Hi,

First a big Yeej, after the testing phase and great support from you guys we finally became a 3 year PRTG member :)

But i do have another question:
Is there a way to setup dependencies faster?
Right now i have for example a 40 VM telephony cluster that is being monitored for several things.
But when 1 of them is not working, i dont want the other sensors to continue and generate a 1000 warnings...
So i setup dependencies, but having to setup 7 sensors dependencies per device is slowly becomming a click fest..

(7 sensors * 40dev = 280 depencies)
(280dep * (7 clicks + much Scrolling + Searching) == "a lot of wasted time"...)
And thats only for Cluster 1...

So is there a way to Bulk this? (Per device sensor, scripted per cluster?)
I was actually hoping this was achieved via the Template, because my template host has all dependencies set..
But all the other host didnt add their Port scan sensor as their primary dependency..
I was more hoping for something like the following:

If (DependencySensorActive) 
{
    Set sensor dependency to Dependency Sensor
} 
else
{
   Set Sensor Dependency to parent.
}

I also did notice that in the management tab you can multiselect sensors, but you're still unable to bulk set dependencies...
So currently im left with a LOT of work to setup dependencies correctly so we dont end up with 1000 warnings if a core device or sensor goes down..

Article Comments

Hello Randy,

Thanks for your inquiry, we appreciate your contact regarding this matter!

Unfortunately, setting dependencies in a bulk is not possible. It's actually intended, to avoid the creation of dependency loops, with never awaking devices or sensors (which can easily happen by accident). The key here for this would be going into the Settings of the Ping/Port Sensor, and set it to be the Master for parent object under dependencies. This will cause the Sensor to pause all other sensors on the device, if itself fails.

For any further questions or issues, we're glad to help.

Kind regards,
Birk Guttmann, Tech Support Team


Jul, 2018 - Permalink

Hey Birk,

This worked as intended, but is not saved in the Device Template.. So this leaves me with a lot of useless work again when i add a couple 1000 devices via autodiscovery. I have a sensor set as "master for parent" but the device sensor added via this template does not.. This means that when a autodiscovered device goes down i will be bombarded with warnings and messages/emails because the device main sensor is not set as master... I dont understand why this has not been factored in when creating the autodiscovery function..

When i clone a device it works just fine and the device main sensor will be appointed "master" for this device.. I see your point regarding dependency loops etc, but i dont see how that could happen with the "Master for Parent" setting. (Because this is a local device setting)

When i go to management and multiselect all each device main sensor, i can still not set them to "Master for Parent".. Wich again leaves me with having to manually go through each device, right click the main sensor, go to edit, scroll down, uncheck the dependency thingy, select the box "Master for parent" and finally click save... That times a 1000+ devices is getting old reeeaaaally fast...

Can this be fixed?


Aug, 2018 - Permalink

Hi Randy!

I'm very much afraid to tell you that the Dependency Type setting "Master object for parent" (in Schedules and Dependencies section) actually cannot be saved into a device template. :(

Please also refer to the manual page regarding device templates (search for "Settings That Are Not Saved"):
https://www.paessler.com/manuals/prtg/create_device_template

Thank you for your understanding!

Andreas Günther
Tech Support, Paessler AG


Aug, 2018 - Permalink