The File Content sensor checks a text file (for example, a log file) for certain strings.
Additionally, this sensor quotes matching lines in the sensor message.
File Content Sensor
For a detailed list and descriptions of the channels that this sensor can show, see section Channel List.
Sensor in Other Languages
Dutch: Bestands inhoud
French: Contenu du fichier
German: Datei-Inhalt
Japanese: ファイルの内容
Portuguese: Conteúdo de arquivo
Russian: Содержимое файла
Simplified Chinese: 文件内容
Spanish: Contenido de archivo
Remarks
This sensor has a high performance impact. We recommend that you use no more than 200 of this sensor on each probe.
This sensor requires that the LanmanServer service runs on the target system.
This sensor does not support UTF-16 encoded files. Try a custom sensor like the EXE/Script sensor or the EXE/Script Advanced sensor.
This sensor does not officially support binary files. If you want to monitor them anyway, select Always transmit the entire file in the sensor settings.
This sensor supports Unix line feeds.
This sensor supports IPv6.
To monitor files on a Linux system, the folder must be accessible via Server Message Block (SMB).
Try the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the target system if the sensor does not get a connection with the IP address.
You cannot add this sensor to the hosted probe of a PRTG Hosted Monitor instance. If you want to use this sensor, add it to a remote probe device.
Detailed Requirements
Requirement
Description
LanmanServer service
To monitor shares on Windows machines, this sensor requires that the LanmanServer service runs on the target system.
The display name of the service is Server.
To enable the service, log in to the respective system and open the services manager (for example, via services.msc). In the list, find the respective service and set its Start Type to Automatic.
If the name contains angle brackets (<>), PRTG replaces them with braces ({}) for security reasons. For more information, see the Knowledge Base: What security features does PRTG include?
This setting is for your information only. You cannot change it.
Tags
Enter one or more tags. Confirm each tag with the Spacebar key, a comma, or the Enter key. You can use tags to group objects and use tag-filtered views later on. Tags are not case-sensitive. Tags are automatically inherited.
It is not possible to enter tags with a leading plus (+) or minus (-) sign, nor tags with parentheses (()) or angle brackets (<>).
For performance reasons, it can take some minutes until you can filter for new tags that you added.
The sensor has the following default tags that are automatically predefined in the sensor's settings when you add the sensor:
filesensor
Priority
Select a priority for the sensor. This setting determines the position of the sensor in lists. The highest priority is at the top of a list. Choose from the lowest priority () to the highest priority ().
Sensor Specific
Sensor Specific
Setting
Description
File Name
Enter the full path to the file that this sensor monitors. For example, enter C:\Windows\file.txt. to monitor a file on the probe system.
If you use a local path, the sensor only looks for the target file on the probe system, not on the parent device. To monitor a file on the parent device, use the dollar sign ($) like C$\User\username\file.txt.
If the file is located on a network device, use the Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path without the server part (only enter share\folder\file.txt). The sensor inherits the server part (\\server\) from the parent device settings. Enter a valid path and file name.
To monitor Windows shares, the LanmanServer service must run on the target computer.
To monitor Linux files, the folder with these files must be accessible via SMB.
Note that it might produce a high amount of network traffic if you define that PRTG queries an entire file on your network with every scanning interval.
Search String
Define the string that you want to search the file for. You can enter a simple string in plain text or a regular expression (regex).
The search string must be case sensitive.
Search Method
Define the method with which you want to provide the search string:
Simple string search: Search for a simple string in plain text.
The characters * and ? work as placeholders. * stands for no number or any number of characters and ? stands for exactly one character. You cannot change this behavior.The literal search for these characters is only possible with a regex.
Regular expression: Search with a regex.
The pattern must be in one line and only the last matching line is returned.
PRTG supports Perl Compatible Regular Expression (PCRE) regex. For more details, see section Regular Expressions.
File Transmission Handling
Define in which way the sensor transmits the target file to PRTG:
Only transmit new lines at the end of the file (default): Send the entire file to PRTG only with the first scanning interval. With the following scanning intervals, the sensor only transmits new lines at the end of the file. It does not send old lines but it still counts them. This option improves the performance of the sensor. This option is in beta status. Do not expect that it works as expected in every usage scenario.
Always transmit the entire file: Send the entire file to PRTG with every sensor scanning interval. If this results in too much traffic on the target system, we recommend that you choose Only transmit new lines at the end of the file (default) instead.
This sensor can only transmit new lines in the following cases:
the file is bigger than in the previous scanning interval, and
the last line in the file is still in the same place in the file.
This sensor supports Windows and Linux line endings (CRLF or. LF).
File Encoding
Specify the encoding of the file that this sensor monitors:
Windows-1252 (default)
UTF-8
UTF-16
Sensor Behavior
Define the condition for which the sensor shows the Warningstatus:
Show warning status when the string is not found: Show the Warning status if there is no match. Otherwise it remains in the Up status.
Show warning status when the string is found: Show the Warning status if there is a match. Otherwise it remains in the Up status.
If Value Changes
Define what the sensor does if the value of the Last Occurrence (Line) channel changes:
Ignore (default): Do nothing.
Trigger 'change' notification: Send an internal message that indicates a change. In combination with a change trigger, you can use this to trigger a notification if a change occurs.
This sensor does not trigger the notification when the number of Matches changes.
Debug Options
Debug Options
Setting
Description
Result Handling
Define what PRTG does with the sensor result:
Discard result: Do not store the sensor result.
Store result: Store the last sensor result in the \Logs\sensors subfolder of the PRTG data directory on the probe system. The file names are Result of Sensor [ID].txt and Result of Sensor [ID].Data.txt. This setting is for debugging purposes. PRTG overwrites these files with each scanning interval.
In a cluster, PRTG stores the result in the PRTG data directory of the master node.
Sensor Display
Sensor Display
Setting
Description
Primary Channel
Select a channel from the list to define it as the primary channel. In the device tree, the last value of the primary channel is always displayed below the sensor's name. The available options depend on what channels are available for this sensor.
You can set a different primary channel later by clicking below a channel gauge on the sensor's Overview tab.
Graph Type
Define how different channels are shown for this sensor:
Show channels independently (default): Show a graph for each channel.
Stack channels on top of each other: Stack channels on top of each other to create a multi-channel graph. This generates a graph that visualizes the different components of your total traffic. You cannot use this option in combination with manual Vertical Axis Scaling (available in the channel settings).
Stack Unit
This setting is only visible if you select Stack channels on top of each other above.
Select a unit from the list. All channels with this unit are stacked on top of each other. By default, you cannot exclude single channels from stacking if they use the selected unit. However, there is an advanced procedure to do so.
Inherited Settings
By default, all of these settings are inherited from objects that are higher in the hierarchy. We recommend that you change them centrally in the root group settings if necessary. To change a setting for this object only, click under the corresponding setting name to disable the inheritance and to display its options.
For more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Scanning Interval.
Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window
You cannot interrupt the inheritance for schedules, dependencies, and maintenance windows. The corresponding settings from the parent objects are always active. However, you can define additional schedules, dependencies, and maintenance windows. They are active at the same time as the parent objects' settings.
Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window
For more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window.
Access Rights
Access Rights
For more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Access Rights.
Channel List
Which channels the sensor actually shows might depend on the target device, the available components, and the sensor setup.
Channel
Description
Downtime
In the channel table on the Overview tab, this channel never shows any values. PRTG uses this channel in graphs and reports to show the amount of time in which the sensor was in the Down status