What is this?

This knowledgebase contains questions and answers about PRTG Network Monitor and network monitoring in general.

PRTG Network Monitor

Intuitive to Use. Easy to manage.
More than 500,000 users rely on Paessler PRTG every day. Find out how you can reduce cost, increase QoS and ease planning, as well.

How do I obtain a list of device/sensor comments?

Votes:

0

Is there anyway to see (and edit) where any comments are filled out for devices/sensors? I know I can go into each and every device and sensor, but am looking for an easier way.

comments prtg sensor

Created on Oct 12, 2010 3:23:03 PM

Last change on Oct 13, 2010 8:52:55 AM by Daniel Zobel [Product Manager]

Best Answer

Accepted Answer

Votes:

0

Well, you could use the API to generate a list off all sensors with their comments.

http://yourserver/api/table.xml?content=sensors&columns=objid,comments&login=[user]&password=[password]

This will generate something like:

- <item>
  <objid>1001</objid> 
  <comments>This is a comment</comments> 
  </item>
- <item>
  <objid>1002</objid> 
  </item>
- <item>
  <objid>1003</objid> 
  </item>

Next, loop through the <comments> tags, find its <objid> sibbeling and open the corresponding webpage:

http://yourserver/sensor.htm?id=1001&gototab=12

Created on Oct 12, 2010 6:22:51 PM

13 Replies

Votes:

0

Hello,

I'm afraid Multi-Edit for comments is not possible/available.

Best Regards.

Created on Oct 12, 2010 5:14:34 PM by Torsten Lindner [Paessler Support]

Votes:

0

Even if there was a way to just list out all the comments, that would be a help.

It seems that some sensors automatically populate at discovery time with results from SNMP or WMI, like model and serial#. However, without going into each device/sensor, it is unknown whether a device/sensor has comments.

We're starting to use the comments field as a note about where a server/device is, leaving the geomap locate to the respective probe location.

Created on Oct 12, 2010 6:04:26 PM

Accepted Answer

Votes:

0

Well, you could use the API to generate a list off all sensors with their comments.

http://yourserver/api/table.xml?content=sensors&columns=objid,comments&login=[user]&password=[password]

This will generate something like:

- <item>
  <objid>1001</objid> 
  <comments>This is a comment</comments> 
  </item>
- <item>
  <objid>1002</objid> 
  </item>
- <item>
  <objid>1003</objid> 
  </item>

Next, loop through the <comments> tags, find its <objid> sibbeling and open the corresponding webpage:

http://yourserver/sensor.htm?id=1001&gototab=12

Created on Oct 12, 2010 6:22:51 PM

Votes:

0

Thanks Gerard, that looks like what I need to get a list. Will give that a try now.

Created on Oct 12, 2010 7:59:30 PM

Votes:

0

I tried the api, even tried it while on the demo site's help page where you can interactively build the url for the api. Neither seemed to spit out comments, no matter the format (html, xml, or csv). It's like the api is ignoring the comments field identifier.

Created on Oct 13, 2010 2:08:49 PM

Votes:

0

What PRTG version are you running?

Created on Oct 13, 2010 3:10:05 PM

Votes:

0

8.1.0.1628. When I use the API to build an xml with other fields, it works fine. Just not comments, which I confirmed is a valid column name from the API help from the demo site.

Created on Oct 13, 2010 4:12:39 PM

Votes:

0

I can confirm that it actually works on version 8.1.0.1628

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> 
- <sensors>
  <prtg-version>8.1.0.1628</prtg-version> 
- <item>
  <objid>1001</objid> 
  <comments>Comment on sensor 1001</comments> 
  </item>
- <item>
  <objid>1002</objid> 
  </item>

Note: if comments are empty, there is no <comments> section for that sensor !

Created on Oct 14, 2010 8:39:27 AM

Votes:

0

Yes, Gerard is right. It should work with version 8.x

Created on Oct 14, 2010 11:47:02 AM by Dirk Paessler [Founder Paessler AG] (11,025) ●3 ●6

Votes:

0

I even upgraded the other day to 8.1.0.1670 and it still doesn't show in the XML.

Here is the API syntax I used. I was already signed in the browser, so I did not need the username/password portion. I get every column but the comments.

/api/table.xml?content=sensors&output=xml&columns=objid,probe,group,device,sensor,host,comments

Created on Oct 14, 2010 4:30:47 PM

Last change on Oct 15, 2010 7:49:11 AM by Daniel Zobel [Product Manager]

Votes:

0

Copied and pasted the url and tested it on my own PRTG server without any problem.

This might sound silly, but are you sure that your comments are entered in the comments tab (multi line text box) of the device and not by mistake in the "tag" field (single line text box)

Created on Oct 15, 2010 6:02:08 AM

Votes:

0

Ah, I see what it is doing. All the comments I have manually found have been at the device setting. These must come from WMI or SNMP. I don't have any comments entered at the sensor level, so the comments don't appear in the XML. Once I entered a comment at the sensor level, I saw some in the XML output.

So, I switched the API call to "content=devices" and I now see comments I have put in at that level, as well as the ones from SNMP or WMI.

Thanks for your help guys!

Created on Oct 15, 2010 2:51:06 PM

Last change on Oct 15, 2010 3:31:05 PM by Torsten Lindner [Paessler Support]

Votes:

0

> I'm afraid Multi-Edit for comments is not possible/available.

I would like to use the API to write comments.

What is multi-edit? Is it possible to write comments using the API?

Created on Oct 11, 2013 10:28:57 PM

Disclaimer: The information in the Paessler Knowledge Base comes without warranty of any kind. Use at your own risk. Before applying any instructions please exercise proper system administrator housekeeping. You must make sure that a proper backup of all your data is available.