Introduction to PRTG 7 Part 4: Object Hierarchy - Probes, Groups, Devices, Sensors, Channels

Originally published on May 07, 2008 by Dirk Paessler
Last updated on March 03, 2022 • 2 minute read

This another posting of my series of introductory blog posts about our new software "PRTG Network Monitor 7" which is currently undergoing a public beta test.

In PRTG Network Monitor the actual monitoring is performed by "Sensors". One of these sensors always monitors one single aspect of a network device, e.g.

  • one network service like SMTP, FTP, HTTP, etc.
  • the traffic of one port of a network switch
  • the CPU or memory load of a device
  • one network card's traffic
  • one NetFlow Device, etc.

Sensors are arranged in a tree-like hierarchy to create an easy to navigate list and to give the user the possibility to arrange sensors in groups that monitor similar devices, locations or services. Users can create nested "groups", each group has a number of "devices", each device has a number of "sensors" and - finally - each sensor has one or more "channels" (e.g. IN and OUT channel, or one channel for each CPU for a multiprocessor system). You will also see a level for "Probes" in the hierarchy.

All groups/devices/sensors that are configured below a probe will be monitored through that probe

All about PRTG