaks are supported.

Regardless of the Notification Summarization method chosen above, PRTG sends notifications of the type Execute Program always as soon as possible (ASAP). They are never summarized.

For more details about Custom Notifications, see the Application Programming Interface (API) Definition in your PRTG web interface. You can find ready-to-use custom notifications in the PRTG Script World, see below.

This option is not available in PRTG hosted by Paessler.

Program File

Select an executable file from the list. PRTG runs it every time the notification is triggered. In this list, you see the files that are in the corresponding /Notifications/EXE sub-directory of your PRTG core server system. To appear in this list, store the files as BAT, CMD, DLL, EXE, PS1, or VBS.

To find this path, see section Data Storage.
 

In a cluster setup, copy your files to every cluster node installation manually. This makes sure PRTG can execute the notification even when the master node fails. If your custom notification executes an external program, install it on all cluster nodes as well.

Parameters

Enter parameters with which the program file will be started. You can use placeholders here. For example, is you use a batch file that contains a %1 variable, you can provide a value for this variable here.

You need to escape special characters and whitespaces in your parameters and surround them with double quotes. See section Escape Special Characters and Whitespaces in Parameters for details.

Domain or Computer Name

Enter a Windows authority if you want to use another security context for the program than the security context of the PRTG probe service.

Username

Enter the username for Windows access.

Password

Enter the password for Windows access.

Timeout

Enter a timeout in seconds. After this time has passed, PRTG stops the process if it has not terminated yet. Please enter an integer value.

AWS Access Key ID

Enter your access key as shown in your login area at aws.amazon.com. Please enter a string.

AWS Secret Access Key

Enter your secret access key as shown in your login area at aws.amazon.com. Please enter a string.

Location

Define the location of your Amazon service. Choose one of the shown locations:

• US East (Northern Virginia)
• US West (Ohio)
• US West (Northern California)
• US West (Oregon)
• Canada (Central)
• EU West (Ireland)
• EU Central (Frankfurt)
• EU (London)
• Asia Pacific (Singapore)
• Asia Pacific (Sydney)
• Asia Pacific (Seoul)
• Asia Pacific (Tokyo)
• Asia Pacific (Mumbai)
• South America (Sao Paulo)

ARN

Enter the Amazon resource name. Please enter a string.

Subject

Enter the subject of the message. Please enter a string.

The maximum length for the subject is 202 characters. Characters that exceed this number will be cut off.

Message

Define the message. A message with information about the sensor status is already predefined. Several placeholders (variables) are used here. You can change it to your liking. To reset this field to its default value, enter a single star symbol * (and nothing else).

The message part is only sent if you use email based notifications delivered by Amazon SNS. For SMS delivery, only the subject is sent while the message part is ignored because of SMS size restrictions.

Regardless of the Notification Summarization method chosen above, PRTG sends notifications of the type Assign Ticket always as soon as possible (ASAP). They are never summarized.

For details about the ticket system, see manual section Tickets.

Assign to User or User Group

Specify whether to assign the notification ticket to a user group or to a single user. Choose between:

• To User Group: Select a user group below to which PRTG assigns this ticket.
• To User: Select the dedicated user below to whom PRTG assigns this ticket.

Assign Ticket to this User Group / User

Select the user or user group to which PRTG assigns the notification ticket.

Subject

Enter the subject of the ticket. Several placeholders (variables) are used here by default. You can change it to your liking.

Content

Define the message in the ticket. A message with information about the sensor status is already predefined. Several placeholders (variables) are used here. You may change it as you wish.

When Condition Clears

Specify if PRTG closes the ticket automatically when the defined trigger condition clears. Choose between:

• Close ticket automatically (recommended): PRTG closes the ticket automatically if the trigger condition is not met anymore.
• Leave ticket open: PRTG does not close the ticket after the condition has cleared.