Custom EXE Sensor to display and alert system age

Hi there,

You can find the documentation about the proper output for XML/JSON sensors (advanced sensors) in your PRTG webinterface under "Setup > PRTG API > Custom Sensors |> ADVANCED SCRIPT AND HTTP DATA SENSORS".

You can always debug the script and check what PRTG sees by enabling the "Write EXE result to disk" option in the sensor settings and checking the sensor logs under "C:\ProgramData\Paessler\PRTG Network Monitor\Logs (Sensors)\".

I don't know how the exact output of the script looks like and in what unit the time is, but if it is in seconds, you can use the

Tag for the result/channel. This will display the value in PRTG in seconds. If you the unit is in hours, you can use "TimeHours" in the tag. Afterwards you are able to set your own thresholds/limits in the channel settings under "Limits".

Best regards.

Hello Dariusz, thank you for the reply. You have gotten me farther, but I'm still stuck. For now, I am going to stick with a single PS file until I can get it working to make things easier.

So I modified the PS file to convert to JSON.

$bios = gwmi Win32_BIOS;($bios.ConvertToDateTime($bios.releasedate).ToShortDateString()) | ConvertTo-Json

This is the output of the log file (Under Logs (Sensors)\) : "11/25/2012"

Below is the output of the log file.data (I X'd out identifying information). Data['blockedsens'].asString := ''; Data['canlinux'].asString := '0'; Data['channelinfos'].asString := '{}'; Data['channelnames'].asString := ''; Data['environment'].asString := ''; Data['exefile'].asString := 'BIOS Age.ps1'; Data['exeparams'].asString := ''; Data['fastcount'].asString := '0'; Data['host'].asString := 'XXX'; Data['hostv6'].asString := ''; Data['inerror'].asString := '1'; Data['ipversion'].asString := '0'; Data['isexesensor'].asString := '1'; Data['lastmsg'].asString := '#Y2 @#O233 @#O231[Invalid JSON.]'; Data['lastuptime'].asString := '0'; Data['linuxlogindomain'].asString := ''; Data['linuxloginpassword'].asString := '***'; Data['monitorchange'].asString := ''; Data['mutexname'].asString := ''; Data['notonpod'].asString := '0'; Data['reboot'].asString := '42852.6577786921'; Data['reqmsginterval'].asString := '60'; Data['resultfile'].asString := 'Result of Sensor 54389.txt'; Data['sensorid'].asString := '54389'; Data['simulate'].asString := '0'; Data['timeout'].asString := '60'; Data['tlsexplicit_default'].asString := ''; Data['tlsexplicit_ftp'].asString := ''; Data['tlsexplicit_imap'].asString := ''; Data['tlsexplicit_pop3'].asString := ''; Data['tlsexplicit_port'].asString := ''; Data['tlsexplicit_smtp'].asString := ''; Data['uptimecount'].asString := '0'; Data['usednstime'].asString := '0'; Data['usewindowsauthentication'].asString := '0'; Data['windowslogindomain'].asString := 'XXXXX'; Data['windowsloginpassword'].asString := '***'; Data['windowsloginusername'].asString := 'XXXX'; Data['writeresult'].asString := '1';

The output needs to be like this:
<value>:<message>

So you can fiddle around and put the actual age in days as a value, based on the date:

$InstallDate = "11/25/2012"

# Calculate the timespan 
$InstallDateObject = [datetime]::ParseExact($InstallDate,'MM/dd/yyyy',([Globalization.CultureInfo]::InvariantCulture))
$TimeSpan = New-TimeSpan -Start $InstallDateObject -End (Get-Date)

Write-Host ([string]::Format("{0}:This system was installed {0} days ago",$TimeSpan.Days))

Sorry for the long delay, I was caught up in other projects.

This works kind of. The script you posted assumes we manually enter the server age in the script - but the problem is this is for multiple servers of different ages and we don't want to have multiple scripts (one for each server).

Is there a way to have the first script (as is or modified) run to give the install date, which then dumps said date into the script you have written? This way it is fully automated.

If not, well, we tried!

(and I again apologize for the my skills at this being weak, programming/scripts is not my strong point).

Hi there,

You could also "paramterize" it:

param($InstallDate = "11/25/2012")

# Calculate the timespan 
$InstallDateObject = [datetime]::ParseExact($InstallDate,'MM/dd/yyyy',([Globalization.CultureInfo]::InvariantCulture))
$TimeSpan = New-TimeSpan -Start $InstallDateObject -End (Get-Date)

Write-Host ([string]::Format("{0}:This system was installed {0} days ago",$TimeSpan.Days))

Now you can enter the date in the sensor's Parameter field (e.g. "11/25/2012") and
it will be calculated accordingly.

Kind regards,
Stephan Linke, Tech Support