<%NUMBERING1%>.<%NUMBERING2%>.<%NUMBERING3%> PRTG Manual: HTTP API

All calls to the PRTG API are performed by HTTP GET requests. The URLs consist of a path to the API function and some parameters.

• If you are accessing the PRTG API inside your secure LAN, you can use HTTP. In environments that are not secure (for example, when accessing your PRTG core server via the internet), you should use HTTPS requests to make sure that your parameters and passwords are encrypted. This way, all communication between the PRTG core server and your client is Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encrypted.

• For every API call, the default limit of items is 500. If you want to receive more items per call, add a count=xxx parameter with enough room for all sensors.
• You must include authentication with username and passhash (or username and password) in each request.
  See section Authentication for more information.
• All data in the GET parameters must be UTF-8-encoded and URL encoded.

Output Formats

Most data that you can request from the PRTG API is available in data tables in the Extensible Markup Language (XML), the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format, and the comma-separated values (CSV) format (using the XML format is recommended). Here are some sample calls with different output formats.

The example URLs consist of the following elements:

• yourserver: The name of your PRTG server.
• /api/table.xml or /api/table.json: Addresses an API function. Here, the function renders a table in the XML format or in the JSON format.
• content=sensors: Parameter for additional control. In this case, it includes all sensors in the table.
• columns=sensor: Parameter for additional control. In this case, only the names of all sensors are shown in the table.
• (optional) output=csvtable: Renders a table in the CSV format.

Authentication

All requests to the PRTG API are stateless, which means that there is no multi-step login process of an kind. You must include the authentication with username and passhash (or username and password) in each request by using the username and passhash (or username and password) parameters.

The example URLs now also contain the credentials for authentication purposes:

• username=myuser&passhash=hash (or password=mypassword)

You can request the passhash for an account with the following API call:

https://yourserver/api/getpasshash.htm?username=myuser&password=mypassword

Make sure that username and password are URL-encoded.

Versioning

Most XML replies from the PRTG API contain a <version> field that contains the program version and buildnumber of the server's PRTG installation. Your client must look at this version number and compare it to the version number that was used to develop the client. Do not accept version numbers older (smaller) than this one. You should display a warning to the user (or stop processing) if the version number differs by 0.1 or more (for example, version 18.1 vs. 18.2, or version 17.x vs. 18.x). PRTG API conventions or parameters might have changed between versions.

Newer versions of the same major version of PRTG reply to API calls just like previous versions did.

Error Handling

Depending on whether an API call was successfully processed or not, the PRTG core server replies with the following HTTP status codes:

For 400 error codes, the error .xml document includes the error message as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
 <prtg>
 <version>18.1.37.10127+</version>
 <error>Sorry, there is no object with the specified id.</error>
 </prtg>

More

KNOWLEDGE BASE

How can I use the PRTG Application Programming Interface (API)?

• https://kb.paessler.com/en/topic/593

Application Programming Interface (API) Definition—Topics

• HTTP API
• Live Data

• Single Object Property
• Single Object Status
• Multiple Object Property or Status
• System Information

• Live Graphs
• Historic Data
• Object Manipulation
• Custom Sensors
• Custom Notifications
• Mini Probe API