The File sensor monitors a file located on the local disk on the probe system, parent device, or a file that is accessible via Server Message Block (SMB). You can monitor changes to the file content and file time stamp.
In contrast to the Folder sensor, you can also monitor changes to the actual content of a file.
File Sensor
For a detailed list and descriptions of the channels that this sensor can show, see section Channel List.
Sensor in Other Languages
Dutch: Bestand
French: Fichier
German: Datei
Japanese: ファイル
Portuguese: Arquivo
Russian: Файл
Simplified Chinese: 文件
Spanish: Archivo
Remarks
This sensor has a high performance impact. Use it with care. We recommend that you use no more than 200 sensors of this sensor type on each probe.
This sensor requires that the LanmanServer service runs on the target computer.
Try using the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the target device 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, make sure that the LanmanServer service runs on the target computer.
The display name of the service is Server.
To enable the service, log in to the respective computer and open the services manager (for example, via services.msc). In the list, find the respective service and set its Start Type to Automatic.
Add Sensor
The Add Sensor dialog appears when you manually add a new sensor to a device. It only shows the settings that are required to create the sensor. You can change nearly all settings on the sensor's Settings tab after creation.
Basic Sensor Settings
Click the Settings tab of a sensor to change its settings.
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 ().
Usually, a sensor connects to the IP Address/DNS Name of the parent device. See the device settings for details. For some sensors, you can explicitly define the monitoring target in the sensor settings.
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\johnqpublic\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.
The File sensor supports wildcards (*). For example, you can enter C:\Windows\*.txt as File Name and select Show down status if file exists below if you want that the sensor shows the Down status if a .txt file exists in the defined directory.
Show down status if file does not exist: Show the Down status if the file does not exist.
Show down status if file exists: Show the Down status if the file does exist.
Monitor File Content
Specify if the sensor sends a notification when the content of the file changes (based on a checksum):
Ignore changes: Do nothing.
Trigger 'change' notification: Send an internal message that indicates that its value has changed. In combination with a change trigger, you can use this mechanism to trigger a notification whenever the sensor value changes.
Monitor File Time Stamp
Specify if the sensor sends a notification when the content of the file's time stamp changes:
Ignore changes: Do nothing.
Trigger 'change' notification: Send an internal message that indicates that its value has changed. In combination with a change trigger, you can use this mechanism to trigger a notification whenever the sensor value changes.
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 enable Stack channels on top of each other as Graph Type. 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 Unit Configuration
Which channel units are available depends on the sensor type and the available parameters. If no configurable channels are available, this field shows No configurable channels.
Channel Unit Configuration
For more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Channel Unit Configuration.
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
File Size
The file size
This channel is the primary channel by default.
Last Modified
The time since the last modification of the file
The sensor shows a negative value if the date of a modified file is in the future.
More
KNOWLEDGE BASE
What can I do if PRTG doesn't succeed with monitoring a share? PE029 PE032