PRTG Manual: Monitoring

Available Intervals

Define the scanning intervals available in the dropdown list of every object's settings. In the text field, enter one value in each line. Use s, m, h, and d to define seconds, minutes, hours, and days. By default, the following scanning intervals are available:

• 30s: 30 seconds
• 1m: 60 seconds
• 5m: 5 minutes
• 10m: 10 minutes
• 15m: 15 minutes
• 30m: 30 minutes
• 1h: 1 hour
• 4h: 4 hours
• 6h: 6 hours
• 12h: 12 hours
• 1d: 24 hours

We recommend that you do not use scanning intervals that are below 10 seconds to prevent system overload. Scanning intervals that are below 10 seconds are not officially supported. The maximum supported scanning interval is 10 days.

PRTG might convert values that you enter to a more readable equivalent of the values. For example, if you enter 24h (24 hours), PRTG displays this as 1d (one day) in the dropdown list in the object settings.

Valid values are positive integers followed by s, m, h, and d. You can also define specific points in time to indicate when PRTG executes scanning actions. Enter up to 50 concrete Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) points in time according to the formula @ UTC hh:mm , hh:mm. You do not need to use a space before and/or after the comma. However, PRTG always saves the entries with a space both before and after the comma.

Your local time might be different from the UTC time.

For more information on how to set specific points in time as a scanning time for sensors, see the Knowledge Base: Can I set a sensor to run at a specific time?

Show Unusual When

Define when a sensor shows the Unusual status by comparing the day of the week. If you enable this unusual detection, the average of the values that were measured on the day before is compared to the average of the same day of the week in previous weeks. Choose from:

• Never: Disable unusual detection for weekday average.
• 24h average is <80% or >120% of weekday average: Show the Unusual status when the average of the values measured on the day before is either lower than 80% or higher than 120% than usual on the same weekday.
• 24h average is <50% or >200% of weekday average: Show the Unusual status when the average of the values measured on the day before is either lower than 50% or higher than 200% than usual on the same weekday.
• 24h average is <20% or >500% of weekday average (recommended): Show the Unusual status when the average of the values measured on the day before is either lower than 20% or higher than 500% than usual on the same weekday.
• 24h average is <10% or >1,000% of weekday average: Show the Unusual status when the average of the values measured on the day before is either lower than 10% or higher than 1,000% than usual on the same weekday.
• 24h average is <1% or >10,000% of weekday average: Show the Unusual status when the average of the values measured on the day before is either lower than 1% or higher than 10,000% than usual on the same weekday.

For example, consider a traffic sensor that usually measures 100 MB of average traffic on a weekday. If you choose the first option, the sensor shows the Unusual status if the average from the day before is lower than 80 MB or higher than 120 MB.

Show Unusual When

Define when a sensor shows the Unusual status by comparing the hour of the day. If you enable this unusual detection, the average of the values that were measured in the hour before is compared to the average of the same hour on the same day of the week in previous weeks. Choose from:

• Never: Disable unusual detection for hour-of-day average.
• Hourly average is <80% or >120% of hour-of-day average: Show the Unusual status when the average of the values measured in the hour before is either lower than 80% or higher than 120% than usual in this hour of this weekday.
• Hourly average is <50% or >200% of hour-of-day average: Show the Unusual status when the average of the values measured in the hour before is either lower than 50% or higher than 200% than usual in this hour of this weekday.
• Hourly average is <20% or >500% of hour-of-day average (recommended): Show the Unusual status when the average of the values measured in the hour before is either lower than 20% or higher than 500% than usual in this hour of this weekday.
• Hourly average is <10% or >1,000% of hour-of-day average: Show the Unusual status when the average of the values measured in the hour before is either lower than 10% or higher than 1,000% than usual in this hour of this weekday.
• Hourly average is <1% or >10,000% of hour-of-day average: Show the Unusual status when the average of the values measured in the hour before is either lower than 1% or higher than 10,000% than usual in this hour of this weekday.

Consider a traffic sensor that usually measures 10 MB average traffic within an hour. If you choose the first option, the sensor would show the Unusual status if the average from the hour before is below 8 MB or above 12 MB.

Log Unusual Events

Define if you also want to record unusual events and display them on the Log tab of a sensor that shows the Unusual status:

• Do not log unusual events
• Log and display unusual events on a sensor's Log tab

Analysis Depth

Define the number of channels that PRTG analyzes to detect similarities between sensors, or disable the analysis. The analysis depth depends on the total number of sensors you have. Choose from:

• Manage automatically based on sensor count (recommended): Analyze all channels for up to 500 sensors and only the primary channels for up to 1,000 sensors. For more than 1,000 sensors, PRTG disables the analysis.

This is the default setting in PRTG Network Monitor.

• Analyze only primary channels: Only analyze the primary channels.
  Be aware of potentially high CPU load on the PRTG core server system if your PRTG installation has more than 1,000 sensors.
• Analyze all channels (higher CPU load): Analyze all channels.
  Be aware of potentially high CPU load on the PRTG core server system if your PRTG installation has more than 500 sensors.
• Disable detection of similar sensors: Do not detect similarities. Select this option if you are not interested in the analysis results or if you want to keep the CPU load on the PRTG core server system to a minimum.

This is the default setting in PRTG Hosted Monitor.

Detection Handling

Define if you want PRTG to analyze your devices and to recommend useful sensors:

• Manage automatically based on sensor count (recommended): Run the detection engine for installations with up to 5,000 sensors. If you exceed this threshold, PRTG disables the detection engine for performance reasons.
  We recommend that you select this option so that you do not miss any important monitoring data about your network, without risking running into performance issues.
• Always show recommended sensors: Always analyze your devices even if your installation exceeds 5,000 sensors and if you never want to miss any suggestion to complete your monitoring.
  If you select this option, keep it in mind in case you encounter performance issues.
• Disable sensor recommendations: Never recommend sensors. Select this option if you have performance issues with PRTG or if you do not want to see this information on devices' Overview tabs. Moreover, you do not see the option Recommend Now in device context menus or on Overview tabs anymore.

For more information about the Overview tab, see the Knowledge Base: What options do I have to review my monitoring data in detail?

Run Auto-Discovery At

Define the time when PRTG automatically runs an auto-discovery in your network if you configured a daily or weekly schedule in the auto-discovery group settings. Select a full hour.

• 00:00 - 23:00

We recommend that you choose a time when there is little user activity in your network because auto-discoveries can produce a certain amount of load.

Beta Sensors

Select if you want to enable or disable sensors in beta status. Choose between:

• Disable (default): Disable sensors in beta status.
• Enable: Enable sensors in beta status.
  Beta sensors then become available in the Add Sensor dialog.

If you disable beta sensors, existing beta sensors change to the Unknown status.

PowerShell Security Enhancement

Select if you want to improve PowerShell security by hiding command-line parameters in the process explorer and the event log. Choose between:

• Enable (default): Enable PowerShell security enhancement.
  If you enable PowerShell Security Enhancement, PowerShell scripts that use the write-host cmdlet to provide their output to PRTG do not work anymore. Custom scripts only work if you use the write-output cmdlet.
  Enabling this feature can also improve the performance of PowerShell sensors.
• Disable: Disable PowerShell security enhancement.

Probe Transfer

Select if you want to allow PRTG Desktop to access a PRTG Configuration.dat file. This can be in the PRTG data directory on either the probe system that you want to transfer or the system whose configuration you want to view. PRTG Desktop requires access to the file for the Probe Transfer and Configuration Viewer features. Choose between:

• Disable (default): Disable the access to PRTG Configuration.dat for PRTG Desktop.
• Enable: Enable access to PRTG Configuration.dat for PRTG Desktop.

Minimum Uptime

Define which uptime in percent PRTG regards as 100 percent. This setting affects the colors that you see next to sensor icons in reports. Choose from:

• 90 % - 99.999 %