This article applies to PRTG Network Monitor Version 12 or later, as well as to previous (deprecated) versions

HowTo: Automatically Exporting PRTG's Raw Monitoring Data Into Daily CSV or XML Files

With PRTG Network Monitor, you can analyze your sensor data in various ways. Exhaustive reports for your whole network can be generated as well as historic data reports for single sensors. Still, there are people who just need the data of a sensor in a convenient format to do their own statistics in external programs or to use Excel to do additional computations based on the monitoring data. That is why we have included a XML and CSV export function in PRTG.

This function of the web interface is handy to export data every few days. But if you need daily data for one or more sensors an automatic solution is more comfortable. With the CSVExport command line tool finally there is a way to export data of many PRTG sensors with one single line of script! You can use it as an on-demand tool or combine it with Windows task scheduler. Don't be confused by the name - CSVExport is capable of both XML and CSV data export!

Getting Started

To try it out, download CSVExport from PRTG Tools Family and unpack it.

To run the tool you must supply following command line parameters:

• PRTG username (option -pu).
• PRTG password (option -pp).
• The IP address or hostname of the PRTG web interface (option -ps).
• The sensor ID (or a list of IDs) of the sensor(s) you want to export the data for (option -s). You can look up a sensor's ID under its detail overview page from within the PRTG web interface. The ID is the number written in parentheses behind the sensor name. By the way, the ID is also part of the sensor's webpage URL.

For example, a simple call may look like this:

csvexport -pu=prtgadmin -pp=prtgadmin -ps=192.168.0.10 -s=1001

This command line writes yesterday's data of the sensor "Probe Health" (ID 1001) into a CSV file in the directory where CSVExport is started. If a file already exists, it is not overwritten, but a number is appended to the file name. If you run this command once every day using scheduled tasks you will get a daily CSV file for the sensor 1001.

A big advantage of this tool is that you can export the data of many sensors with one single call. To do so, you only have to look up the IDs and enter them - separated by commas - behind the "-s" parameter. In this case, you will get a separate file for each sensor.

Advanced Options

With optional parameters, you can define a start and end date of the data you want to export or enter a different target file location and credentials, if necessary. You can also change file format to XML and even combine the data of multiple sensors into one file. Please see the manual that comes with the tool's download for a good description of all advanced options.

Notes

This tool was written by PRTG Tools Family (which is not associated with Paessler). Thanks for sharing it with the community! All Google Code tools have not been created and published by Paessler AG, so we are not able to support them officially.

More

If you have trouble opening the CSV files in Excel, please see The Comma and Semicolon Issue in Excel Due to Regional Settings for Europe

Hi,

I keep getting this error when I run this tool against our PRTG instance:

C:\My Documents\Downloads\PTF.CSVExport>CSVExport.exe -pu=<hidden> -pp=<hidden> -ps=http :<ip address hidden>:8080 -s=4544 -f:C:\Tools

Processing sensor 4544 Getting data for sensor 4544 0:The remote server returned an error: (404) Not Found.

Press any key to continue

Can you please let me know how can I fix this problem? I am able to hit this server through browser without any problem.

Thanks, Amar

Yes, I do know is somewhat late for you, but it may help others.

I first tried CSVExport.exe -pu=prtgadmin -pp=prtgadmin -ps=xx.xx.xx.xx -s=1003 I got a 404 too

At Home / PRTG Status in System Settings, it stated: web server url: xx.xx.xx.xx web server IPs: xx.xx.xx.xx web server ports: 8081 I suppose that 8081 is because I have a WSUS (using port 80)

I then tried CSVExport.exe -pu=prtgadmin -pp=prtgadmin -ps=xx.xx.xx.xx:8081 -s=1003 I don't get a 404 but a "Cannot connect with remote server". And just the same with -ps= xx.xx.xx.xx:8081

At last, I repeated the address wich appears when I click "PRTG Network Monitor" (web GUI) CSVExport.exe -pu=prtgadmin -pp=prtgadmin -ps=xx.xx.xx.xx -s=1003 (with HTTPS) and _success_ ! :-)

HIH somebody

RØ

hi, i'm using CSVExport to export my data in csv. currently i'm using sensor method. my problem now is i unable to set the sensor to be executed at time that i already set. can any one help me on this.

Can not get this program to work. Links in KB are dead.

Try this csvexport -pu=prtgadmin -pp=(hidden but confirmed) -ps=https://xx.xxx.xxx.xxx -s=2465 -to=60 -f=C:\Tools

Get the following: The remote server returned an error: (400) Bad Request.

Please help!!! Getting this working will be the deciding factor of it we renew or not.

Please check the url that is used for the –ps= parameter. Make sure that you are using the correct protocol and port number. Typing this url in your web browser should present you with the PRTG login page.

Dear Daniel Zobel, I downloaded CSVExport.exe from PRTG Tool Family, and it worked OK with 2-3 sensors. But, I had some problems:

	1. I can't export CSV file with a Router (Probe) sensor (has IP and contains multi-sensors) , eg: ID=12772, the output has error.
		CSVExport.exe -pu=prtgadmin -pp=********
-ps=<my_server_IP_address>:8888 -s=12772 -av=300
		==> 13.4.1.13
			Processing sensor 12772
			Retrieving sensor historic data
			The remote server returned an error: (400) Bad Request.
	2. When I used the optional parameter -fc ==> It was not ok. The Output command ok, but the .csv file was empty (but data's size >17KB)
		CSVExport.exe -pu=prtgadmin -pp=********
-ps=<my_server_IP_address>:8888 -s=13018 -fc=DateTime
		==> 13.4.1.13
			
			Processing sensor 13018
			Retrieving sensor historic data
			Exporting to CSV

			5526:Completed at 26-05-2014 17.36	
		==> What's wrong here? 

And, Can I get the file of PRTG Network Monitor to Display All sensor ID and the their Description? Thank you very much and have a nice day!

You can only access data on a per-sensor basis. It is not possible to "download" the historic data from a device and so all the child sensors. You need to do this one-by-one for each sensor.
To get a list of all sensors and their IDs you can use the API. Please see "Setup"->"PRTG API"->"Live Data" for the details.

Dear Torsten Lindner, And what's about the parameter "-fc=..."? I want some fields: datetime, traffic total, traffic in, traffic out. How can I use it? Thank you for helping me.

This is something you need to consult the provider of the tool directly about: http://www.prtgtoolsfamily.com

Where I can download CVSexport tool? Pages http://www.prtgtoolsfamily.com not working now!

Since January 2015 there is a new tool called PRTG Data Extractor BETA that allows you to export your PRTG monitoring data to a SQL Server for further reporting/analysis.

Head to this article for details.

Feedback on the tool is welcome.

Update: Please be aware that we won't be continuing/supporting the PRTG Data Extractor any longer.

What about PDF export? Is it possible? Is it going to be possible in future versions?

Hello Aineias Matis,
The reports feature within PRTG is able to generate PDF reports for any sensor type with 1 minute interval readings. Please visit the manual page for more details:

• PRTG Manual: Reports

Best Regards,

I have downloaded the software, but where to use it? Where do you enter these commands？

Hello Peter,
thank you for contacting us.

Please review this. You need to download csvexport first, then you'll be able to run the application passing the appropriate parameters.

Best Regards,

Can CSVExport automatically export PRTG's Raw Monitoring Data Into minutely CSV or XML Files (every Minute)? what about shorter time? for example each 15 seconds.

Hello Nastaran,
thank you for your post.

If you need to query "live" data from PRTG, please check PRTG's HTTP API. Please note that low scanning intervals (smaller than 30 seconds) may have adverse performance implications on large setups, we recommend using scanning intervals above 30 seconds, and using such interval you should also only query the API every 30 seconds.

Please note that there are two distinct queries which can be used, one for the "current" value and one for historic data, you could for instance always query all values for the last 5 minutes every 5 minutes or so.

Best Regards,

Does this data extraction through API impact any performance of PRTG server when we extract the data?

Hello,

indeed, extracting data puts quite a bit of load on the core server. I recommend to include a pause of a couple of seconds after each such API call in order to give the core server enough time to process the data query.