PRTG Manual: Business Process Sensor

Channels

This sensor does not officially support more than 50 channels.

IPv6

This sensor supports IPv6.

Performance impact

This sensor has a medium performance impact.

Lookups

This sensor uses lookups to determine the status values of one or more channels.

Knowledge Base

Knowledge Base: How does the Business Process sensor calculate summarized sensor states?

Channel Name

Enter a name for the channel. To add a new channel to this sensor, click the Enter Channel Name field, enter a name for the channel, and confirm with the Enter or Tab key.

It might take several sensor scans until new channel names or changes to channel names become visible.

Error Threshold %

Set a percentage limit to define when the channel displays the Down status. Enter an integer. The default value is 50%.

This value depends on how many objects you feed into a Business Process channel.

If the percentage of source objects in the "up" condition is less than the error threshold defines, the channel and the Global State channel of the Business Process sensor show the Down status.

PRTG maps the following sensor states to the "up" condition for a Business Process channel:

• Up
• Warning
• Unusual
• Down (Partial)

PRTG maps all other sensor states to the "down" condition (see Up and Down Conditions).

For example, if you define 4 source sensors for a channel, an error threshold of 50% means that 3 source sensors must be in the "down" condition to set this channel to the Down status. So, 50% means that more than half of the source sensors must not be in the "up" condition to set the sensor to the Down status.

For more information, an illustration of the business process mechanisms, and some use cases for the Business Process sensor, see the table below and the Knowledge Base: How can I use the Business Process sensor?

Warning Threshold %

Set a percentage limit to define when the channel displays the Warning status. Enter an integer. The default value is 75%.

This value depends on how many objects you feed into a Business Process channel.

If the percentage of source objects in the "up" condition is less than the threshold defines, the channel and the Global State channel of the Business Process sensor show the Warning status.

PRTG maps the following sensor states to the "up" condition for a Business Process channel:

• Up
• Warning
• Unusual
• Down (Partial)

PRTG maps all other sensor states to the "down" condition (see Up and Down Conditions).

For example, if you define 4 source sensors for a channel, a warning threshold of 75% means that all 4 source sensors must be in the "down" condition to set this channel to the Warning status. So, 75% means that more than three out of four of the source sensors must not be in the "up" condition to set the sensor to the Warning status.

For more information, an illustration of the business process mechanisms, and some use cases for the Business Process sensor, see the table below and the Knowledge Base: How can I use the Business Process sensor?

Objects

Enter the objects that you want to have in a channel by clicking . This way, you can select the desired objects from the device tree with the object selector. You can also start to type the object's ID, name, or a tag. PRTG then suggests the possible objects.

You can add sensors, devices, groups, and probes to a channel. Each object you add is weighted equally, no matter if it is a single sensor or a device with many sensors. To give more weight to a specific object, add it several times. For example, add the object twice to give double weight to it, add it three times to give it triple weight.

A probe, group, or device is in the "up" condition as long as it does not contain any sensors in the "down" condition .

Up

Up

The monitored object works, so everything is fine.

Warning

Up

The sensor might show a warning, but the monitored object still works.

Down (Partial)

Up

This status is available in a cluster and is displayed if at least one cluster node reports the sensor as in the Up status and at least one cluster node reports it as in the Down status. With at least one Up report, the monitored object is supposed to be working and meets the Business Process "up" condition.

Unusual

Up

The sensor might show unusual values, but the monitored object works.

Collecting

Up

The sensor is still waiting for more monitoring data to definitely decide on the sensor status, but so far the monitored object works. This PRTG internal status is visualized as the Unknown status in the PRTG web interface.

Down

Down

The monitored object does not work.

Unknown

Down

The sensor does not know if the monitored object works, for example because it has not yet received any data or because it has not received any data for a certain amount of time.

None

Down

The sensor has not yet received any monitoring data from the monitored object. This PRTG internal status is visualized as the Unknown status in the PRTG web interface.

Paused

Down

The monitored object does not work and monitoring has been paused, for example actively by the user, by inheritance, or by schedules. It might be convenient to exclude regularly or frequently paused objects from your business process monitoring, so you do not give more weight than necessary to a Business Process "down" condition because of issues you already know about.

Down (Acknowledged)

Down

The monitored object does not work and someone already knows.

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.

You can set a different primary channel later by clicking below a channel gauge on the sensor's Overview tab.

Graph Type

Define how this sensor shows different channels:

• Show channels independently (default): Show a graph for each channel.
• Stack channels on top of each other: Stack channels on top of each other to create a multi-channel graph. This generates a graph that visualizes the different components of your total traffic.
  You cannot use this option in combination with manual Vertical Axis Scaling (available in the channel settings).

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.

[Channel]

The summarized status of the objects contained in each channel according to the individually defined error and warning thresholds

• Up status: Up
• Warning status: Warning
• Down status: Down
• Unknown status: Inactive

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.

The Business Process sensor never shows values in the Downtime channel because they cannot be calculated for this sensor.

Global State

The overall and summarized status of all channels in the Global State channel

• Up status: Up
• Warning status: Warning
• Down status: Down
• Unknown status: Inactive

This channel is the primary channel by default.