PRTG Manual: File Content Sensor

LanmanServer service

To monitor shares on Windows machines, make sure that the LanmanServer service runs on the target computer.

The display name of the service is Server.

To enable the service, log in to the respective computer and open the services manager (for example, via services.msc). In the list, find the respective service and set its Start Type to Automatic.

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:

▪filesensor

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 ().

File Name

Enter the full path to the file that this sensor monitors. For example, enter C:\Windows\file.txt. to monitor a file on the probe system.

If you use a local path, the sensor only looks for the target file on the probe system, not on the parent device. To monitor a file on the parent device, use the dollar sign ($) like C$\User\johnqpublic\file.txt.

If the file is located on a network device, use the Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path without the server part (only enter share\folder\file.txt). The sensor inherits the server part (\\server\) from the parent device settings. Enter a valid path and file name.

To monitor Windows shares, the LanmanServer service must run on the target computer.

To monitor Linux files, the folder with these files must be accessible via SMB.

Note that it might produce a high amount of network traffic if you define that PRTG queries an entire file on your network with every scanning interval.

Search String

Define the string that you want to search the file for. You can enter a simple string in plain text or a regular expression (regex).

The search string must be case sensitive.

Search Method

Define the method with which you want to provide the search string:

▪Simple string search: Search for a simple string in plain text.

The characters * and ? work as placeholders. * stands for no number or any number of characters and ? stands for exactly one character. You cannot change this behavior. The literal search for these characters is only possible with a regex.

▪Regular expression: Search with a regex.

The pattern must be in one line and only the last matching line is returned.

PRTG supports Perl Compatible Regular Expression (PCRE) regex. For more details, see section Regular Expressions.

File Transmission Handling

Define in which way the sensor transmits the target file to PRTG:

▪Only transmit new lines at the end of the file (default): Send the entire file to PRTG only with the first scanning interval. With the following scanning intervals, the sensor only transmits new lines at the end of the file. It does not send old lines but it still counts them. This option improves the performance of the sensor.
This option is in beta status. Do not expect that it works as expected in every usage scenario.

▪Always transmit the entire file: Send the entire file to PRTG with every sensor scanning interval. If this results in too much traffic on the target system, we recommend that you choose Only transmit new lines at the end of the file (default) instead.

The sensor can only transmit new lines in the following cases:

▪the file is bigger than in the previous scanning interval, and

▪the last line in the file is still in the same place in the file.

The sensor supports Windows and Linux line endings (CRLF or. LF).

File Encoding

Specify the encoding of the file that this sensor monitors:

▪Windows-1252 (default)

▪UTF-8

▪UTF-16

Sensor Behavior

Define the condition for which the sensor shows the Warning status:

▪Show warning status when the string is not found: Show the Warning status if there is no match. Otherwise it remains in the Up status.

▪Show warning status when the string is found: Show the Warning status if there is a match. Otherwise it remains in the Up status.

If Value Changes

Define what the sensor does if the value of the Last Occurrence (Line) channel changes

▪Ignore changes (default): Do nothing.

▪Trigger 'change' notification: Send an internal message indicating that the sensor value has changed. In combination with a change trigger, you can use this mechanism to trigger a notification whenever the sensor value changes.

The sensor does not trigger the notification when the number of Matches changes.

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 names are Result of Sensor [ID].txt and Result of Sensor [ID].Data.txt. This setting is for debugging purposes. PRTG overwrites these files with each scanning interval.

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

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

Last Occurrence (Line)

The line number of the last match

This channel is the primary channel by default.

Matches

The number of matches