This article applies as of PRTG 22

Push notifications from PRTG

With PRTG, you can send free push notifications from your PRTG core server to your Android and iOS devices.

Note: PRTG 15.4.19 and older versions do not support cloud features anymore because we changed the cloud infrastructure with PRTG 15.4.20. Update your PRTG core server to at least PRTG 15.4.20 to use push notifications and other PRTG Cloud services.

Software requirements

For the setup that is described in this article, you need:

• PRTG core server: as of PRTG 15.4.20
• PRTG for Android: as of PRTG 14.4.13
• PRTG for iOS: as of PRTG 14.4.13

General push concept

If you want to add a new notification in the PRTG web interface, go to Setup | Account Settings | Notification Templates, click Add Notification Template, and select the notification method Send Push Notification. Select if you want to send a push notification to a single user or an entire user group when it is triggered.

Every user account has a number of notification contacts (see Setup | Account Settings | Notification Contacts). This list may contain different types of contacts, for example, Email or Push. A push contact consists of a description name and a unique token (listed in the Recipient column) that identifies the target device.

When a push notification is triggered for a certain user account, PRTG sends it to all active Push contacts that are listed for the user. This means that when a push notification is triggered for your user account, you see the notification on every single mobile device that you registered (and that is not set to Pause).

To register a mobile device so that it can receive push notifications and so that it shows up in your Notification Contacts list, you must connect to your PRTG core server via one of our PRTG apps for iOS or Android. See Push registration with my iOS devices fails. What can I do? if you have issues registering your iOS devices as notification contacts in PRTG.

First time setup

1. Install the PRTG app PRTG for Android or PRTG for iOS on your mobile device.
2. In the PRTG app, set up a connection to a PRTG core server as of version 15.4.20 via the DNS name or IP address and login credentials. Make sure that your phone is connected to the internet during this process.
3. In the PRTG app settings, activate push notifications.
   
   PRTG for iOS: If you use PRTG for iOS, you do not have to manually activate push. Your iOS device asks you to allow push notifications for this PRTG app when you connect to the PRTG server for the first time. Confirm that you want to receive push notifications from PRTG.
   
4. The PRTG app automatically sends a unique token to the PRTG core server. In the PRTG web interface, a new entry for your device appears in the Notification Contacts list of the user account that you are connected to.
5. Any push messages that are triggered by PRTG now immediately appear in the notification area of your mobile device. Tap the messages to open the PRTG app and to show more information.

Note: The PRTG core server must communicate with the PRTG Cloud on port 443 to send push notifications (https://api.prtgcloud.com:443).

Add notifications and notification triggers to your PRTG configuration

Note: You only receive push notifications when you set up a Notification Template that uses the Send Push Notification method and when you set notification triggers that use this notification template (for example, on the Notifications tab of a sensor).

For details about setting up notifications in PRTG, see PRTG Manual: Notification Triggers Settings.

Pause and delete push contacts

If you pause a push contact in the Notification Contacts list with the Pause button, PRTG does not send push notifications to this device until you Resume it.

If you Delete a push contact, PRTG deletes the token of your device and does not send push notifications anymore.

How to re-register a push contact after you deleted it

To re-register the device with your user account and to make it reappear in the Notification Contacts list, follow these steps:

1. Make sure that push notifications are enabled in the PRTG app settings.
2. Set up a new connection to the PRTG core server as of version 15.4.20 via the DNS name or IP address and login credentials.
3. If such a connection still exists in the PRTG app, do the following:
   • PRTG for iOS: Close the PRTG app in the task manager and restart it. Reopen the PRTG app and tap the according connection to connect to the PRTG core server.
   • PRTG for Android: Go to the settings page and press the back button. All of your accounts that support Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) are then re-registered.

Background information

Push notifications require a complicated setup, and every push notification must go through several servers to reach your mobile device.

Every mobile device that runs one of our push-enabled PRTG apps requests a unique token from the Google or Apple cloud and reports it to the PRTG core server that it is connected to. The PRTG core server stores the token for the respective user account.

Paessler runs a special cloud service to provide you with push notifications. Every PRTG installation communicates with this PRTG Cloud. When a push notification is triggered, the PRTG core server sends a request to the PRTG Cloud to push a notification to the device with the respective token. The cloud forwards this request to the Google (Android) or Apple (iOS) cloud, which then send the push notification to your target device.

According to our tests, this notification mechanism can be even faster than receiving SMS text messages. It is also more convenient to use. Even a GPRS data connection is enough to receive push notifications.

More

• Is there an FAQ for push notifications?
• How does the PRTG Cloud deliver push notifications?