PRTG Manual: Add a Device

Device Name

Enter a meaningful name to identify the device. The name will be shown by default in the device tree and in all alarms.

IP Version

Define which IP protocol PRTG will use to connect to this device. The setting is valid for all sensors created on this device. Choose between:

• Connect using IPv4: Use IP version 4 for all requests to this device.

• Connect using IPv6: Use IP version 6 for all requests to this device.

IP Address/DNS Name

Enter the IP address (either v4 or v6, depending on your selection above) or DNS name for the device. Most sensors created on this device will inherit this setting and they will try to connect to this address for monitoring. Note: There are some sensor types that still have their own setting for IP address/DNS name. Those sensors will use their own settings.

Tags

Enter one or more tags, separated by space or comma. You can use tags to group sensors and use tag-filtered views later on. Tags are not case sensitive. We recommend using the default value. You can add additional tags to it, if you like. Tags are automatically inherited.

Device Icon

Choose a device icon from the list. It will be shown in the device tree.

Sensor Management

Select which type of auto-discovery you would like to perform for this device. Choose between:

• Manual (no auto-discovery): Do not auto-discover any sensors, but only add sensors manually.
• Automatic device identification (standard, recommended): Use a small set of auto-discovery templates. This will scan your LAN and usually create a view standard sensors on your device.
• Automatic device identification (detailed, may create many sensors: Use an extended set of auto-discovery templates. This will scan your LAN and usually create many sensors on your device.
• Automatic sensor creation using specific device templates: Use specific auto-discovery templates only. Please select templates below. This will scan your LAN and add sensors defined in the template.

Discovery Schedule

This option is only visible if one of the auto-discovery options is selected above. Define when the auto-discovery will be run. Choose between:

• Once: Perform auto-discovery only once. For existing devices, this will initiate a one-time sensor update for the current device.
• Hourly: Perform auto-discovery for new sensors every hour.
• Daily: Perform auto-discovery for new sensors every day.
• Weekly: Perform auto-discovery for new sensors every week.

Device Template(s)

This option is only visible if using specific device templates (last option) is enabled above. Please choose one or more templates by adding a check mark in front of the respective template name. These will be used for auto-discovery on the current device. Choose from:

• Cisco Device (Generic)
• DNS Server
• FTP Server
• Generic Device (PING only)
• Generic Device (SNMP-enabled)
• Generic Device (SNMP-enabled, Detailed)
• HTTP Web Server
• Hyper V Host Server
• Linux/UNIX Device (SNMP or SSH enabled)
• Mail Server (Generic)
• Mail Server (MS Exchange)
• NTP Server
• Printer (HP)
• RDP Server
• Server (Compaq/HP agents)
• Switch (Cisco Catalyst)
• Switch (Cisco IOS Based)
• Switch (HP Procurve)
• UNIX/Linux Device
• UPS (APC)
• Virtuozzo Server
• VMware ESX Server
• Windows (Detailed via WMI)
• Windows (via WMI)
• Windows IIS (via SNMP)
• XEN Server

Domain or Computer Name

Define the authority for Windows access. This is used for Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) and other Windows sensors. If you want to use a Windows local user account on the target device, please enter the computer name here. If you want to use a Windows domain user account (recommended), please enter the (Active Directory) domain name here. If not explicitly defined, PRTG will automatically add a prefix in order to use the NT LAN Manager (NTLM) protocol. Please do not leave this field empty.

Username

Enter the username for Windows access. Usually, you will use credentials with administrator privileges.

Password

Enter the password for Windows access. Usually, you will use credentials with administrator privileges.

Username

Enter a login name for the access via SSH and WBEM. Usually, you will use credentials with administrator privileges.

Login

Define which authentication method will be used for login. Choose between:

• Login via Password: Provide a password for login. Enter below.

• Login via Private Key: Provide a private key for authentication. Note: PRTG can only handle keys in OpenSSH format which are not encrypted. You cannot use password protected keys here. In the text field, please paste the entire private key, including the "BEGIN" and "END" lines. Please make sure the according public key is provided on the target machine. For details, please see Monitoring via SSH.

Password

This field is only visible if password login is selected above. Enter a password for the Linux access via SSH and WBEM. Usually, you will use credentials with administrator privileges.

Private Key

This field is only visible if private key login is selected above. Paste a private key into the field (OpenSSH format, unencrypted). Usually, you will use credentials with administrator privileges. Note: If you do not insert a private key for the first time, but change the private key, you need to restart your PRTG core server service in order for the private key change to take effect! For details, please see Monitoring via SSH.

For WBEM Use Protocol

Define the protocol that will be used for WBEM. This setting is only relevant when using WBEM sensors. Choose between:

• HTTP: Use an unencrypted connection for WBEM.
• HTTPS: Use an SSL-encrypted connection for WBEM.

For WBEM Use Port

Define the port that will be used for WBEM. This setting is only relevant when using WBEM sensors. Choose between:

• Set automatically (port 5988 or 5989): Use one of the standard ports, depending on whether unencrypted or encrypted connection is chosen above.
• Set manually: Use a custom port. Define below.

WBEM Port

This setting is only visible if manual port selection is enabled above. Enter the WBEM port number.

SSH Port

Please define the port number which will be used for SSH connections. Note: By default, this setting is automatically used for all SSH sensors, unless you define a different port number in the sensor settings.

User

Enter a login name for access to VMware and XEN servers. Usually, you will use credentials with administrator privileges.

Password

Enter a password for access to VMware and XEN servers. Usually, you will use credentials with administrator privileges.

Protocol

Define the protocol used for the connection to VMware and XenServer. Choose between:

• HTTPS (recommended): Use an SSL-encrypted connection to VMware and XenServers.
• HTTP: Use an unencrypted connection to VMware and XenServers.

SNMP Version

Select the SNMP version that will be used for device connection. Choose between:

• v1: Use the simple standard v1 protocol for SNMP connections. This protocol only offers clear-text data transmission, but it is usually supported by all devices.
• v2c: Use the more advanced v2c protocol for SNMP connections. Data is still transferred as clear-text, but it supports 64-bit counters.
• v3: Use the latest v3 protocol for SNMP connections. It provides secure authentication and data encryption.

Note for SNMP v3: Due to internal limitations you can only monitor a limited number of sensors per second using SNMP v3. The limit is somewhere between 1 and 50 sensors per second (depending on the SNMP latency of your network). This means that using an interval of 60 seconds you are limited to between 60 and 3000 SNMP v3 sensors for each probe. If you experience an increased "Interval Delay" or "Open Requests" reading of the probe health sensor you need to distribute the load over multiple probes. SNMP v1 and v2 do not have this limitation.

Community String

This setting is only visible if SNMP version v1 or v2c are enabled above. Enter the community string of your devices. This is a kind of "clear-text password" used for simple authentication. We recommend using the default value.

Authentication Type

This setting is only visible if SNMP version v3 is enabled above. Choose between:

• MD5: Use Message-Digest Algorithm 5 (MD5) for authentication.
• SHA: Use Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) for authentication.

Your device must be set to the same value.

User

This setting is only visible if SNMP version v3 is enabled above. Enter a username for secure authentication. Your device must be set to the same value.

Password

This setting is only visible if SNMP version v3 is enabled above. Enter a password for secure authentication. Your device must be set to the same value.

Data Encryption Key (DES)

This setting is only visible if SNMP version v3 is enabled above. Enter a Data Encryption Standard (DES) key here. If you provide a key in this field, SNMP data packets will be enrypted using the DES encryption algorithm, providing increased security. Your device must be set to the same value. Note: If the key entered in this field does not match the key configured in the target SNMP device you will not get an error message! Please enter a string or leave the field empty.

SNMP Port

Enter the port used for SNMP communication. We recommend using the default value.

SNMP Timeout (sec.)

Enter a timeout in seconds for the request. If the reply takes longer than this value the request is aborted and an error message is triggered.

Access Rights

User Group Access

Define which user group(s) will have access to the object you're editing. A table with user groups and right is shown; it contains all user groups from your setup. For each user group you can choose from the following access rights:

• Inherited: Use the settings of the parent object.
• None: Users in this group cannot see or edit the object. The object does not show up in lists and in the device tree. Exception: If a child object is visible to the user, the object is visible in the device tree, though not accessible.
• Read: Users in this group can see the object and review its monitoring results.
• Write: Users in this group can see the object, review its monitoring results, and edit the object's settings. They cannot edit access rights settings.
• Full: Users in this group can see the object, review its monitoring results, edit the object's settings, and edit access rights settings.

You can create new user groups in the System Administration—User Groups settings. To automatically set all objects further down in the hierarchy to inherit this object's access rights, set a check mark for the Revert children's access rights to inherited option.