PRTG Manual: Hyper-V Virtual Machine Sensor
The Hyper-V Virtual Machine sensor monitors a virtual machine (VM) that runs on a Microsoft Hyper-V host server via Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) or Windows performance counters, as configured in the Windows Compatibility Options of the parent device.
Hyper-V Virtual Machine Sensor
For a detailed list and descriptions of the channels that this sensor can show, see section Channel List.
- Dutch: Virtuele Hyper-V-Machine
- French: Hyper-V machine virtuelle
- German: Hyper-V Virtuelle Maschine
- Japanese: Hyper-V 仮想マシン
- Portuguese: Máquina virtual Hyper-V
- Russian: Виртуальная машина Hyper-V
- Simplified Chinese: Hyper-V 虚拟机
- Spanish: Máquina virtual Hyper-V
Consider the following remarks and requirements for this sensor:
Remark |
Description |
|---|---|
Performance impact |
This sensor has a high performance impact. We recommend that you use no more than 200 of this sensor on each probe. |
Windows version |
This sensor requires at least Windows Server 2008 R2 on the probe system (on every cluster node, if on a cluster probe).
|
Remote Registry Windows service |
This sensor requires that the Remote Registry Windows service runs on the target system.
|
Parent device |
This sensor requires that the parent device is a Windows server that runs Hyper-V. |
Credentials |
This sensor requires credentials for Windows systems.
Otherwise, a connection via performance counters is not possible. However, WMI connections might still work. |
Live migration |
This sensor does not support Live Migration. |
IPv6 |
This sensor supports IPv6. |
VM monitoring |
To monitor a VM with this sensor, disable User Account Control (UAC) in the control panel of the Windows operating system that runs on this VM. Otherwise, the sensor might change to the Down status and show the error message The virtual machine is not running or is powered off. |
Unsupported characters |
Make sure that the names of your VMs do not contain unsupported characters, especially avoid the number sign (#). We recommend that you not rename VMs once you have set up monitoring. For more information, see the Knowledge Base: Why don't my Hyper-V sensors work after changing names? |
Hosted probe |
|
Hybrid Approach: Performance Counters and WMI
By default, this sensor uses WMI to request monitoring data. You can change the default behavior to a hybrid approach in the Windows Compatibility Options of the parent device's settings on which you create this sensor: if you choose this option, the sensor first tries to query data via Windows performance counters and uses WMI as a fallback if performance counters are not available. When running in fallback mode, the sensor tries to connect via performance counters again after 24 hours.
Sensors that use the WMI protocol have a high impact on the system performance. Try to stay below 200 WMI sensors per probe. Above this number, consider using multiple remote probes for load balancing.
For a general introduction to the technology behind WMI, see section Monitoring via WMI.
Basic Sensor Settings
The sensor has the following default tags that are automatically predefined in the sensor's settings when you add the sensor:
- wmihypervsensor
For more information about basic sensor settings, see section Sensor Settings.
Virtual Machine Settings
Setting |
Description |
|---|---|
GUID |
The globally unique identifier (GUID) of the VM that this sensor monitors. |
Virtual Machine Name |
The name of the VM that this sensor monitors. |
Description |
The description of the VM that this sensor monitors. |
Powered-Off VM Handling |
Define how the sensor reacts to VMs that are powered off:
|
Result Handling |
Define what PRTG does with the sensor result:
|
Sensor Display
Setting |
Description |
|---|---|
Primary Channel |
Select a channel from the list to define it as the primary channel. In the device tree, PRTG displays the last value of the primary channel below the sensor's name. The available options depend on what channels are available for this sensor.
|
Graph Type |
Define how this sensor shows different channels:
|
Stack Unit |
This setting is only visible if you select Stack channels on top of each other above. Select a unit from the list. PRTG stacks all channels with this unit on top of each other. By default, you cannot exclude single channels from stacking if they use the selected unit. However, there is an advanced procedure to do so. |
By default, all of these settings are inherited from objects that are higher in the hierarchy. We recommend that you change them centrally in the root group settings if necessary. To change a setting for this object only, click 
under the corresponding setting name to disable the inheritance and to display its options.
For more information, see section Inheritance of Settings.
Which channels the sensor actually shows might depend on the target device, the available components, and the sensor setup.
Channel |
Description |
|---|---|
CPU Usage Guest |
The CPU usage of the guests (%) |
CPU Usage Hypervisor |
The CPU usage of the hypervisor (%) |
CPU Usage Total |
The total CPU usage
|
Downtime |
In the channel table on the Overview tab, this channel never shows any values. PRTG uses this channel in graphs and reports to show the amount of time in which the sensor was in the Down status. |
IDE: Read Bytes/Sec |
The disk read speed of the IDE |
IDE: Write Bytes/Sec |
The disk write speed of the IDE |
KNOWLEDGE BASE
Why don't my Hyper-V sensors work after changing names?
What security features does PRTG include?
