With the current version of PRTG, you can use the Mini Probe interface with your custom code to implement solutions to special scenarios that you might have in your network. Please note that there are major changes planned to the underlying API in PRTG. Therefore, any code you write now will likely need to be changed later, so it can be used for future versions of PRTG. Further news about changing interfaces will be provided here as soon as there are more detailed plans available.

Current Status: BETA

MiniProbe POC for PRTG Network Monitor written in Python which accesses the MiniProbe Interface on the PRTG Core Server.

• set up your PRTG server to use HTTPS (other connection methods not allowed at the moment)
• allow MiniProbes to connect (Setup -> Probes -> Allow MiniProbes to connect)
• make sure you can reach the PRTG web interface from the machine the mini probe should run on (e.g. wget https://YOUR_PRTG_SERVER)
  • This is tested during the setup
• Install python-dev and build-essential (or at least gcc) packages
• Install pip as outlined here https://pip.pypa.io/en/latest/installing.html (pre Python 2.7.9)
• Download either zip or clone repository
• run command 'sudo python setup.py install' which will install all necessary packages
• run command 'sudo python setup.py configure' which will bring up the configuration dialogue

The miniprobe should now be started. You should also be able to start/stop the same using the command

sudo service prtgprobe start

or

sudo service prtgprobe stop

• Copy away file probe.conf
• Stop the mini probe process
• Delete the files /etc/init.d/probe and /etc/logrotate.d/probe (filenames might be prtgprobe as well)
• Remove the /probe folder
• Install python-dev and build-essential (or at least gcc) packages
• Install pip as outlined here https://pip.pypa.io/en/latest/installing.html (pre Python 2.7.9)
• Download either zip or clone repository
• Run command 'sudo python setup.py install' which will install all necessary packages and will run the configuration
• [optional] Run 'install.sh' to skip the 4 steps above
• Copy the gid line from your old probe.conf to the new probe.conf at /probe/miniprobe/probe.conf
• Start the mini probe process, the mini probe will connect with the previous GID and continue monitoring IMPORTANT: If replacing the new probe.conf with the old one, make sure the line 'subprocs:10' is present in the file!

Debian based system (tested on Ubuntu, Debian, Raspbian)
Python 2.7+ (preferred 2.9) Needed modules are installed using the setup.py install phase:
Module list deprecated as pip will resolve dependencies!

• pyasn1 (https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pyasn1/0.1.7)
• pysnmp (https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pysnmp/4.2.5)
• requests (https://pypi.python.org/pypi/requests/2.5.3)
• dnspython (https://pypi.python.org/pypi/dnspython/1.12.0)

Requirements:

• DS18B20
• 4.7K Ohm resistor

Setup:

• Solder the resister between pin 2 and 3 of the DS18B20. If the flat part of the DS18B20 is facing you, then pin 2 and 3 are located at the right hand side starting from the middle.
• Place pin 1 on pin 6 on the Raspberry.
• Place pin 2 on pin 7 on the Raspberry.
• Place pin 3 on pin 1 on the Raspberry.
• Run the installscript of the probe and answer Yes to the question if you want to use the Raspberry Pi temperature sensor.
• The installscript will now make a change to the raspberry boot process to include a special library and will then reboot the Raspberry. After the reboot, run the installer again and answer the same question again. It will now, if everything is correct, detect your DS18B20 using its own unique serial number. Just confirm that this is correct by pressing any key on your keyboard.

• CPU Load (for probe only)
• CPU Temperature (for probe only)
• Disk Space (for probe only)
• DNS for the following records: A, AAAA, CNAME, SRV, SOA, NS, MX, PTR
• External IP to get the external and internal ip for the probe
• HTTP
• Linux Updates to check for the number of available updates (for probe only)
• Memory (for probe only)
• NMAP to get available systems to monitor (currently using ping only)
• Ping to check if a host/system is up
• Port to check if a specific port is available
• Probe Health for overal probe health, combines several other sensors into 1
• SNMP Custom to monitor a system using SNMP OID
• SNMP Traffic to monitor traffic on the probe

To enable debugging, open the file probe.conf and replace the line

debug:

with

debug:True

This will enable detailed logging to folder "logs" which is as sub folder of the miniprobe folder. For further debugging, please stop the miniprobe process as outlined above. Navigate to the folder the file "probe.py" can be found then run following command "python probe.py". On major errors you will get the details and traceback directly on the console.

=======

• Status update on future of Mini Probe API

MAJOR CHANGES:

• added Python 3 compatibility

MINOR CHANGES:

• code cleanup in preparation for further capsuling
• adjusted travis config to run nose tests for python 3

MAJOR CHANGES:

• restructuring project layout accoriding to pip compliance
• removed included modules
• added support for pip/reqirements.txt
• for installation, see above "Installation for this branch"
• added tests folder for future unit tests
• dropped probe_installer.py, code moved to setup.py
• added release

• Finished the DNS Sensor for all dns types currently available in a Windows Probe
• Added an APT sensor to check for available updates on the system

• Added dns sensor with support for A MX and SOA Records
• Set the log message "Running Sensor: ..." to a debug message
• Added the dnspython module for the dns sensor

• Added support for internal QA

• Added support for multiprocessing, now sensors are spawned as subprocesses (merged branch experimental with master)
• fixed some indentation stuff (tabs instead of whitespaces)
• fixed function get_config_key in probe_installer.py as key was set to None type all the time, fixed some sensors to put return data in the queue rather than simply returning it.
• other minor fixes resp. code cleanup
• preparation for a workflow (no direct commits to master any more)

• Added full support for the DS18B20 and a lot of cleanup and fixes
• Also added the boot/config.txt fix for the DS18B20 that is needed on the RPi
• Removed the no longer needed W1ThermSensor module from the repo as the Raspbian Image for raspberry already includes everything needed

• Installer cleanup and preparation for reading current config
• Fix typo :(
• Installer cleanup continued, added uninstall option to the installer, debug option added during installation
• added W1ThermSensor module to the repo

• Merge pull request #2 from eagle00789/master -- Fixed Update-rd.d command -- Removed duplicate defined baseinterval check -- Fixed a bug in the installer that created the config file before any values where asked -- Added ping check for PRTG Server availability with possibility to still continue -- Added several checks and moved some code around to a function.

• added optional debug information

• fix for issue 1

• updated module requests

• dropped own logging -- now using python built in logging function (you might delete the file logger.py if existant) -- created file miniprobe.py which offers base functionality, probe.py now only does the work -- various changes and code cleanup -- added script templates for the probe_installer.py in folder /scripts -- changed version number to reflect YY.QQ.Release

• added module retry

• Updated module requests -- from now it is not necessary to use weakened security in the PRTG web server. There will be a one time warning if you are using a self signed certificate which can be ignored.
• added VERSION.txt file -- the version number is built up from Year.Quarter.Buildnumber
• moved Python version check to the beginning of the script
• big code cleanup
• applied PEP 8 rules to the code, some other refactoring). To be continued... (Probably tomorrow)

• Changed readme file, adjusted setup.py

• Fixed typos
• Added check for logs folder

• Updated documentation
• Merge Remote-tracking branch

• Updated Readme
• Changed line separators
• Initial Commit
• Changed readme file
• deleted readme

• Initial commit