Active Directory monitoring with PRTG

Active Directory monitoring involves the continuous tracking and analysis of activities within the Active Directory (AD) environment. It includes monitoring user logins, changes to user accounts, group memberships, and other AD-related events. The goal is to ensure the security and integrity of the directory service, identify potential security threats or unauthorized access, and respond promptly to any suspicious or anomalous activities.

Active Directory (AD) monitoring is essential for maintaining the security, performance, and compliance of your IT environment. Here are several reasons why you should use AD monitoring:

• AD monitoring helps in detecting unauthorized access attempts and unusual activities, such as repeated failed logon attempts or access to sensitive data.

• It provides visibility into the activities of privileged accounts, ensuring that any misuse or abuse can be quickly identified and mitigated.

• It tracks changes to critical objects, such as user accounts, groups, account lockouts, and organizational units (OUs). This helps in spotting any unauthorized or suspicious changes that could indicate a security breach.

• Many industries have strict regulatory requirements for data protection and access control (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA, SOX). AD monitoring helps in ensuring compliance by providing detailed logs and reports on access and changes.

• Comprehensive audit trails of user activity, access, and changes make it easier to demonstrate compliance during audits and to investigate any compliance-related issues.

• When issues arise, AD monitoring provides detailed information that helps in quickly identifying the root cause and resolving the problem efficiently.

• Monitoring provides visibility into user account creations, deletions, and modifications, ensuring that accounts are managed properly.

• Active Directory health monitoring provides a centralized view of all activities within the AD environment, making it easier to manage and secure.

• Real-time alerts on critical events ensure that you are immediately aware of any issues that need urgent attention.

Yes, of course. PRTG is a comprehensive, all-in-one IT infrastructure monitoring tool that can keep an eye on your entire network. Here are some more examples:

• VPN monitoring: Monitor VPN connections and measure traffic, load, and the number of users. Identify connection problems and suspicious traffic.
• Ping monitoring: Use ping to check the availability of all your network devices. If the ping fails, you will be notified immediately.
• VoIP monitoring: Monitor the quality of your VoIP connections. By preventing malfunctions and verifying service level agreements, you’ll save time and money.
• SSL monitoring: Determine the extent to which your connections are protected. You can therefore learn if your connections are strong, weak, or not protected at all.

In PRTG, “sensors” are the basic monitoring elements. One sensor usually monitors one measured value in your network, for example the traffic of a switch port, the CPU load of a server, or the free space on a disk drive.

On average, you need about 5-10 sensors per device or one sensor per switch port.