Comprehensive, agentless WMI monitoring, with PRTG
- Monitor Windows servers, workstations, and other Windows-based components from one place
- Use WMI monitoring sensors for agentless deployment
- Get automatically alerted about Windows availability, health, and performance issues
PRTG makes WMI monitoring easy
Custom alerts and data visualizations make it easy to monitor, identify, and prevent health and performance issues of Windows-based devices.
Windows & WMI: The cornerstone of most enterprise networks
Servers. Workstations. Applications. Intranets…
With so much riding on Windows, having in-depth health and performance data at your fingertips is a must (unless you like living dangerously).
With the Microsoft standard WMI, you can easily request information about operating system metrics, Windows process and service status, file system usage, and more, of your entire Windows environment. But manually querying your network via command prompts can be tedious…
Paessler PRTG is designed to make WMI monitoring simple at scale. Our powerful preconfigured WMI sensors work right out of the box, tracking critical stats automatically round the clock, even from remote systems – with an impact on your resources you can easily deal with.
5 reasons to choose PRTG as your WMI monitoring tool
Automatic network discovery
Setting up comprehensive WMI monitoring can be tiresome. Not with PRTG. We've built our tool to be plug and play. Install PRTG with a few clicks, and let the auto-discovery detect your WMI-enabled devices and add them to your environment while you nip out for coffee.
Real-time alerts & notifications
Pick your network monitoring parameters and let PRTG do the work. Our customizable alerting system texts you, emails you, or sends you an in-app notification as soon as a specific WMI metric falls below your chosen thresholds. Which means you can prevent issues instead of scrambling to solve them.
Complete network visibility
If it's part of your network, PRTG can keep an eye on it. Alongside WMI monitoring, you'll also have access to more than 250 preconfigured sensors for backup monitoring, bandwidth monitoring, traffic monitoring, database monitoring, and much more, plus the flexibility to create your own sensors.
Reduced resource footprint
No need to install specialized software agents on the devices you want to monitor. PRTG is agentless WMI monitoring software that uses, among other technologies, WMI queries and remote management, so it's more secure and won't hoover up precious system resources.
Free tools to test your network
You got stuck with your WMI monitoring setup? No worries here. Thanks to our free tool Paessler WMI Tester, you can quickly determine if it’s possible to access a target device from your PRTG server with WMI, and identify the root cause of WMI errors and configuration issues.
WMI stands for Windows Management Instrumentation. Designed by Microsoft, it is an infrastructure for the standardized management of data and information that is device independent. Since Windows 2000, WMI comes preinstalled with Windows operating systems.
Read more
Start monitoring using WMI with PRTG and see how it can make your network more reliable and your job easier.
What WMI monitoring looks like in PRTG
Diagnose network issues by continuously tracking servers, workstations, and other Windows machines, and applications like Microsoft IIS or Exchange. Show bandwidth usage, network traffic by IP address and protocol, CPU load, and other key metrics in real time. Visualize monitoring data in clear graphs and dashboards to identify problems more easily. Gain the visibility you need to troubleshoot bottlenecks, underperformance, authentication problems, and other Windows network-related issues.
PRTG makes WMI monitoring easy
Custom alerts and data visualizations make it easy to monitor, identify, and prevent health and performance issues of Windows-based devices.
PRTG is compatible with all major vendors, products, and systems
A WMI sensor for every variable
PRTG's sophisticated WMI sensors can track every metric you could possibly think of. Our preconfigured sensors include:
WMI Battery
The WMI Battery sensor monitors the available capacity and the state of connected batteries or uninterruptible power supplies of Windows-based devices. It can show the following:
- Battery health
- Estimated remaining charge
- Battery status
- Time until battery is empty or fully charged
- Voltage
WMI Disk Health
The WMI Disk Health sensor monitors the health of a physical disk on a Windows system. It can show the following:
- Maximum flush latency
- Health status
- Operational status
- Maximum read and write latency
WMI Event Log
The WMI Event Log sensor monitors a Windows event log file. It can show the following:
- Number of new records
- Custom status according to new log entry
WMI Free Disk Space (Multi Disk)
The WMI Free Disk Space (Multi Disk) sensor monitors the free disk space of one or more drives. It can show the following:
- Free space on specified logical partitions of a hard disk
- Total disk space
WMI Logical Disk I/O
The WMI Logical Disk I/O sensor monitors the disk usage of a logical disk or mount point on a Windows system. It can show the following:
- Average number of bytes per read, write, and transfer
- Average number of items in the read and write queue
- Average read, write, and transfer time
- Number of disk read and write I/O operations
- Disk read, write, and transfer speed and time
WMI Microsoft SQL Server 2019
The WMI Microsoft SQL Server 2019 sensor (also available for Microsoft SQL Server 2008, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017) monitors the performance of a Microsoft SQL Server.
- Average amount of wait time for each lock request that resulted in a wait
- Number of Transact-SQL command batches received
- Percentage of pages found in the buffer cache without having to read from disk
- Total amount of dynamic memory the server is using for maintaining connections
- Number of pages in the buffer pool with database content
- Number of lock requests that resulted in a deadlock
- Number of unrestricted full scans
- Total number of logins started
- And much more
WMI Service
The WMI Service sensor monitors a Windows service. It can show the following:
- CPU usage
- Number of handles
- Pagefile usage
- Execution time of the monitoring request
- Number of threads
- Working set
WMI SharePoint Process
The WMI SharePoint Process sensor monitors a Microsoft SharePoint server.
- Number of active threads
- CPU usage
- Number of current page requests
- Number of SQL queries being executed
- Global heap size
- Object cache always live size
- Template cache size
WMI Storage Pool
The WMI Storage Pool sensor can monitor the following:
- Free space
- Health status
- Operational status
WMI Vital System Data v2
The WMI Vital System Data v2 sensor can monitor the following:
- CLR memory bytes in all heaps
- Total number of bytes per second
- Committed bytes
- Number of thrown CLR exceptions
- Free physical memory
- Number of outbound packet errors
- CPU queue length
- Total visible memory
- CPU user time
Easily find the source of the problem with our PRTG WMI monitoring solution
Real-time alerts and custom notifications make it easy to solve issues such as low bandwidth, high memory load, lack of disk space, and other problems within Windows systems.
Your WMI performance monitor at a glance – even on the go
Set up PRTG in minutes and use it on almost any mobile device.
Create innovative solutions with Paessler’s partners
Partnering with innovative vendors, Paessler unleashes synergies to create
new and additional benefits for joined customers.
With ScriptRunner, Paessler integrates a powerful event automation platform into PRTG Network Monitor.
ScriptRunner
“Excellent tool for detailed monitoring. Alarms and notifications work greatly. Equipment addition is straight forward and server initial setup is very easy. ...feel safe to purchase it if you intend to monitor a large networking landscape.”
Infrastructure and Operations Engineer in the Communications Industry, firm size 10B - 30B USD
PRTG makes WMI monitoring easy
Custom alerts and data visualizations make it easy to monitor, identify, and prevent health and performance issues of Windows-based devices.
Monitor WMI: FAQ
What is WMI?
The Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is a commonly used Microsoft standard which provides detailed data during a centralized monitoring of Windows workstations and servers. The standard is based on the DCOM (Distributed Component Object Model) communication protocol and has been an integral part of all Windows operating systems since 2000.
What is WMI monitoring?
WMI – short for Windows Management Instrumentation – is a Microsoft standard that enables sysadmins to access and manage Windows hardware, software, and network components. WMI-monitoring technology like Paessler PRTG enables agentless tracking of Microsoft servers and workstations, giving you a real-time view of their health and performance.
How do I set up WMI-monitoring in PRTG?
PRTG is designed to work out of the box. That said, your system needs to meet a number of requirements for monitoring using WMI to work properly:
- Users sending requests must belong to the domain administrator group in the same Active Directory as the target device, and have remote access rights.
- Activate DCOM on the PRTG server and target device. DCOM uses UDP ports between 1024 and 5000, so make sure they're open on both the PRTG server and the target device.
- Your firewall should allow WMI requests. If the firewall is set up to group guidelines, you'll also need to activate "Enable Remote Management".
- Antivirus software and other local security programs can block WMI connections, so make sure to double-check them
- RPC servers on target devices run on port 135 by default. Make sure PRTG is set up to use it and that it's not blocked by other components.
How many WMI-monitoring sensors should I use simultaneously?
Because WMI can be resource-heavy, we recommend using a maximum of 200 WMI sensors per PRTG server, and a five-minute scanning interval. Alternatively, use hybrid sensors, which request data using Windows performance counters and/or WMI, or SNMP.
Can I monitor network traffic using WMI?
Yes, you can – with the Windows Network Card sensor in PRTG, you can monitor data packets, ingoing and outgoing traffic, and filter bandwidth usage by physical network port via WMI. For more light-weight traffic monitoring, we recommend using SNMP, however, which doesn’t put that much strain on your resources.
What is a sensor in PRTG?
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.
More than just a monitoring tool:
Reasons our customers love PRTG
PRTG: The multi-tool for sysadmins
Adapt PRTG individually and dynamically to your needs and rely on a strong API:- HTTP API: Access monitoring data and manipulate monitoring objects via HTTP requests
- Custom sensors: Create your own PRTG sensors for customized monitoring
- Custom notifications: Create your own notifications and send action triggers to external systems
- REST Custom sensor: Monitor almost everything that provides data in XML or JSON format
Paessler PRTG is used by companies of all sizes. Sysadmins love PRTG because it makes their job a whole lot easier. Bandwidth, servers, virtual environments, websites, VoIP services – PRTG keeps an eye on your entire network. Everyone has different monitoring needs. That’s why we let you try PRTG for free.Still not convinced?
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Start monitoring using WMI with PRTG and see how it can make your network more reliable and your job easier.
PRTG |
Network Monitoring Software - Version 24.4.102.1351 (November 12th, 2024) |
Hosting |
Download for Windows and cloud-based version PRTG Hosted Monitor available |
Languages |
English, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese |
Pricing |
Up to 100 sensors for free (Price List) |
Unified Monitoring |
Network devices, bandwidth, servers, applications, virtual environments, remote systems, IoT, and more |
Supported Vendors & Applications |