Reliable IT Alerting and On-call Management for PRTG
Respond faster and from anywhere to critical incidents
Why SIGNL4
PRTG Network Monitor is an agentless network monitoring software from Paessler AG. It can monitor and classify system conditions like bandwidth usage or uptime and collect statistics from miscellaneous hosts as switches, routers, servers and other devices and applications. A major issue about the mobile app is you cannot see who is on call or members from your team. If an alert comes in and you need to collaborate with a team member, there is no way of knowing who is currently on call. SIGNL4 displays active team members directly on the app so you know who to contact if a critical alert comes in and you are not the subject matter expert.
How it Works
SIGNL4 establishes connection with PRTG Network Monitor via webhook or email to enable mobile notification and alerting capabilities for operations teams. When an alert is acknowledged, closed or annotated in the SIGNL4 app the status in PRTG is updated accordingly. Specifically the integration helps you with the following.
- Forwards PRTG Network Monitor alerts to SIGNL4 for mobile alerting
- Uses Webhook or SMTP email to connect to your SIGNL4 team
- Staff can acknowledge and take ownership for critical events that occur
- Communicate within an alert to address a particular problem
- Alerts are escalated in case of no response
- On-call scheduling to alert the right people at the right time
- Problem marked as resolved in PRTG will close the alert in SIGNL4
- Acknowledge problems in PRTG directly from within the SIGNL4 app
Scenarios
- 24×7 IT operations
- Anywhere critical incidence response
- On-call scheduling of IT teams
Benefits
- Significantly shorter response times
- Ensures attention for critical alerts and minimizes false alerts
- Clear responsibilities and transparent ownership of IT incidents
- Collaboration with team members when assistance is needed
Incidents in PRTG. Connecting via secure webhook
Event categorization, routing and automated delivery
Persistent Notifications by push, text and voice call with Tracking, Escalation and Confirmation to Staff on Duty
HOW TO INTEGRATE
There are two ways for integrating SIGNL4 with PRTG. This is via HTTP request or via email.
1. HTTP Request
First you need to create a new Notification Template at Setup -> Account Settings -> Notification Templates. Here you choose Execute HTTP Action where you can specify your SIGNL4 webhook URL including the team secret, select the HTTP Method Post and enter the Payload including placeholders.
The payload might look like this: Title=Alert from PRTG&Site=%sitename&Message=%device %name %status %down (%message)
Here you can find a description about the supported placeholders: https://kb.paessler.com/en/topic/373-what-placeholders-can-i-use-with-prtg
So you have a format like this: Parameter1=Value1&Parameter2=Value2, etc.
Resolve Alerts: In order to support the resolution of alerts in SIGNL4 you can just add the following part to your SIGNL4 webhook URL:
?ExtIDParam=sensorid&ExtStatusParam=laststatus&ResolvedStatus=UpSo, the complete URL looks like this:
https://connect.signl4.com/webhook/team-secret?ExtIDParam=sensorid&ExtStatusParam=laststatus&ResolvedStatus=UpWhere “team-secret” is your SIGNL4 team secret. You then need to add the parameters “sensorid” and “laststatus” to the Payload:
Title=%device: %name&Message=%message&sensorid=PRTG: %sensorid&laststatus=%laststatusYou can find more information about the resolution of alerts in SIGNL4 here: https://www.signl4.com/blog/update-july-2020-resolve-alerts/. You can easily test the SIGNL4 notification template from here.
Then, at Sensors -> [Choose your sensor] -> Notification Triggers or at Devices -> Notification Triggers, you can specify your notification trigger including the conditions and the SIGNL4 notification template.
Two-way integration
For two-way communication there is a PRTG connector app available in SIGNL4 under Apps -> PRTG. This connector app adds two-way functionality to SIGNL4 alerting in PRTG. It allows you to acknowledge (or close or annotate) problems in PRTG directly from within your SIGNL4 app.
In order to use the Connector you need to make sure you have SIGNL4 alerting activated in PRTG. The configuration of the PRTG connector app is straightforward. You just need the PRTG username, password and the URL to your PRTG server. Please note that the URL needs to be reachable from the internet (e.g. port 443). The user account needs to have the according access rights for the PRTG API.
2. Email
Create a user within PRTG with the name of SIGNL4 and your team email address. Assign that user to a group that is monitoring existing sensors.
Note: In the screenshot below the user name is SIGNL4, email address is your team email and the user is part of the PRTG Users Group.
At this point the next time something triggers an alarm, your SIGNL4 team will be notified via the mobile app.
See left how an alert looks in SIGNL4.
You can find more information here.
ALERT OPTIMIZATION
SIGNL4 can further increase the visibility of alerts through its Signals and Services section. Augmenting the color and icon of alerts will provide more relevant information at a glance without having to open the alert.
Change alert color and override title + text
Override text, colors and titles are triggered by keywords set within the mobile app.