In order to install and work with PRTG Network Monitor you need:

Operating Systems for PRTG Core Server and PRTG Probe

The 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the following operating systems are officially supported for PRTG "Core Service" and "Probe Service":

• Microsoft Windows XP
• Microsoft Windows Vista
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008
• Microsoft Windows 7
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2

Hardware Requirements for PRTG Core Server and PRTG Probe

Hardware requirements mainly depend on the sensor types and intervals used. The following values are provided as reference for common usage scenarios of PRTG 7 (based on a default sensor interval of 60 seconds).

• CPU: An average PC built in 2007 can easily monitor 1,000 sensors (see sensor type specific notes below). PRTG supports native x86 architectures.
• RAM: You will need about 150 Kilobyte of RAM per sensor.
• Hard Disk: You will need about 200 Kilobyte of disk space per sensor per day.
• An Internet connection is required for license activation (via HTTP or email).

There are also non-hardware dependent limitations for some sensor types, e.g. WMI and SNMP V3 sensors. These limitations can be overcome by distributing the sensors across multiple remote probes. If you plan installations with more than 500-1,000 sensors or more than 10 packet sniffing/NetFlow sensors please consult the PRTG Site Planner tool.

Here is a sample for a very large installation: We have successfully tested PRTG Network Monitor running with 20,000 SNMP sensors on a Dual-CPU Quad-Core system (Dell 2900 III, 16 GB RAM, Windows 2003 64-Bit). This scenario requires about 3.5 GB of RAM for the PRTG processes, the CPUs are running at 20 % load (higher while users are accessing the web interface and while running reports) and it creates about 800 GB of data on the disk for one year. An installation of this size is able to monitor about 400 SNMP-enabled switches with 48 ports each.

Running PRTG on Virtual Machines

PRTG Core Server as well as PRTG Probe can be run on virtualized platforms. The following virtualization platforms were tested successfully:

Web Browser Requirements

The following browsers are officially supported for the PRTG web interface (in order of performance and reliability):

• Google Chrome 5 (recommended)
• Mozilla Firefox 3
• Apple Safari 4
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 8
• Note: Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 is "deprecated" and may not be supported in future versions of PRTG

Requirements for Monitored Devices

• SNMP monitoring: The monitored device(s) must be equipped with SNMP Version 1, 2c or 3 (i.e. a SNMP-compatible software must be installed on the device). SNMP must be enabled on the device and the machine running PRTG must be allowed access to the SNMP interface.
• WMI monitoring: In order to use WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) monitoring you will need a Windows network. For client PCs monitored with WMI only Windows XP and later are officially supported (XP, 2003, Vista, 2008, etc.). Windows 2000 is not officially supported
• NetFlow, sFlow monitoring: The device must be configured to send NetFlow (V5 or V9) or sFlow data packets to the machine running a PRTG Probe.
• Packet Sniffing: Only data packets passing the local machine’s network card can be analyzed. Switches with so-called "monitoring ports" are necessary for network-wide monitoring in switched networks.

Requirements for the Windows GUI

The optional PRTG Windows GUI runs under all Windows versions (Windows XP or later) and requires Internet Explorer 7 or 8.

Requirements for the iPhone-based User Interfaces

The optional iPRTG app for iPhones (must be purchased separately) requires iPhone firmware 3.0 (or later). The built-in web-browser based iPhone interface was created for iPhone firmware 2.0 (or later).

Planing 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 for SNMP V3, WMI and packet sniffing apply). For larger installations please refer to our knowledgebase article Planning Large Installations of PRTG Network Monitor 7. Please see also our Knowledge Base article How can I speed up PRTG - especially for large installations?