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Auto-discovery gets you to real monitoring data fast so you can see if it fits your environment.
Instead of clicking through devices manually, PRTG scans your network and automatically configures sensors for everything it finds. Routers, switches, servers, VMs, databases, applications. It uses PRTG's library of 300+ pre-built sensor types and applies the ones that match your gear.
Let's walk through it.
Make sure you have these items ready for your first Auto-discovery:
Make sure you've downloaded and installed PRTG on a Windows system
Have login credentials ready for your devices (Windows, SNMP, VMware, etc.)
Identify the IPv4 address range you want to scan. Example: 192.168.1.0/24
After installation, open the PRTG web interface in your browser. You'll see the login screen.
What to do:
Enter your login name and password, then click Log in.
PRTG automatically launches the smart setup on first login.
PRTG prompts you to change the default admin account credentials for added security.
What to do:
This is where you authenticate the devices you want to monitor. PRTG uses these credentials during auto-discovery to identify device types and create the right sensors.
What to do:
Example: To monitor Windows servers, select Credentials for Windows Systems, then enter your domain/computer name, username, and password.
Now comes the core step: telling PRTG which part of your network to scan.
What to do:
What PRTG scans: PRTG will ping the entire host range defined by your IP addresses and subnet masks (excluding network and broadcast addresses). Reachable devices get added to your device tree.
This optional step lets you monitor internet connectivity, DNS servers, and website availability right from the start.
What to do:
You're done with the setup and the Auto-Discovery starts.
What to do:
PRTG now runs auto-discovery in the background. Depending on your network size, this might take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours.
PRTG pings all IP addresses in your defined subnets to find reachable devices.
For every device that responds, PRTG checks what type it is using SNMP, WMI, and other protocols.
Based on the device type, PRTG automatically creates the right sensors. Think CPU load, memory, disk space, interface traffic, and more. It uses built-in device templates to figure out what makes sense.
Small networks (under 100 devices): A few minutes
Larger networks (500+ devices): Up to a few hours
Join a live demo with our monitoring experts. See auto-discovery, alerting, and troubleshooting in action and get your questions answered.
PRTG can only discover devices it can ping. Check these common issues:
After discovery finishes, review the device tree and manually delete any unwanted objects. To prevent auto-discovery from re-adding them, either disable auto-discovery for that group or mark specific devices to be skipped.
Yes. You can schedule auto-discovery to run automatically on specific network segments at regular intervals. This keeps your monitoring up to date as you add new devices, servers, or network equipment. PRTG will find them and start monitoring without manual intervention.
