Server 2008 File Sensor

Dear Benjamin,

are you using the "normal" File Sensor or the WMI File Sensor? However it seems we can't reproduce this here, at least not with local files on a PRTG machine.

Best regards.

We are using the normal file sensor.

You have to emulate a program which keeps a log file open and writes updates to it.

Below is a VBS script that duplicates the problem. PRTG can't detect the log file has been updated. I can't try using a local PRTG machine as our install is on Server 2003. We are using the file sensor pointing to a network share on a Windows 2008 Server.

The VBS script creates a file (C:\temp\LogTest.txt) and writes a timestamp into the file every 10 seconds.)

CreateLog.vbs
----------------------------
Dim myFSO, WriteStuff
Set myFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set WriteStuff = myFSO.OpenTextFile("c:\temp\LogTest.txt", 8, True)

For count = 0 to 2000
WriteStuff.WriteLine(Now)
WScript.Sleep 10000
Next
----------------------------

Are the changes also really saved to the file on disk then? Can you try a remote probe to enable local access on the Windows 2008 Server?

Yes they are saved to the disk. Using a probe installed on the Server 2008 box, the WMI file sensor does work.

The normal file sensor through SMB from another probe doesn't work. (Timestamps not be updated) - From what I've read this is to reduce disk I/O by design in Server 2008.

My workaround was to create a PowerShell script to monitor the file (not from a local probe).

Here is the powershell for anyone else:

Sensor Properties:
Parameters:   c:\temp\file.txt   OR   \\server\share\file.txt   (You can use local dir or UNC)

Results: Returns the age in seconds.  Always returns OK.  You need to setup channel limits for up/down status.

------------------

FileSensorLastModified.ps1


$a = New-TimeSpan $(Get-Date((gci $args).LastWriteTime)) $(Get-Date)
$result = ("{0:F0}" -f $a.TotalSeconds).ToString() + " :OK"
echo $result






 

I'm missing

WriteStuff.Close
set WriteStuff = nothing
set myFSO = nothing

in the example above, that might explain why the file is not written to disk and changes to the file are simply kept in memory.