PRTG (''Paessler Router Traffic Grapher'' until version 7) is an

agentless In computer science, a software agent or software AI is a computer program that acts for a user or other program in a relationship of agency, which derives from the Latin ''agere'' (to do): an agreement to act on one's behalf. Such "action on behal ...

network monitoring software from Paessler AG. Several software versions are combined under the umbrella term ''Paessler PRTG.'' It can monitor and classify system conditions like bandwidth usage or

uptime Uptime is a measure of system reliability, expressed as the percentage of time a machine, typically a computer, has been working and available. Uptime is the opposite of downtime. It is often used as a measure of computer operating system reliab ...

and collect statistics from miscellaneous hosts as

switches In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type of ...

, routers, servers and other devices and applications. The first version of PRTG was released on 29 May 2003 by the German company ''Paessler GmbH'' (now: ''Paessler AG''), which was founded by Dirk Paessler in 2001.

Products of the Paessler PRTG family

The monitoring software Paessler PRTG is available in three versions. In addition to the classic standalone solution ''PRTG Network Monitor'', Paessler sells ''PRTG Enterprise Monitor'' for large and distributed networks and ''PRTG Hosted Monitor'' as a

SaaS Software as a service (SaaS ) is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. SaaS is also known as "on-demand software" and Web-based/Web-hosted software. SaaS is con ...

-version. File:Paessler PRTG Network Monitor.jpg, Paessler PRTG Network Monitor File:Paessler PRTG Enterprise Monitor.jpg, Paessler PRTG Enterprise Monitor File:Paessler PRTG Hosted Monitor.jpg, Paessler PRTG Hosted Monitor

PRTG Network Monitor

PRTG Network Monitor is the classic on-premises monitoring solution, which is hosted on a server in the user's network. For the installation of the core server, a computer with the ''Windows Server'' operating system is required.

PRTG Enterprise Monitor

Since 2020, Paessler has offered PRTG Enterprise Monitor, a specialized monitoring solution for large IT environments. In addition to a particularly high performance for distributed locations, PRTG Enterprise Monitor also includes the ITOps Board, which provides a centralized service-oriented overview. It can be used to map business processes, consolidate dashboards from multiple servers, and monitor SLA performance and availability, among other features.

PRTG Hosted Monitor

In 2017, a cloud-hosted version of PRTG was released. PRTG Hosted Monitor offers largely the same range of functions as the standard tool. The license is billed monthly and is based solely on the number of sensors. In contrast to PRTG Network Monitor and PRTG Enterprise Monitor, PRTG Hosted Monitor can also be used in networks without a Windows server, since it is hosted in the cloud and not locally.

Specifications

Paessler PRTG has an auto-discovery mode that scans predefined areas of an enterprise network and creates a device list from this data. In the next step, further information on the detected devices can be retrieved using various communication protocols. Typical protocols are ICMP,

SNMP Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is an Internet Standard protocol for collecting and organizing information about managed devices on IP networks and for modifying that information to change device behaviour. Devices that typically ...

, WMI,

NetFlow NetFlow is a feature that was introduced on Cisco routers around 1996 that provides the ability to collect IP network traffic as it enters or exits an interface. By analyzing the data provided by NetFlow, a network administrator can determine thin ...

, jFlow,

sFlow sFlow, short for "sampled flow", is an industry standard for packet export at Layer 2 of the OSI model. sFlow was originally developed by InMon Corp. It provides a means for exporting truncated packets, together with interface counters for the purp ...

, but also communication via DCOM or the RESTful API is possible.

Sensors

The software is based on sensors that are configured for a specific purpose. A PRTG sensor is a single metric on a device. For instance, when managing a switch, a sensor could be measuring network health, or whether the switch's CPU utilization is running above 90%. Most devices require between five and ten sensors to be fully monitored. There are HTTP, SMTP/POP3 (e-mail) application sensors and hardware-specific sensors for switches, routers and servers. PRTG Network Monitor has over 200 different predefined sensors that retrieve statistics from the monitored instances, e.g. response times, processor, memory, database information, temperature or system status.

Web interface and desktop client

The software can be operated completely via an

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-based web interface. The web interface is suitable for both real-time troubleshooting and data exchange with non-technical staff via maps (dashboards) and user-defined reports. An additional administration interface in the form of a desktop application for Windows, Linux and

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

is available.

Notifications and reports

In addition to the usual communication channels such as

Email Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" mean ...

and

SMS Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...

, notification is also provided via push notification on smartphones using an app for

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

or Android. Paessler PRTG also offers customizable reports.

Pricing

Paessler PRTG's licensing is based on

sensors A sensor is a device that produces an output signal for the purpose of sensing a physical phenomenon. In the broadest definition, a sensor is a device, module, machine, or subsystem that detects events or changes in its environment and sends ...

. A version with 100 integrated sensors is available free of charge for PRTG Network Monitor.

References

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Literature

* Andrés, Steven, Brian Kenyon, and Erik Pack Birkholz. ''Security Sage's guide to hardening the network infrastructure''. Elsevier, 2004. *Elsayed, Abdellatief, and Nashwa Abdelbaki. "Performance evaluation and comparison of the top market virtualization hypervisors." ''Computer Engineering & Systems (ICCES), 2013 8th International Conference on''. IEEE, 2013. System administration Network management Port scanners Network analyzers Windows software