New Features in PRTG 7.1 (Part 5): "Automatic Probe Updating"

How does it work?

Whenever a new version of PRTG is installed on the core server all remote probes will automatically download and install the updated version of the probe as soon as they reconnect to the updated core. Here is a screenshot of the "Devices" page of a PRTG installation shortly after the restart of a core server that has been updated to the latest PRTG version: The local probe has already been updated during the core installation. All other probes are automatically downloading the new binaries of the "PRTG probe" using the SSL-secured probe/core connection. The download of the 4 MB file takes between a few seconds (in LANs) and a few minutes (over WAN connections), depending on the available bandwidth. As soon as the update has been downloaded the probe disconnects, installs the update and reconnects to the core server. This takes between 20 and 100 seconds. Please note that during the update phase the monitoring of the local probe can be affected due to the bandwidth required for the downloads.

You will love this feature just like we do!

During development and testing of version 7.1 we have learned to love this feature. Our team is running numerous test installations of PRTG inside our labs and scattered around the globe in various data centers. All of them have at least 5 or more remote probes. Until the auto-update feature was implemented it was a lot of tedious work to update all our test installations including all probes: We had to "remote-desktop" into all probe computers in order to perform the update manually (this could easily take 3-5 minutes per probe). A nice sample is the test server of our Chief Architect Jens Rupp: His PRTG core server runs on a VPS server in the USA and has 60 remote probes located in Europe. After installation of the latest PRTG version the automatic update of all 60 probes takes less than 12 minutes - without any human intervention!