PRTG Manual: Notification Templates

Template Name

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

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?

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.

Status

Select the status of the notification template:

• Started: When the notification template is started or active, PRTG executes the notifications defined in the notification template whenever it is triggered.
• Paused: When the notification template is paused, PRTG does not execute any notifications defined in the notification template.

Schedule

Use schedules to activate a notification template only during specific time spans. This way you can pause notifications, for example, during regular maintenance periods or server restarts.

Select None if you want your notification template to be active all the time. Choose one of the suggested schedules from the list to define a specific period in which the notification template is active.

The overall status of the notification template needs to be Started to apply any schedule settings.

To create your own schedules or to change schedules, see section Schedules.

Notification Handling during Scheduled Pause

Define how PRTG handles notifications that are triggered during a scheduled pause.

• Collect notifications and send them when reactivated: PRTG collects all notifications that are triggered during a scheduled pause and sends them all out once the paused status ends.
• Discard notifications during paused status: PRTG discards all notifications that are triggered during a scheduled pause.

If you manually pause a notification, PRTG does never collect notifications that are triggered while the notification is paused.

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 sent as a single summarized notification. Choose from:

• 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 status.
• 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 status.
• 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.
  The maximum number of notifications (see below) still applies.

Regardless of the option you choose, PRTG never summarizes notifications of the types Send Slack Message, Send Microsoft Teams Message, Execute HTTP Action, Execute Program, and Assign Ticket because it always sends them immediately. PRTG can summarize the messages of all other notification types.

'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 sends 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 receive more than one message with up to 25 entries each. For example, 74 collected notifications result in 3 summarized messages with 25, 25, and 24 collected notifications.

Subject for Summarized Email or SNS Messages

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

The subject you define is only used for the notification templates Send Email and Send Amazon Simple Notification Service Message.

For more information, see section List of Placeholders for Notifications.

Time Span for Summarizing Messages (in Minutes)

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

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

User Group Access

Define the user groups that have access to the object. You see a table with user groups and group access rights. The table contains all user groups in your setup. For each user group, you can choose from the following group access rights:

• No access: Users in this user group cannot see or edit the object. The object does not show up in lists.
• Read access: Users in this user group can see the object and view its settings.
• Write access: Users in this user group can see the object and view and edit its settings. However, they cannot edit the object's access rights settings.
• Full access: Users in this user group can see the object, view and edit its settings, and edit its access rights settings.

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

Sender

Define which email address and sender name appear in the FROM part of your email notifications:

• Default: Use the default sender email and name as defined in the global Notification Delivery settings.
• Custom: Override the global sender email and name.

Sender Email Address

This setting is only visible if you enable Custom above. Enter an email address to use as sender of all email notifications. This setting overrides the global setting from the Notification Delivery tab. The default value is the global sender email.

The email address must be allowed by the outgoing Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server defined in the Notification Delivery settings.

Sender Name

This setting is only visible if you enable Custom above. Enter a sender name to use as sender of all email notifications. This setting overrides the global setting from the Notification Delivery tab. The default value is the global sender name.

Send to User

Select a user 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 the Notification Contacts settings. Choose None to not use this feature.

Read/write users can send notifications to any user who is a member of the same user group as the read/write user.

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 in the User Groups settings and email contacts in the Notification Contacts settings. Choose None to not use this feature.

If you select a user group and a specific member of this group as recipients, the user only receives 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.

Read/write users can send email notifications to all user groups that they are members of.

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 better this way.

Subject

Enter the subject of the email notification.

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

For more information, see section List of Placeholders for Notifications.

Format

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

• HTML: PRTG uses the default HTML email template for the message part of the email.

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 setting is only visible if you enable Text with custom content above. Enter the desired message for this email notification in plain text format. You can use placeholders here.

For more information, see section List of Placeholders for Notifications.

Priority

Define the priority that PRTG sets for the email:

• highest
• high
• normal
• low
• lowest

Most email clients can show this priority flag.

Logfile

Define the logfile into which PRTG writes the message:

• 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 visible if you enable Application above. Enter the source for the event. Usually, this is the name of the application.

Event Type

Select the type of the event:

• 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 only an asterisk (*).

For more information, see section List of Placeholders for Notifications.

Send to User

Select a user 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 the Notification Contacts settings. 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 in the User Groups settings and SMS contacts in the Notification Contacts settings. 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 that the number format meets the requirements of your SMS provider or the hardware that you use in combination with an application programming interface (API) call. Sometimes a plus sign is not required. A wrong format might 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 better 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 only an asterisk (*).

For more information, see section List of Placeholders for Notifications.

URL

Enter the URL to which PRTG sends the request. You can use placeholders here.

HTTP notifications work with or without Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).

For more information, see section List of Placeholders for Notifications.

SNI (Server Name Indication)

Select if PRTG sends the Server Name Identification (SNI) extension to the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol along with the HTTP request:

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

Virtual Host (SNI)

This setting is only visible if you enable Send SNI above. Enter the SNI name that your endpoint configuration requires. Usually, this is the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the virtual host.

HTTP Method

Select the HTTP method that you want PRTG to use:

• GET

• POST
• PUT

• PATCH

Payload

This setting is only visible if you enable POST, PUT, or PATCH above.

Enter a payload here. The payload is the data that PRTG transmits to the URL you have specified. You can use placeholders here. Line breaks are supported.

No Extensible Markup Language (XML) or JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is allowed here.

Only the content type application/x-www-form-urlencoded is supported.

For more information, see section List of Placeholders for Notifications.

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 subfolder of the PRTG program directory. To appear in this list, store the files as .bat, .cmd, .exe, .com, .ps1, or .vbs.

In a cluster, manually copy your files to every cluster node. This makes sure that 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 is started. You can use placeholders here. For example, if you use a batch file that contains a %1 variable, you can provide a value for this variable here.

For more information, see section List of Placeholders for Notifications.

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 a different 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. Enter an integer value.

Host/IP

Define the IP address or Domain Name System (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 the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is supported.

Facility

Define the facility information. Several options are available from the list.

Encoding

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

• 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 only an asterisk (*).

For more information, see section List of Placeholders for Notifications.

Up

Severity level: Notice (5)

Warning

Severity level: Warning (4)

Down

Severity level: Error (3)

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. Enter a string or leave the field empty.

Specific Trap Code

Enter a code to identify the purpose of the trap. The default value is 0. Enter an integer value.

Message ID

Enter an ID to identify the origin of the trap. 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 only an asterisk (*).

For more information, see section List of Placeholders for Notifications.

Agent IP

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

AWS Access Key ID

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

AWS Secret Access Key

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

Location

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

• Africa (Cape Town)
• Asia Pacific (Hong Kong)
• Asia Pacific (Mumbai)
• Asia Pacific (Osaka-Local)
• Asia Pacific (Seoul)
• Asia Pacific (Singapore)
• Asia Pacific (Sydney)
• Asia Pacific (Tokyo)
• Canada (Central)
• China (Beijing)
• China (Ningxia)
• Europe (Frankfurt)
• Europe (Stockholm)
• Europe (Milan)
• Europe (Ireland)
• Europe (London)
• Europe (Paris)
• Middle East (Bahrain)
• South America (São Paulo)
• US East (Northern Virginia)
• US East (Ohio)
• US West (Northern California)
• US West (Oregon)

ARN

Enter the Amazon resource name. Enter a string.

Subject

Enter the subject of the message. Enter a string.

The maximum length for the subject is 202 characters. Characters that exceed this number are clipped.

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 only an asterisk (*).

For more information, see section List of Placeholders for Notifications.

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

Assign to User or User Group

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

• 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.

User Group / User

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

Read/write users can assign tickets to all user groups that they are a member of as well as to administrators and individual users that are members of the same user group as the read/write user.

Subject

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

For more information, see section List of Placeholders for Notifications.

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 can change it as you wish.

For more information, see section List of Placeholders for Notifications.

When Condition Clears

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

• 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.

Send to User

Select a user 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 the Notification Contacts settings 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 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 in the User Groups settings and push contacts in the Notification Contacts settings. 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)

For more information, see section List of Placeholders for Notifications.

You can change the message to your liking. To reset this field to its default value, enter only an asterisk (*).

URL of the Teams Webhook

Enter the URL of the incoming webhook that you set up in your Microsoft Teams workspace.

For more information, see the Knowledge Base: How do I create a webhook for the PRTG Notifications to Slack and Microsoft Teams?

Title

Enter the title of your Microsoft Teams notification.

The following placeholders (variables) are used here by default: %device %name

For more information, see section List of Placeholders for Notifications.

Subtitle

Enter the subtitle of your Microsoft Teams notification.

The following placeholder (variable) is used here: %message

For more information, see section List of Placeholders for Notifications.

Content

Define the content of your Microsoft Teams notification:

• Use default content: The notification message includes information about the Status, Last Scan, Last Value, Last Up, Coverage, Downtime, Priority, Probe, and Group.
• Define custom content: The notification message includes the pieces of information that you choose in the Content options (see next step).

Select Content

This setting is only visible if you enable Define custom content above.

Add a check mark in front of the piece of monitoring information that you want PRTG to include in your Microsoft Teams notification. Remove the check mark in front of the items that you do not want to include.

Multiple choices are possible.

The following types of monitoring information are available:

• Name

• Host

• Status

• Last Scan

• Last Value

• Message

• Last Down

• Last Up

• Coverage

• Downtime

• Uptime

• Priority

• Probe

• Group

• Device

• Date and Time

• Time Zone

• Comments (probe)

• Comments (group)

• Comments (device)

• Comments (sensor)

• History

For more information, see section List of Placeholders for Notifications.

URL of Slack Webhook

Enter the URL of the incoming webhook that you set up in your Slack workspace.

For more information, see the Knowledge Base: How do I create a webhook for the PRTG Notifications to Slack and Microsoft Teams?

Sender Name

Enter a sender name to use as sender of Slack notifications. This field overrides the sender that you might have defined in your Slack workspace.

Title

Enter the title of your Slack notification.

The following placeholders (variables) are used here by default: %device %name

For more information, see section List of Placeholders for Notifications.

Subtitle

Enter the subtitle of your Slack notification.

The following placeholder (variable) is used here: %message

For more information, see section List of Placeholders for Notifications.

Content

Define the content of your Slack notification:

• Use default content: The notification message includes information about the Status, Last Scan, Last Value, Last Up, Coverage, Downtime, Priority, Probe, and Group.
• Define custom content: The notification message includes the pieces of information that you choose in the Content options (see next step).

Select Content

This setting is only visible if you enable Define custom content above.

Add a check mark in front of the piece of monitoring information that you want PRTG to include in your Slack notification. Remove the check mark in front of the items that you do not want to include.

Multiple choices are possible.

The following types of monitoring information are available:

• Name

• Host

• Status

• Last Scan

• Last Value

• Message

• Last Down

• Last Up

• Coverage

• Downtime

• Uptime

• Priority

• Probe

• Group

• Device

• Date and Time

• Time Zone

• Comments (probe)

• Comments (group)

• Comments (device)

• Comments (sensor)

• History

For more information, see section List of Placeholders for Notifications.

MQTT Broker

Enter the address for the connection to the MQTT broker (server).

Port

Enter the port number for MQTT connections. The default port for unsecure connections is 1883 and the default port for secure connections is 8883.

Timeout (Sec.)

Enter a timeout in seconds for the request. Enter an integer value. If the reply takes longer than this value, the sensor cancels the request and triggers an error message. The maximum timeout value is 300 seconds (5 minutes).

User Credentials

Select if you want to connect without credentials, or define credentials for the connection.

• None: Connect without credentials.
• Username/Password: Define credentials for the connection.

User

This setting is only visible if you enable Username/Password above. Enter the username for access to the Message Queue Telemetry Transport (MQTT) broker.

Password

This setting is only visible if you enable Username/Password above. Enter the password for access to the MQTT broker.

Connection Security

Select if you want to use a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)/Transport Layer Security (TLS) secured connection:

• Do not use transport-level security: Establish the connection without connection security.
• Use transport-level security: Establish the connection with the strongest SSL/TLS method that the target device provides.

Server Authentication

This setting is only visible if you enable Use transport-level-security above. Select if you want to use a certificate for server authentication.

• Disable server authentication: Do not use a certificate for server authentication.
• Enable server authentication: Use a certificate for server authentication.

CA Certificate

Copy the certificate authority (CA) certificate for verifying the MQTT server and paste it here.

The certificate must be in Privacy-Enhanced Mail (PEM) format.

Client Authentication

This setting is only visible if you enable Use transport-level-security above. Select if you want to use a certificate for client authentication.

• Disable client authentication: Do not use a certificate for client authentication.
• Enable client authentication: Use a certificate for client authentication.

Client Certificate

Copy the certificate that you created for authenticating the sensor against the server and paste it here.

The certificate must be in PEM format.

Client Key

Enter the client key for authentication against the server.

The client key must be encrypted using the Client Key Password.

Client Key Password

Enter the password for the client key certificate.

Topic

Enter the topic for the notification. MQTT clients that are subscribed to this topic receive the notification.

ClientID

Enter the ClientID for the connection to the MQTT broker (server).

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 only an asterisk (*).

For more information, see section List of Placeholders for Notifications.