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monitoring a file?

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0

Is there a way to monitor a file for a changing numerical value? I have a metric script that writes its output as a numerical value to a text file, and I'd like to be able to draw that output value into PTRG as a sensor value and raise a warning if it's above/below a specific numerical value. The only content of the text file would be a number that would get updated every 30 minutes or so.

Thanks! Scott

changing-value file-monitoring numerical-value

Created on Dec 22, 2010 4:08:59 PM



4 Replies

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Dear Scott,

this should be possible using the Custom Sensor LogfileReader from our PRTG User Gerard Feijth.

Best Regards.

Created on Dec 22, 2010 4:38:04 PM by Torsten Lindner [Paessler Support]



Votes:

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That does allow monitoring of a file, but only seems to be able to indicate whether the file has changed or not. I need to be able to actually display the contents of the file as the sensor output, and throw a warning/error if the number is less than 100. I am able to get the output of that custom sensor to show the value I want as "last message", but "last result" appears to be the only output that's usable, and that's only a 0/1/2 output depending on the change status of the file contents.

Scott

Created on Dec 22, 2010 7:34:14 PM



Votes:

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It says "This Custom Sensor returns whether a specified string occurs in a (log) file", so an actual content is performed. However this will not enable the usage of the limits then in PRTG, as it's a string.

Created on Dec 22, 2010 7:53:08 PM by Torsten Lindner [Paessler Support]



Votes:

0

Well, this seems simple enough for a small batch file. Create a file called value.bat in the \Custom Sensor\EXE folder of your PRTG installation and paste the following 3 lines:

@echo off
type %1%
echo :this is my value

Create a new sensor and select the value.bat file. As commandline parameter you will need to supply the filename that holds the value you want to use.

Note: the file that holds the value must not contain any linefeeds.

Regards, Gerard

Created on Dec 23, 2010 4:48:58 PM




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