PRTG Manual: Similar Sensors

With PRTG, you can detect relationships between different components in your network. For example, you can detect extraordinarily high CPU load that correlates with extraordinarily high traffic at a specific time of a day or week. This can give you a hint to further investigate that part of your network.

What Is Similarity?

The similarity calculation is based on the values that are saved in the sensor history. If measured values change in the same way, the Similar Sensors Detection feature detects it and shows you the sensors for which it found similar data relations. PRTG shows all sensors that reach 85% to 100% similarity.

The analysis of similar sensors is a heuristic calculation that shows interconnections and correlations in your network. The analysis is completely automated. It is based on mathematics and fuzzy logic and optimizes your sensor usage by tracking redundant monitoring of some aspects of your system.

Similar Sensors Detection

You can adjust the depth of the similar sensors detection or turn it off under Setup | System Administration | Monitoring.

Similar Sensors Detection Settings

Similar Sensors Detection Settings

You can also enable or disable the similar sensors detection for specific probes, groups, and devices, and specify inheritance in the object's settings, section Advanced Network Analysis.

Activation of the Similar Sensors Detection

Activation of the Similar Sensors Detection

There are two options to view similar sensors:

  • Via the Overview tab of sensors that includes a Similar Sensors section where PRTG lists channels that show similarities to channels of the selected sensor.
  • Via Sensors | Simulate Error Status in the main menu bar where you get an overview of all similar sensors.

To edit the list of similar sensors results, use the available filters.

Similar Sensors (Sensor Overview Tab)

Probe, group, device, and sensor pages have tabs that you can use to navigate between different options. For example, you can view your network's status, view monitoring results, or change settings.

Tabs Bar for Sensors

Tabs Bar for Sensors

On the Overview tab of a sensor, PRTG lists channels that show similarities to channels of the selected sensor. The table is empty if PRTG detects no similarities to the selected sensor.

i_round_bluePRTG shows similar sensors here when channels have 85% similarity or more. The similar sensors detection saves up to 15 entries per sensor.

Similar Sensors Section on a Sensor's Overview Tab

Similar Sensors Section on a Sensor's Overview Tab

The Similar Sensors section provides the following information.

Column Header

Description

Similarity

Shows the similarity between two channels in percent.

Channel

Shows a channel of the selected sensor.

Similar Channel

Shows a channel of a sensor that is similar to the channel of the selected sensor that you can see in the Channel column in the same row.

i_round_bluePRTG does not show the Similar Sensors section when the analysis is disabled or when you exceed 1,000 sensors and select the Manage automatically based on sensor count (default) option as Analysis Depth in the Monitoring settings. In this case, you see the following notice:

Similar Sensors Detection Notice

Similar Sensors Detection Notice

Similar Sensors Overview (Sensors Menu)

This page shows the results of the similar sensors detection from the entire monitoring database. PRTG lists all channels with similarities here. Above the table, there are several filter options to display similar sensors as required. Select the object of interest, the degree of similarity, and display back references.

i_square_cyanFor more information, see section Working with Table Lists.

i_round_blueThe analysis of similar sensors requires sensor data from at least seven days to have enough data for comparison. If not enough data is available, no data is shown on the Similar Sensors Overview or in the Similar Sensors section on a sensor's Overview tab.

i_round_bluePRTG shows similar sensors here when channels have at least 85% similarity. Furthermore, the analysis saves up to 15 entries per sensor.

Similar Sensors Overview

Similar Sensors Overview

You can click the column headers to sort the list. The Similar Sensors Overview provides the following information.

Column Header

Description

Original Channel

Shows channels that other channels are compared to. Click the column header to sort the list according to the order in the device tree in ascending or descending order.

Similarity

Shows the similarity between two channels in percent. Click the column header to sort the list according to the similarities in ascending or descending order.

Similar Channel

Shows a channel that is similar compared to the original channel. Click the column header to sort the list according to the order in the device tree in ascending or descending order.

i_round_bluePRTG does not show the Similar Sensors Overview item in the main menu bar if you disable the analysis or if you exceed 1,000 sensors and select the Manage automatically based on sensor count (default) option as Analysis Depth in the Monitoring settings.

Adjust the Similar Sensors Overview to Your Needs

You can use various filters to adjust the results in the Similar Sensors Overview. Click Show Filters and edit the filters that appear.

Filters for the Similar Sensors Analysis

Filters for the Similar Sensors Analysis

Filter

Description

Filter By Object

Select the device, probe, or group that you want the Similar Sensors Detection to cover. This way, you can apply the analysis to the parts of your network that you are interested in.

Filter By Maximum Similarity

Select a degree of similarity from 85% to 100%.

Inverted Relationships

If you select Show, PRTG shows all similarity relationships, that is, A matches B and B matches A.

If you select Hide, PRTG only shows A matches B relationships. This reduces the number of displayed similar sensors.