<%NUMBERING1%>.<%NUMBERING2%>.<%NUMBERING3%> PRTG Manual: Common SaaS Sensor
The Common SaaS Sensor monitors the availability of several Software as a Service (SaaS) providers. Because your business processes more and more depend on cloud hosts, this sensor type is an important pillar for unified monitoring. With this sensor you can get alarms if your cloud services are not reachable anymore.
This sensor shows the following:
- Available services in percent
- Response times of the following SaaS providers:
- Bing
- Dropbox
- GitHub
- Google Apps
- Office 365
- Salesforce
- Youtube

Common SaaS Sensor
Click here to enlarge: http://media.paessler.com/prtg-screenshots/common_saas.png
- The server on which the PRTG probe with this sensor runs must have access to the internet.
- PRTG creates this sensor automatically on every new probe device. If the system running the probe has no connection to the internet, please pause or delete this sensor manually to avoid error messages.
- This sensor type supports proxy server usage.
- This sensor type has predefined limits for several metrics. You can change these limits individually in the channel settings. For detailed information about channel limits, please refer to the manual section Sensor Channels Settings.
- Important notice: Currently, this sensor type is in beta status. The methods of operating can change at any time, as well as the available settings. Do not expect that all functions will work properly, or that this sensor works as expected at all. Be aware that this type of sensor can be removed again from PRTG at any time.
The Add Sensor dialog appears when adding a new sensor on a device manually. It only shows the setting fields that are imperative for creating the sensor. Therefore, you will not see all setting fields in this dialog. You can change (nearly) all settings in the sensor's Settings tab later.
Select which SaaS providers you want to monitor. The sensor creates one channel for each service you choose in the Add Sensor dialog.
The following settings for this sensor differ in the 'Add Sensor' dialog in comparison to the sensor's settings page:
Common SaaS Specific |
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SaaS Checklist |
Select the services you want to monitor with this sensor. You see a list with the names of all items which are available to monitor. Select the desired items by adding check marks in front of the respective lines. The sensor creates on channel for each selection. You can also select and deselect all items by using the check box in the table head. |
On the details page of a sensor, click on the Settings tab to change its settings.
Note: Usually, a sensor connects to the IP Address or DNS Name of the parent device on which you created this sensor. See the Device Settings for details. For some sensor types, you can define the monitoring target explicitly in the sensor settings. Please see below for details on available settings.
Basic Sensor Settings |
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Sensor Name |
Enter a meaningful name to identify the sensor. By default, PRTG shows this name in the device tree, as well as in alarms, logs, notifications, reports, maps, libraries, and tickets. |
Parent Tags |
Shows Tags that this sensor inherits from its parent device, group, and probe. This setting is shown for your information only and cannot be changed here. |
Tags |
Enter one or more Tags, separated by space or comma. You can use tags to group sensors and use tag–filtered views later on. Tags are not case sensitive. We recommend that you use the default value. You can add additional tags to it, if you like. Other tags are automatically inherited from objects further up in the device tree. These are visible above as Parent Tags. |
Priority |
Select a priority for the sensor. This setting determines where the sensor is placed in sensor lists. Top priority is at the top of a list. Choose from one star (low priority) to five stars (top priority). |
Common SaaS Specific |
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Period (Interval) |
Define the scanning interval of this sensor. The period you choose here specifies how often the sensor requests the target services. Choose between:
Note: This sensor cannot inherit scanning intervals nor use other intervals than given here. |
Debug Options |
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Sensor Result |
Define what PRTG will do with the sensor results. Choose between:
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Sensor Display |
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Primary Channel |
Select a channel from the list to define it as the primary channel. In the device tree, the last value of the primary channel will always be displayed below the sensor's name. The available options depend on what channels are available for this sensor. Note: You can set another primary channel later by clicking on the pin symbol of a channel in the sensor's Overview tab. |
Chart Type |
Define how different channels will be shown for this sensor.
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Stack Unit |
This setting is only available if stacked graphs are selected above. Choose a unit from the list. All channels with this unit will be stacked 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. |
By default, all following settings are inherited from objects higher in the hierarchy and should be changed there, if necessary. Often, best practice is to change them centrally in the Root group's settings. To change a setting only for this object, disable inheritance by clicking on the check mark before the corresponding setting name. You will then see the options described below.
Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window |
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Note: Inheritance for schedules, dependencies, and maintenance windows cannot be interrupted. The corresponding settings from the parent objects will always be active. However, you can define additional settings here. They will be active at the same time as the parent objects' settings. |
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Schedule |
Select a schedule from the list. Schedules can be used to monitor for a certain time span (days, hours) throughout the week. With the period list option it is also possible to pause monitoring for a specific time span. You can create new schedules and edit existing ones in the account settings. Note: Schedules are generally inherited. New schedules will be added to existing ones, so all schedules are active at the same time. |
Maintenance Window |
Specify if you want to set-up a one-time maintenance window. During a "maintenance window" period, this object and all child objects will not be monitored. They will be in a paused state instead. Choose between:
Note: To terminate a current maintenance window before the defined end date, you can change the time in Maintenance End At field to a date in the past. |
Maintenance Begins At |
This field is only visible if you enabled the maintenance window above. Use the date time picker to enter the start date and time of the maintenance window. |
Maintenance End At |
This field is only visible if you enabled the maintenance window above. Use the date time picker to enter the end date and time of the maintenance window. |
Dependency Type |
Define a dependency type. Dependencies can be used to pause monitoring for an object depending on the status of another. You can choose between:
Note: Testing your dependencies is easy! Simply choose Simulate Error Status from the context menu of an object that other objects depend on. A few seconds later all dependent objects should be paused. You can check all dependencies in your PRTG installation by selecting Devices | Dependencies from the main menu bar. |
Dependency |
This field is only visible if the Select object option is enabled above. Click on the reading-glasses and use the object selector to choose an object on which the current sensor will depend. |
Delay (Seconds) |
Define a time span. After the master object for this dependency comes back to an Up status, the beginning of the monitoring of the depending objects will be additionally delayed by the time span you define here. This can help to avoid false alarms, for example, after a server restart, by giving systems more time for all services to start up. Please enter an integer value in seconds. Note: This setting is not available if you choose this sensor to be the Master object for parent. In this case, please define delays in the parent Device Settings or in the superior Group Settings. |
Access Rights |
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User Group Access |
Define which user group(s) will have access to the object you're editing. A table with user groups and types of access rights is shown: It contains all user groups from your setup. For each user group you can choose from the following access rights:
You can create new user groups in the System Administration—User Groups settings. To automatically set all objects further down in the hierarchy to inherit this object's access rights, set a check mark for the Revert children's access rights to inherited option. For more details on access rights, please see the section User Access Rights. |
To change display settings, spike filter, and limits, switch to the sensor's Overview tab and click the gear icon of a specific channel. For detailed information, please see the Sensor Channels Settings section.
Click the Notifications tab to change notification triggers. For detailed information, please see the Sensor Notifications Settings section.
For more general information about settings, please see the Object Settings section.
For information about sensor settings, please see the following sections:
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