Hardware Monitoring
Keep Control of Your Network Using the PRTG Hardware Monitoring Software
PRTG Network Monitor is a powerful complete network monitoring solution. It tracks bandwidth usage, network speed, and is also a great hardware monitoring tool: it checks whether your routers, network printers, and servers are connected to the network, monitors memory and CPU load, disk space, disk health, etc. The exact parameters that the PRTG hardware monitoring tools are able to read and display depend on your hardware. While SNMP and WMI make CPU monitoring and RAM monitoring easy for all computers, it depends on the motherboard whether CPU temperature etc. can be monitored.
Hardware Monitoring Using PRTG
Computer monitoring begins with a basic PING test: The PRTG hardware monitoring software checks whether all servers and workstations are available. If the PING test fails, the device might be switched off, down, or the reason might just be an unplugged or broken cable, or a failure in the network connection. As the hardware monitor utility alerts you as soon as a PING fails, you will be able to troubleshoot network and hardware problems before they cause serious losses.
Monitoring CPU and RAM
Monitoring CPU load and memory monitoring are important parts of server hardware monitoring, as they will warn you if the load on one of your servers is getting too high. This way, you can redistribute loads before they slow down your network or result in server faults.
Disk Monitoring
Monitoring your hard disks is also important: the PRTG disk space monitor alerts you when you are running low on disk space, avoiding data losses, and improving network performance.
Other Hardware
The hardware monitoring tools can also monitor network printer data, i.e. they do not only check whether a printer is available, but can also track toner level, number of pages printed, or check for specific error messages. PRTG can further monitor switches, routers, the temperature or humidity in your data center, and other hardware that supports SNMP.
The PRTG hardware monitoring software is available in two editions. For basic, free network and server hardware monitoring, the Freeware Edition may be downloaded and used for personal and commercial use completely free of charge. For more advanced needs, licenses for the Commercial Editions start at $400 / €300.