Device and Sensor Setup > Sensor Settings

PRTG Manual: Windows Updates Status (PowerShell) Sensor

The Windows Updates Status (PowerShell) sensor monitors the status of Windows updates on a computer and counts the available and installed Windows updates that are either from Microsoft or from the local Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) server.

You can find the updates that the sensor considers in the Server Manager (WSUS) under Roles | Windows Server Update Services | Update Services | Computers | Reports.

Windows Updates Status (PowerShell) Sensor

For a detailed list and descriptions of the channels that this sensor can show, see section Channel List.

Sensor in Other Languages

Dutch: Windows Updates Status (PowerShell)
French: Windows statut des mises à jour (PowerShell)
German: Windows Updates Status (PowerShell)
Japanese: Windows アップデートステータス（PowerShell）
Portuguese: Status de atualizações Windows (PowerShell)
Russian: Статус обновления Windows (PowerShell)
Simplified Chinese: Windows 更新状态 (PowerShell)
Spanish: Estado de actualizaciones Windows (PowerShell)

Remarks

This sensor has a very high performance impact. We recommend that you use no more than 50 of this sensor on each probe.

This sensor requires that Remote PowerShell is enabled on the target system and PowerShell 3.0 on both the probe system and the target system.

This sensor requires .NET 4.7.2 or later from Microsoft on the probe system.

This sensor requires credentials for Windows systems in the settings of the parent device.

We recommend that you set the scanning interval of this sensor to at least 12 hours to limit the load on the server that is monitored.

This sensor supports IPv6.

In certain cases, it might take some time until the sensor receives data for the first time.
If the sensor cannot determine any values for the Time Since Last Update channel (for example, because the list of updates is empty), it shows the value -1s and changes to the Warning status.
When monitoring a Remote Desktop Server (RDS) system with the option Roaming Profiles enabled, this sensor creates a temporary user profile folder for each scanning interval. To minimize this effect, we recommend that you set the sensor's scanning interval to at least 7 days.

Knowledge Base: Where can I find more information about PowerShell sensors?

You cannot add this sensor to the hosted probe of a PRTG Hosted Monitor instance. If you want to use this sensor, add it to a remote probe device.

Detailed Requirements

Requirement	Description
Remote PowerShell	This sensor uses PowerShell commands. This sensor requires that Remote PowerShell access is enabled on the target system. Also make sure that you have at least PowerShell 3.0 installed on both the probe system and the target system. If you receive an error message regarding issues with the WinRM connection, make sure that remote commands have been enabled in PowerShell. For more information, see the Knowledge Base: How do I enable and use remote commands in Windows PowerShell?
.NET 4.7.2 or later	This sensor requires .NET 4.7.2 or later to be installed on the probe system (on every cluster node, if on a cluster probe). If the framework is missing, you cannot create this sensor. For more information, see the Knowledge Base: Which .NET version does PRTG require?

Requirement

Description

Remote PowerShell

This sensor uses PowerShell commands. This sensor requires that Remote PowerShell access is enabled on the target system. Also make sure that you have at least PowerShell 3.0 installed on both the probe system and the target system.

If you receive an error message regarding issues with the WinRM connection, make sure that remote commands have been enabled in PowerShell. For more information, see the Knowledge Base: How do I enable and use remote commands in Windows PowerShell?

.NET 4.7.2 or later

This sensor requires .NET 4.7.2 or later to be installed on the probe system (on every cluster node, if on a cluster probe).

If the framework is missing, you cannot create this sensor.

For more information, see the Knowledge Base: Which .NET version does PRTG require?

Add Sensor

The Add Sensor dialog appears when you manually add a new sensor to a device. It only shows the settings that are required to create the sensor. You can change nearly all settings on the sensor's Settings tab after creation.

Basic Sensor Settings

Click the Settings tab of a sensor to change its settings.

Basic Sensor Settings

Setting	Description
Sensor Name	Enter a name to identify the sensor. By default, PRTG shows this name in the device tree, as well as in alarms, logs, notifications, reports, maps, libraries, and tickets. If the name contains angle brackets (<>), PRTG replaces them with braces ({}) for security reasons. For more information, see the Knowledge Base: What security features does PRTG include?
Parent Tags	Shows tags that the sensor inherits from its parent device, parent group, and parent probe. This setting is for your information only. You cannot change it.
Tags	Enter one or more tags. Confirm each tag with the Spacebar key, a comma, or the Enter key. You can use tags to group objects and use tag-filtered views later on. Tags are not case-sensitive. Tags are automatically inherited. It is not possible to enter tags with a leading plus (+) or minus (-) sign, nor tags with parentheses (()) or angle brackets (<>). For performance reasons, it can take some minutes until you can filter for new tags that you added. The sensor has the following default tags that are automatically predefined in the sensor's settings when you add the sensor: windowsupdatesstatus
Priority	Select a priority for the sensor. This setting determines the position of the sensor in lists. The highest priority is at the top of a list. Choose from the lowest priority () to the highest priority ().

Usually, a sensor connects to the IP Address/DNS Name of the parent device. See the device settings for details. For some sensors, you can explicitly define the monitoring target in the sensor settings.

Sensor Specific

Setting	Description
Port	Enter the number of the port to which this sensor connects. Enter an integer. The default port is 5985.
Port in SPN	Define whether to include the port number in the Service Principal Name (SPN) used for Kerberos authentication, for example, on devices where Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) or similar services are installed. Exclude port in SPN (default): Do not include the port number in the SPN. Include port in SPN: Include the port number in the SPN. With this option, a client that uses a non-default SPN can authenticate against a remote computer that uses Kerberos authentication.
Authentication Method	Select the authentication method for the connection to the host via PowerShell. Choose between: Kerberos authentication (default): The sensor uses Kerberos authentication. Negotiate authentication: The sensor uses Negotiate authentication. For more information about Negotiate authentication, see the Knowledge Base: Facing issues with the Windows Updates Status (PowerShell) sensor - can you help me?

Setting

Description

Port

Enter the number of the port to which this sensor connects. Enter an integer. The default port is 5985.

Port in SPN

Define whether to include the port number in the Service Principal Name (SPN) used for Kerberos authentication, for example, on devices where Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) or similar services are installed.

Exclude port in SPN (default): Do not include the port number in the SPN.
Include port in SPN: Include the port number in the SPN.

With this option, a client that uses a non-default SPN can authenticate against a remote computer that uses Kerberos authentication.

Authentication Method

Select the authentication method for the connection to the host via PowerShell. Choose between:

Kerberos authentication (default): The sensor uses Kerberos authentication.
Negotiate authentication: The sensor uses Negotiate authentication.
For more information about Negotiate authentication, see the Knowledge Base: Facing issues with the Windows Updates Status (PowerShell) sensor - can you help me?

Debug Options

Setting	Description
Result Handling	Define what PRTG does with the sensor result: Discard result: Do not store the sensor result. Store result: Store the last sensor result in the \Logs\sensors subfolder of the PRTG data directory on the probe system. The file names are Result of Sensor [ID].txt, Result of Sensor [ID].Data.txt, and Result of Sensor [ID].log. This setting is for debugging purposes. PRTG overwrites these files with each scanning interval. In a cluster, PRTG stores the result in the PRTG data directory of the master node.

Setting

Description

Result Handling

Define what PRTG does with the sensor result:

Discard result: Do not store the sensor result.

Store result: Store the last sensor result in the \Logs\sensors subfolder of the PRTG data directory on the probe system. The file names are Result of Sensor [ID].txt, Result of Sensor [ID].Data.txt, and Result of Sensor [ID].log. This setting is for debugging purposes. PRTG overwrites these files with each scanning interval.

In a cluster, PRTG stores the result in the PRTG data directory of the master node.

Sensor Display

Setting	Description
Primary Channel	Select a channel from the list to define it as the primary channel. In the device tree, the last value of the primary channel is always displayed below the sensor's name. The available options depend on what channels are available for this sensor. You can set a different primary channel later by clicking below a channel gauge on the sensor's Overview tab.
Graph Type	Define how different channels are shown for this sensor: Show channels independently (default): Show a graph for each channel. Stack channels on top of each other: Stack channels on top of each other to create a multi-channel graph. This generates a graph that visualizes the different components of your total traffic. You cannot use this option in combination with manual Vertical Axis Scaling (available in the channel settings).
Stack Unit	This setting is only visible if you enable Stack channels on top of each other as Graph Type. Select a unit from the list. All channels with this unit are stacked on top of each other. By default, you cannot exclude single channels from stacking if they use the selected unit. However, there is an advanced procedure to do so.

Setting

Description

Primary Channel

Select a channel from the list to define it as the primary channel. In the device tree, the last value of the primary channel is always displayed below the sensor's name. The available options depend on what channels are available for this sensor.

You can set a different primary channel later by clicking below a channel gauge on the sensor's Overview tab.

Graph Type

Define how different channels are shown for this sensor:

Show channels independently (default): Show a graph for each channel.
Stack channels on top of each other: Stack channels on top of each other to create a multi-channel graph. This generates a graph that visualizes the different components of your total traffic.
You cannot use this option in combination with manual Vertical Axis Scaling (available in the channel settings).

Stack Unit

This setting is only visible if you enable Stack channels on top of each other as Graph Type. Select a unit from the list. All channels with this unit are stacked on top of each other. By default, you cannot exclude single channels from stacking if they use the selected unit. However, there is an advanced procedure to do so.

Inherited Settings

By default, all of these settings are inherited from objects that are higher in the hierarchy. We recommend that you change them centrally in the root group settings if necessary. To change a setting for this object only, click under the corresponding setting name to disable the inheritance and to display its options.

For more information, see section Inheritance of Settings.

Scanning Interval

This sensor has a fixed minimum scanning interval for performance reasons. You cannot use a shorter scanning interval. Consequently, shorter scanning intervals in the Monitoring settings are not available for this sensor.

The minimum scanning interval of this sensor is 1 hour.

The recommended scanning interval of this sensor is 12 hours.

Scanning Interval

For more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Scanning Interval.

Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window

You cannot interrupt the inheritance for schedules, dependencies, and maintenance windows. The corresponding settings from the parent objects are always active. However, you can define additional schedules, dependencies, and maintenance windows. They are active at the same time as the parent objects' settings.

Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window

For more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window.

Access Rights

For more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Access Rights.

Channel List

Which channels the sensor actually shows might depend on the target device, the available components, and the sensor setup.

Channel	Description
Downtime	In the channel table on the Overview tab, this channel never shows any values. PRTG uses this channel in graphs and reports to show the amount of time in which the sensor was in the Down status
Time Since Last Update	The time passed since the last update This channel is the primary channel by default. The sensor always creates the channel Time Since Last Update. All other channels are optional and only show up if the sensor can retrieve respective data. This channel has default limits Upper warning limit: 2592000 Lower warning limit: 0
Updates (Severity Critical) Hidden	The number of hidden updates with critical severity This channel has a default limit Upper error limit: 0.2
Updates (Severity Critical) Installed	The number of installed updates with critical severity
Updates (Severity Critical) Missing	The number of missing updates with critical severity This channel has a default limit Upper error limit: 0.2
Updates (Severity Important) Hidden	The number of hidden updates with important severity This channel has a default limit Upper warning limit: 0.2
Updates (Severity Important) Installed	The number of installed updates with important severity
Updates (Severity Important) Missing	The number of missing updates with important severity This channel has a default limit Upper error limit: 0.2
Updates (Severity Low) Hidden	The number of hidden updates with low severity
Updates (Severity Low) Installed	The number of installed updates with low severity
Updates (Severity Low) Missing	The number of missing updates with low severity This channel has a default limit Upper warning limit: 0.2
Updates (Severity Moderate) Hidden	The number of hidden updates with moderate severity
Updates (Severity Moderate) Installed	The number of installed updates with moderate severity
Updates (Severity Moderate) Missing	The number of missing updates with moderate severity This channel has a default limit Upper warning limit: 0.2
Updates (Unclassified) Hidden	The number of hidden updates with unclassified severity
Updates (Unclassified) Installed	The number of installed updates with unclassified severity
Updates (Unclassified) Missing	The number of missing updates with unclassified severity This channel has a default limit Upper warning limit: 0.2