FTP Monitoring with PRTG

FTP, or File Transfer Protocol, is a standard network protocol. It is designed to enable the transfer of files between two computers over a TCP/IP network, such as the Internet. FTP typically involves a client (the computer requesting the file) and a server (the computer hosting the file).

FTP allows users to upload files from their local system to a remote server and download files from a remote server to their local system. It uses a control connection to manage the session and send commands from the client to the server. A separate data connection is used to transfer the actual files. FTP can operate in active or passive mode, determining how the data connection is established.

For more security, you have the following options:

• Secure FTP (FTPS): Adds SSL/TLS encryption to protect the data during transfer.
• SFTP: FTP over SSH, providing a secure channel for file transfer, different from FTPS in implementation.Put some clear and concise content in here. Keep your reader in mind. What are they trying to do? What are they hoping to learn? Why are they reading this? Help them out and use the tone and voice of your organization.

FTP monitoring involves the continuous observation and analysis of FTP server activity to ensure the server's health, performance, and security. Here are some key aspects of FTP monitoring:

• Performance monitoring: Ensures the FTP server is running efficiently and can handle the required load.
• Security: Detects unauthorized access attempts and suspicious activities to protect sensitive data.
• Server availability: Ensures the FTP server is accessible when needed, minimizing downtime.
• Connection attempts: Monitors the number and type of connection attempts, helping to identify unauthorized access.
• Transfer rates: Measures the speed of file uploads and downloads, indicating performance issues.
• Active sessions: Tracks the number of active user sessions to manage load and detect anomalies.
• File integrity: Ensures that files transferred are not corrupted or altered during transfer.
• Log analysis: Monitors FTP server logs to track user activity, errors, and other significant events.
• User activity: Tracks user actions, such as file uploads and downloads, to ensure compliance and detect unauthorized access.

PRTG is a proprietary network monitoring tool that also tracks the health and performance of your FTP servers. Available for Windows-based on-premises servers or as a cloud-hosted solution, it's capable of monitoring unlimited local, remote, and virtual devices, bringing critical system data together in one simple, intuitive interface you can access from anywhere: at the office, at home, or on the go.

Pick a sensor, create a username and password for authentication, and save them in the sensor's settings to allow it to connect to the FTP server. Once setup is complete, you can customize several parameters, including whether to use SSL or TLS encryption, query intervals, and whether the sensor should count all the files on the FTP server or only those that have been added since the last query. 

You can connect PRTG to Linux and Unix SFTP servers using FTP over SSH. Enter the server's IP address or DNS name, as well as its credentials into PRTG's monitoring environment (ideally giving PRTG root access), set up an SSH sensor, and connect it to the server. The sensor will monitor the server's response time and alert you if it falls below a pre-established threshold. 

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.