prtg-pyprobe 0.3.0

Python Probe for PRTG Network Monitor

pyprobe for PRTG

A platform independent implementation of a PRTG probe which communicates via the miniprobe api.

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Important

This is not a full PRTG remote probe and therefore has only a limited set of functions and sensors. These sensors are also not the same sensors that are built into the normal PRTG remote probe, they function differently and offer different capabilities.

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Usage

Container

Preferred usage is running the pyprobe docker container and passing the configuration to the container at startup through the PROBE_CONFIG environment variable.

Pull image

  docker pull registry.gitlab.com/paessler-labs/prtg-pyprobe/pyprobe:0.3.0  

Run image

docker run -e PROBE_CONFIG='CONFIG_DICT' registry.gitlab.com/paessler-labs/prtg-pyprobe/pyprobe:0.3.0  

Format of the CONFIG_DICT object

{
    "disable_ssl_verification": false, 
    "log_file_location": "", 
    "log_level": "INFO", 
    "probe_access_key": "miniprobe", 
    "probe_access_key_hashed": "cd7b773e2ce4205e9f5907b157f3d26495c5b373", 
    "probe_base_interval": "60", 
    "probe_gid": "72C461B5-F768-470B-A1A8-2D5F5DEDDF8F", 
    "probe_name": "Python Mini Probe", 
    "probe_protocol_version": "1", 
    "prtg_server_ip_dns": "paessler.prtg.com", 
    "prtg_server_port": "443"
}

Explanation Values CONFIG_DICT

disable_ssl_verification: Set to true if you are using a self signed certificate or you don't have a valid certificate for the PRTG installation with which you are communicating
log_file_location: Leave as an empty string when running the container, the pyprobe will log to STDOUT log_level: The log level of the pyprobe, possible values are "CRITICAL", "ERROR", "WARNING", "INFO", "DEBUG"
probe_access_key: The access key defined in PRTG (under Setup | Core & Probes)
probe_access_key_hashed: The hashed probe access key. See Hash Access Key for details.
probe_base_interval: The interval which the sensors are scheduled on the PRTG Core
probe_gid: The unique identifier of the probe in UUID format. See Generate UUID for details.
probe_name: The name of the probe to be shown in the PRTG Web Interface.
probe_protocol_version: Has to be 1. This is needed for communication.
prtg_server_ip_dns: IP/DNS address of your PRTG Server.
prtg_server_port: The https port of PRTG's web interface (only TLS is currently supported).

How to easily create a hash access key

Open a Python shell and type the following commands

bash-3.2$ python3
Python 3.8.5 (default, Aug 17 2020, 13:42:23)
[Clang 11.0.3 (clang-1103.0.32.62)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import hashlib
>>> key = "YOUR_ACCESS_KEY".encode("utf-8")
>>> print(hashlib.sha1(key).hexdigest())
24e35fcd585b3e5c94f725cbd57e8fae5772f779
>>>

How to easily generate a UUID

Open a Python shell and type the following commands

bash-3.2$ python3
Python 3.8.5 (default, Aug 17 2020, 13:42:23)
[Clang 11.0.3 (clang-1103.0.32.62)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import uuid
>>> print(str(uuid.uuid4()).upper())
1104669D-F671-4590-83F7-E6BD75E9CE8D
>>>

Native installation

Prerequisites
The following packages have to be present on your system: python3,python3-dev,gcc,libyaml-0-2,libyaml-dev,libffi,libffi-dev
Note: Only Python Versions 3.7+ are supported

The easy way :thumbsup:

• Create a virtual environment and activate it
• Type pip install wheel and afterwards pip install prtg-pyprobe
• Switch to a root user (sudo won't do here as we have to write config and logfile to /etc and /var/log)
• Activate the the virtual environment
• Type pyprobe configure and follow the wizard
• Depending on your system (systemd or not) follow the last 3 steps here(systemd) or here(without systemd)

The hard way :grimacing:

For systems with systemd

• Clone the repository
• Create a virtual environment (Recommended)
• In the repository root pip install .
• Switch to a root user (sudo won't do here as we have to write config and logfile to /etc and /var/log)
• Activate the the virtual environment
• Type pyprobe configure and follow the wizard
• Type pyprobe service install and pyprobe service start
• Log in to the PRTG Web Interface and approve your probe

For systems without systemd

Running as service not supported at the moment

• Clone the repository
• Create a virtual environment (Recommended)
• In the repository root pip install .
• Switch to a root user (sudo won't do here as we have to write config and logfile to /etc and /var/log)
• Activate the the virtual environment
• Type pyprobe configure and follow the wizard
• Type pyprobe daemon start to start the pyprobe as daemon
• Type pyprobe daemon status/stop to get the daemon status or to terminate
• Log in to the PRTG Web Interface and approve your probe

pyprobe CLI

The pyprobe comes with a CLI for the most common tasks, below are more details. The CLI is only available in the context of the virtualenv to which it was installed.

pyprobe

bash-3.2$ pyprobe
Usage: pyprobe [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

Options:
  --help  Show this message and exit.

Commands:
  configure  Creates or overwrites the configuration
  daemon
  service

pyprobe daemon

bash-3.2$ pyprobe daemon
Usage: pyprobe daemon [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

Options:
  --help  Show this message and exit.

Commands:
  start   Start a probe daemon
  status  Get status of probe daemon
  stop    Stop the probe daemon

pyprobe service

bash-3.2$ pyprobe service
Usage: pyprobe service [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

Options:
  --help  Show this message and exit.

Commands:
  install  Installs the pyprobe service via systemd
  start    Starts the pyprobe service
  status   Status of the pyprobe service
  stop     Stops the pyprobe service

Development

Prerequisites
The following packages have to be present on your system: python3,python3-dev,gcc,libyaml-0-2,libyaml-dev,libffi,libffi-dev
Note: Only Python Versions 3.7+ are supported

• Clone the repository
• Create a virtual environment (Recommended)
• Run pip install -r requirements-dev.txt, this will install all packages needed + development dependencies
• In the repository root run pip install . to make sure the pyprobe is in your site-packages
• Create a config by running DEV=True pyprobe configure which will adjust paths for logging and config to your repository root
• For the run.py script to run properly, you need to set the environment variable DEV=True before running it to make the run.py script look at the correct paths for logs and config
• You are set to develop and debug!

Some hints and remarks

• Working directory for tests is ./tests
• Working directory to run the probe is ./pyprobe