PRTG Manual: System Requirements
In order to install and work with PRTG Network Monitor you need:
- A PC server or virtual machine with roughly the CPU performance of an average PC built in the year 2007 or later and minimum 1024 RAM memory. For cluster installations, use systems with similar performance.
- Operating system Microsoft Windows XP, Windows 2003 SP1 or later, Windows 2008 R2, or Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit). You can also use Windows Vista or 2008 R1, but we recommend not to use these systems, as there are known performance issues related to them.
- Web browser to access the web interface (Google Chrome is recommended; Firefox 4 or later, and Internet Explorer 9 were also tested).
Planning an Installation With Hundreds of Sensors or More?
As a rule of thumb an average PC/server built in the year 2007 or later should be able to monitor 1,000 sensors with ease. Some exceptions apply for version 3 of Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) and packet sniffer. The maximum number of sensors you can monitor with one installation of PRTG mainly depends on the monitoring technology and the monitoring intervals you use:
- SNMP V1 and V2, Ping, Port, and HTTP
These sensor types are recommended for scenarios with thousands of sensors. With these technologies up to 20,000 sensors are possible. - SNMP V3
You will be able to monitor between 60 and 6,000 SNMP V3 sensors with an interval of 60 seconds (depending on request times in your network). - WMI
Try to keep the number of WMI sensors per probe below 120 sensors (with 60s interval), or 600 sensors (with 300s interval). - xFlow (NetFlow, sFlow)
Monitoring the maximum number of sensors depends on the traffic pattern, the number of xFlow packets per second received by the PRTG probe, as well as the performance of the probe system (see site planner tool linked in the More section below). - Packet Sniffer
These sensors create the highest CPU load on the probe system. This technology is only recommended for monitoring of low traffic connections (<50 Mbit/s steady stream). When traffic is often over 10 Mbit/s a dedicated remote probe should be used. - VMware Monitoring
Monitoring of VMware is limited to about 20 sensors at a 60 seconds monitoring interval, or 100 sensors at a 5 minutes interval. These limitations issue from the VMware platform. A registry hack is available to boost this to 150 sensors at a 5 minutes interval (this will require a change in the ESX/vCenter configuration). For details please see More section below.
To overcome any limitations mentioned above you should distribute the sensors over two remote probes or more. For detailed information please use the site planner tool to plan large installations. See More section below.
For more information please see the Detailed System Requirements section.
Knowledge Base: Planning Large Installations of PRTG Network Monitor
Paessler website: Paessler PRTG Site Planner Tool
Knowledge Base: How can I speed up PRTG—especially for large installations?
Knowledge Base: Increasing Maximum Connections for VMware Sensors
Keywords:
