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.

Is there any way to monitor a Text String with an SNMP Custom sensor?

Votes:

0

When I configure an OID specific to Firmware Version I am able to get the proper data returned using an SNMP Custom String sensor but this only allows me to display the Last Message and logs only the Response Time and Downtime of the sensor. I would like to be able to log the actual Last Message as the Response Time and Downtime are not useful data for many of the things that I need to monitor.

Is it possible that I have missed the actual STRING value monitor? If not, will this be included in an update soon? Is there any way that I can pull this data into PRTG short of using another program/script?

custom oid snmp string text value

Created on Dec 8, 2010 4:49:24 AM

Best Answer

Accepted Answer

Votes:

0

To anyone facing this "dilemma", it is unlikely that we'll ever be able to support/implement this because sensors/channels are only designed to store numerical values.

There is a very extensive/thorough explanation of the available alternatives under the following Post:

Can i graph text values?

Cheers,
Luciano Lingnau [Paessler Support]

Created on Feb 9, 2017 11:28:11 AM by Luciano Lingnau [Paessler]

14 Replies

Votes:

0

Using the SNMP Custom String sensor you can monitor a string returned by an SNMP device. Please use the Response must (not) include options to set this sensor to error on specific conditions. These can then trigger a notification.

However, the sensor does not display the former received messages.

Created on Dec 15, 2010 12:10:37 PM by Daniel Zobel [Product Manager]

Votes:

0

Will the ability to store the Last Message ever be implemented? This is the only monitoring software that does not have this ability that I am aware of. Actually, I'll rephrase - the only /Decent/ software.

We love using PRTG in every way but this one thing is very very important to us and is going to seriously impact our ability to continue using your software.

Created on Dec 29, 2010 11:26:26 PM

Votes:

0

It might be possible in the future. It is already on our wish list, and we are working on it.

Created on Jan 1, 2011 10:24:20 AM by Aurelio Lombardi [Paessler Support]

Votes:

0

I understand from this KB article that this feature was on Paessler's wish list for PRTG and was even being worked on in 2011. From what I have been able to tell the current version of PRTG doesn't have this feature. I have been interested in logging the value of a custom oid string for several years and recently ran into an additional situation where I want to be able to do this.

What is the current status of this feature?

Thanks,

Jason Proos

Created on Jun 4, 2014 11:47:57 PM

Votes:

0

it is still on the wish list, that is all I can say at the moment, sorry.

Created on Jun 9, 2014 9:50:45 AM by Aurelio Lombardi [Paessler Support]

Votes:

0

Hi,

I am very interested to know if the monitoring of the message string mentioned above has been implemented?

I would like to implement it to view the HA sensor message of the firewall devices and currently I could only see the downtime and response time.

If this could be implemented soon, it would be very much appreciated.

Thanks Brun

Created on Apr 29, 2015 8:53:16 AM

Votes:

0

The message string can be monitored wit hthe SNMP Custom String sensor - you can search via plain text, regular expression, etc. It also allows you to set the status of the sensor based on keyword matches or missing keywords. Additionally, you can extract numerical values from the returned string.

Created on Apr 29, 2015 9:50:47 AM by Stephan Linke [Paessler Support]

Votes:

0

Stephan,

Does SNMP log historical data for Last Message values in a Custom String Sensor?

Created on Sep 24, 2015 2:27:11 PM

Votes:

0

This should be visible either in the historic data tab (after creating a report), in the live data, 2d, 30d and 365d graphs.

Created on Sep 25, 2015 10:45:15 AM by Stephan Linke [Paessler Support]

Votes:

0

Similar problem, only I need WMI to display the "last message" and not an SNMP string. Any options?

Created on Jun 30, 2016 11:51:27 PM

Votes:

0

WMI Custom String Sensor?

Created on Jul 1, 2016 1:07:14 PM by Stephan Linke [Paessler Support]

Accepted Answer

Votes:

0

To anyone facing this "dilemma", it is unlikely that we'll ever be able to support/implement this because sensors/channels are only designed to store numerical values.

There is a very extensive/thorough explanation of the available alternatives under the following Post:

Can i graph text values?

Cheers,
Luciano Lingnau [Paessler Support]

Created on Feb 9, 2017 11:28:11 AM by Luciano Lingnau [Paessler]

Votes:

0

Is there any solution for this problem? I have som devices that only return string values, which would be nice to query and display on screen.

Couldn't you extended PRTG's DB to support string, and make the only view for this data a table?

Created on Sep 10, 2018 8:28:44 PM

Votes:

0

Hi there,

Have you checked the last answer from Luciano for a possible solution? There are currently no plans of extending this functionality or to "simply" display Strings as this is what the sensor message was meant for.

Best regards.

Created on Sep 11, 2018 7:53:15 AM by Dariusz Gorka [Paessler Support]

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.