PRTG Manual: HTTP v2 Sensor
The HTTP v2 sensor monitors a web server using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
You can use this sensor to monitor if a website or a specific website element is reachable.
For a detailed list and descriptions of the channels that this sensor can show, see section Channel List.
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Consider the following remarks and requirements for this sensor:
Remark |
Description |
---|---|
Smart URL replacement |
This sensor supports smart URL replacement. |
Performance impact |
This sensor has a low performance impact. |
Lookups |
This sensor uses lookups to determine the status values of one or more channels. |
Credentials |
You can define credentials for HTTP in the settings of an object that is higher in the object hierarchy. |
Scanning interval |
|
Multi-platform probe |
You can add this sensor to a multi-platform probe. |
Knowledge Base |
Knowledge Base: Which HTTP status code leads to which HTTP sensor status? |
The sensor has the following default tags that are automatically predefined in the sensor's settings when you add the sensor:
- http
- httpsensor
For more information about basic sensor settings, see section Sensor Settings.
Setting |
Description |
---|---|
Timeout per Request (Sec.) |
Enter a timeout in seconds for the request. Enter an integer. The maximum timeout value is 900 seconds (15 minutes). If the reply takes longer than this value, the sensor cancels the request and shows a corresponding error message. The timeout is per request, not per sensor scan. If a request is redirected, the timeout begins again. |
Maximum Number of Redirects |
Enter the maximum number of times the sensor scan will follow an HTTP redirect request. The sensor will display the status of the last page before the number of redirects is exhausted. The default number of redirects the sensor will follow is 16. The maximum number of redirects the sensor will follow is 100. Enter 0 if you do not want the sensor to follow any redirects. |
URL |
Enter the URL that the sensor connects to. If you enter an absolute URL, the sensor uses this address independently of the IP Address/DNS Name setting of the parent device. You can enter the URL of a web page (to measure the loading time of the page's source code), or enter the URL of an image or of a page asset to measure this element's availability and loading time. The URL must be URL encoded. If you monitor an image or a page asset, this can create a high amount of memory load. We recommend that the size of the elements that you want to monitor does not exceed 200 MB. The default URL is https://%host/. PRTG replaces %host with the IP address or DNS name of the parent device. PRTG does not display the value in the sensor log or the sensor's settings. |
Request Method |
Select an HTTP request method to determine how the sensor requests the URL:
|
Content Type |
This setting is only visible if you select POST above. Define the content type of the POST request. The default content type is application/x-www-form-urlencoded. |
POST Body |
This setting is only visible if you select POST above. Enter the data part for the POST request. No Extensible Markup Language (XML) is allowed here. |
Custom Headers |
Enter a list of custom headers with their respective values that the HTTP request of the sensor contains. The syntax of a header-value pair is header1:value1. If you enter more than one header-value pair, enter each pair in one line: Make sure that the HTTP header statement is valid. Otherwise, the sensor request cannot be successful. |
Setting |
Description |
---|---|
Primary Channel |
Select a channel from the list to define it as the primary channel. In the device tree, PRTG displays the last value of the primary channel 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 this sensor shows different channels:
|
Stack Unit |
This setting is only visible if you select Stack channels on top of each other above. Select a unit from the list. PRTG stacks all channels with this unit 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. |
Setting |
Description |
---|---|
Result Handling |
Define what PRTG does with the sensor result:
This option is not available when the sensor runs on the hosted probe of a PRTG Hosted Monitor instance. |
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 Inheritance of Settings.
Instead of entering a complete address in the URL field of an HTTP sensor, you can only enter the protocol followed by a colon and three forward slashes (this means that you can enter either http:/// or https:///, or even a simple forward slash / as the equivalent for http:///). PRTG automatically fills in the parent device's IP Address/DNS Name in front of the third forward slash.
Whether this results in a valid URL or not depends on the IP address or Domain Name System (DNS) name of the parent device. In combination with cloning devices, you can use smart URL replacement to create many similar devices.
For example, if you create a device with the DNS name www.example.com and you add an HTTP sensor to it, you can provide values in the following ways:
- If you enter https:/// in the URL field, PRTG automatically creates the URL https://www.example.com/
- If you enter /help in the URL field, PRTG automatically creates and monitor the URL http://www.example.com/help
- It is also possible to provide a port number in the URL field. It is taken over by the device's DNS name and is internally added, for example, http://:8080/
Smart URL replacement does not work for sensors that run on the probe device.
Which channels the sensor actually shows might depend on the target device, the available components, and the sensor setup.
Channel |
Description |
---|---|
Bytes Received |
The number of bytes received |
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 |
Loading Time |
The web page or element loading time This channel is the primary channel by default. |
Response Code |
The response code of the target server |
KNOWLEDGE BASE
Which HTTP status code leads to which HTTP sensor status?
What security features does PRTG include?