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PRTG Manual: Notification Contacts

<%NUMBERING1%>.<%NUMBERING2%>.<%NUMBERING3%> PRTG Manual: Notification Contacts

On the Notification Contacts tab, you can define and change the notification contacts of the user account.

This documentation refers to an administrator that accesses the PRTG web interface on a master node. Other user accounts, interfaces, or failover nodes might not have all of the options in the way described here. In a cluster, note that failover nodes are read-only by default.

If 15 minutes (900) seconds have passed since your last credential-based login and you open a setup page from a different setup page, PRTG asks you to enter your credentials again for security reasons. A dialog box appears. Enter your Login Name and Password and click OK to continue.

Notification Contacts Tab

Notification contacts are unique for each user account. This means that every user can individually define how they want to receive notifications from PRTG. Recipients of notifications are email addresses, phone numbers, push devices (with PRTG for Android or PRTG for iOS), and users of certain instant messaging services.

The notification methods Send Email, Send SMS/Pager Message, and Send Push Notification let you define a user who receives notifications for every active notification contact. If you select a user group, PRTG sends the notifications to all active notification contacts of all users that are in the user group. To exclude notification contacts from the notification delivery, use the Pause button to deactivate them.

In this section:

Note

You must take the following four steps to set up and use notifications:

Check and set up the notification delivery settings if you use PRTG Network Monitor. These settings define how PRTG sends messages.
Check and set up notification contacts for the user accounts. These contacts define the recipients to which PRTG sends notifications.
Check and set up several notification templates. These templates define the notification methods and their content.
You can also check or edit notification templates via the Notification Triggers tab. For more information, see section Notification Triggers Settings.
Check and set up notification triggers settings for objects. These triggers define when PRTG sends notifications.

Usually, there are three successive attempts to deliver a notification. If all of these attempts fail, the notification is lost. To never miss a notification, we recommend that you always set up at least two notifications with different notification methods for a notification trigger, for example, one email notification and one SMS notification. If delivery via email fails, PRTG can still notify you via smartphone as a fallback. For example, use the latency setting of a state trigger to choose a notification with a different notification method than in the first trigger condition, or set up a second trigger with a different notification method for the corresponding object.

For a detailed step-by-step guide, see the Paessler website: How to set up notifications via the PRTG web interface.

Custom notification scripts are also available in the PRTG Sensor Hub.

Notification Contacts Overview

Click the Notification Contacts tab to show a list of all notification contacts for the user account. You have the following options:

Option	Description
Pause ()	Pauses the notification contact. If a notification contact is paused, PRTG does not send any messages to the contact when a notification for this user is triggered.
Resume ()	Resumes the notification contact. When a notification for this user is triggered, PRTG sends a message to this user.
Edit ()	Open the settings of the notification contact and change its description and recipient. This is not possible for predefined notification contacts, for example, for Primary Email Address. You can change the primary email address under My Account.
Delete ()	Delete the notification contact. This is not possible for predefined notification contacts, for example, for Primary Email Address.

Notification Contacts Settings

Hover over and select Add Email Contact or Add SMS Contact from the menu to add a new notification contact. You can also click the next to a notification contact to edit it.

PRTG automatically adds push contacts for the corresponding user when you install a PRTG app for iOS or Android on your smartphone or tablet, connect to PRTG, and activate push notifications. You cannot manually add push contacts. If your mobile device actively rejects push notifications for a push contact, for example, because you deactivate push on the target device or reset it, PRTG automatically pauses the push contact. The affected user account receives a ToDo ticket in this case.

Add New Notification Contact

Add Email Contact

Setting	Description
Description	Enter a description to identify the email contact. 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?
Recipient	Enter a valid email address for the email contact. For the contact type Push, this field shows a unique token that you cannot change. PRTG uses this token to send push notifications through the cloud. For details, see the Knowledge Base: How can I use push notifications with PRTG?
Type	Shows the type of the notification contact. This setting is for your information only. You cannot change it. If you want to use a different contact type, create a new contact with Add Email Contact or Add SMS Contact, or activate push notifications in your PRTG for iOS or Android app.

Setting

Description

Enter a description to identify the email contact.

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?

Recipient

Enter a valid email address for the email contact.

For the contact type Push, this field shows a unique token that you cannot change. PRTG uses this token to send push notifications through the cloud. For details, see the Knowledge Base: How can I use push notifications with PRTG?

Type

Shows the type of the notification contact.

This setting is for your information only. You cannot change it.

If you want to use a different contact type, create a new contact with Add Email Contact or Add SMS Contact, or activate push notifications in your PRTG for iOS or Android app.

Click OK to save your settings, or click Cancel to close the dialog box without changes to the notification contact.

Add SMS Contact

Setting	Description
Description	Enter a description to identify the SMS contact. 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?
Recipient	Enter a valid phone number for the SMS contact. The format of the phone number depends on the SMS provider. You can use a plus sign (+) or 00, followed by the country code and the number. For example, +1555012345 or 001555012345. Make sure that the number format meets the requirements of your SMS provider or the hardware that you use in combination with an application programming interface (API) call. Sometimes a preceding plus sign is not required. The wrong format might result in undelivered messages. For the contact type Push, this field shows a unique token that you cannot change. PRTG uses this token to send push notifications through the cloud. For details, see the Knowledge Base: How can I use push notifications with PRTG?
Contact Type	Shows the type of the notification contact. This setting is for your information only. You cannot change it. If you want to use a different contact type, create a new contact with Add Email Contact or Add SMS Contact, or activate push notifications in your PRTG for iOS or Android app.

Setting

Description

Enter a description to identify the SMS contact.

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?

Recipient

Enter a valid phone number for the SMS contact. The format of the phone number depends on the SMS provider. You can use a plus sign (+) or 00, followed by the country code and the number. For example, +1555012345 or 001555012345.

Make sure that the number format meets the requirements of your SMS provider or the hardware that you use in combination with an application programming interface (API) call. Sometimes a preceding plus sign is not required. The wrong format might result in undelivered messages.

Contact Type

Shows the type of the notification contact.

This setting is for your information only. You cannot change it.

If you want to use a different contact type, create a new contact with Add Email Contact or Add SMS Contact, or activate push notifications in your PRTG for iOS or Android app.

Click OK to save your settings, or click Cancel to close the dialog box without changes to the notification contact.

KNOWLEDGE BASE

What security features does PRTG include?

https://kb.paessler.com/en/topic/61108

How can I use push notifications with PRTG?

https://kb.paessler.com/en/topic/60892

PAESSLER WEBSITE

You can find custom notification scripts in the PRTG Sensor Hub

https://www.paessler.com/sensor-hub

Others

There are some settings that you must make in the PRTG Administration Tool. For more details, see the sections: