PRTG Manual: Add a Group

Group Name

Enter a meaningful name to identify the group. The name is shown in the device tree and in all alarms.

Tags

Enter one or more tags. Confirm each tag with the space, comma, or 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.

Click to interrupt the inheritance. See section Inheritance of Settings for more information.

Domain or Computer Name

Define the authority for Windows access. This is used for Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) and other Windows sensors. If you want to use a Windows local user account on the target device, enter the computer name here. If you want to use a Windows domain user account (recommended), enter the (Active Directory) domain name here. If not explicitly defined, PRTG automatically adds a prefix to use the NT LAN Manager (NTLM) protocol. Do not leave this field empty.

User

Enter the username for Windows access. Usually, you use credentials with administrator privileges.

Password

Enter the password for Windows access. Usually, you use credentials with administrator privileges.

Click to interrupt the inheritance. See section Inheritance of Settings for more information.

User

Enter a login name for the access via Secure Shell (SSH) and Web-based Enterprise Management (WBEM). Usually, you use credentials with administrator privileges.

Login

Define the authentication method to use for login:

• Login via Password: Provide a password for login.
• Login via Private Key: Provide a private key for authentication.
  PRTG can only handle keys in OpenSSH format that are not encrypted. You cannot use password-protected keys here. In the text field, paste the entire private key, including the "BEGIN" and "END" lines. Make sure that the respective public key is provided on the target machine. For details, see section Monitoring via SSH.

Password

This field is only visible if you enable Login via Password above. Enter a password for the Linux access via SSH and WBEM. Usually, you use credentials with administrator privileges.

Private Key

This field is only visible if you enable Login via Private Key above. Paste a private key into the field (OpenSSH format, unencrypted). Usually, you use credentials with administrator privileges.

If you do not insert a private key for the first time, but change the private key, you need to restart the PRTG core server service for the private key change to take effect. For details, see section Monitoring via SSH.

For WBEM Use Protocol

This setting is only relevant if you use WBEM sensors.

Define the protocol to use for WBEM:

• HTTP: Use an unencrypted connection for WBEM.
• HTTPS: Use a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encrypted connection for WBEM.

For WBEM Use Port

This setting is only relevant if you use WBEM sensors.

Define the port to use for WBEM:

• Set automatically (port 5988 or 5989): Use one of the standard ports, depending on whether you choose unencrypted or encrypted connection above.
• Set manually: Use a custom port.

WBEM Port

This setting is only visible if you enable Set manually above. Enter the WBEM port number.

SSH Port

Enter the port number to use for SSH connections.

By default, PRTG automatically uses this setting for all SSH sensors unless you define a different port number in the sensor settings.

SSH Rights Elevation

Define the rights that you want to use to execute the command on the target system:

• Run the command as the user connecting (default): Use the rights of the user who establishes the SSH connection, as defined above.
• Run the command as another user using 'sudo' (with password): Use the rights of another user with a password required for sudo to run commands on the target device, for example, as root user.
• Run the command as another user using 'sudo' (without password): Use the rights of another user without a password required for sudo to run commands on the target device, for example, as root user.
• Run the command as another user using 'su': Use the rights of another user with su to run commands on the target device.

Target User

This field is only visible if you select a sudo or su option above. Enter a username to run the specified command as a user other than root. If you leave this field empty, you run the command as root. Make sure that you set the Linux password even if you use a public or private key for authentication. This is not necessary if the user is allowed to execute the command without a password.

Password

This field is only visible if you choose to run the commands using su or sudo with password above. Enter the password for the specified target user.

SSH Engine

Select the method that you want to use to access data with SSH sensors:

We strongly recommend that you keep the default engine. For now, you can still use the legacy mode to ensure compatibility with your target systems.

• Default (recommended): This is the default monitoring method for SSH sensors. It provides the best performance and security.
• Compatibility Mode (deprecated): Try this legacy method only if the default mode does not work on a target device. The compatibility mode is the SSH engine that PRTG used in previous versions and is deprecated. We will remove this legacy option soon, so try to get your SSH sensors running with the default SSH engine.

You can also individually select the SSH engine for each SSH sensor in the sensor settings.

Click to interrupt the inheritance. See section Inheritance of Settings for more information.

User

Enter a login name for access to VMware and Xen servers. Usually, you use credentials with administrator privileges.

Password

Enter a password for access to VMware and Xen servers. Usually, you use credentials with administrator privileges.

single sign on (SSO) passwords for vSphere do not support special characters. See the sections for VMware sensors for details.

VMware Protocol

Define the protocol used for the connection to VMware and XenServer:

• HTTPS (recommended): Use a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encrypted connection to VMware and Xen servers.
• HTTP: Use an unencrypted connection to VMware and Xen servers.

Session Pool

Define if you want to use session pooling for VMware sensors:

• Reuse session for multiple scans (recommended): Select this option to use session pooling. With session pooling, a VMware sensor uses the same session as created in advance to query data and does not need to log in and out for each sensor scan. We recommend that you choose this option because it reduces network load and log entries on the target device, resulting in better performance.
• Create a new session for each scan: If you select this option and disable session pooling, a VMware sensor has to log in and out for each sensor scan. We recommend that you use the session pooling option above for better performance.

Click to interrupt the inheritance. See section Inheritance of Settings for more information.

SNMP Version

Select the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) version for the device connection:

• v1: Use the simple v1 protocol for SNMP connections. This protocol only offers clear-text data transmission, but it is usually supported by all devices.
  SNMP v1 does not support 64-bit counters. This may result in invalid data when monitoring traffic via SNMP.
• v2c (recommended): Use the more advanced v2c protocol for SNMP connections. This is the most common SNMP version. Data is still transferred as clear text, but SNMP v2c supports 64-bit counters.
• v3: Use the v3 protocol for SNMP connections. It provides secure authentication and data encryption.

When using SNMP v3, you can only monitor a limited number of sensors per second because of internal limitations. The limit is somewhere between 1 and 50 sensors per second (depending on the SNMP latency of your network). This means that using an interval of 60 seconds limits you to between 60 and 3000 SNMP v3 sensors for each probe. If you experience an increased Interval Delay or Open Requests with the Probe Health sensor, distribute the load over multiple probes. SNMP v1 and v2 do not have this limitation.

Community String

This setting is only visible if you select SNMP version v1 or v2c above. Enter the community string of your devices. This is a kind of "clear-text password" for simple authentication. We recommend that you use the default value.

Authentication Type

This setting is only visible if you select SNMP version v3 above. Select the authentication type:

• MD5: Use message-digest algorithm 5 (MD5) for authentication.
• SHA: Use Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) for authentication.

If you do not want to use authentication, but you need SNMP v3, for example, because your device requires context, you can leave the field Password empty. In this case, SNMP_SEC_LEVEL_NOAUTH is used and authentication is entirely deactivated.

The type you select must match the authentication type of your device.

User

This setting is only visible if you select SNMP version v3 above. Enter a username for secure authentication. This value must match the username of your device.

Password

This setting is only visible if you select SNMP version v3 above. Enter a password for secure authentication. This value must match the password of your device.

Encryption Type

This setting is only visible if you select SNMP version v3 above. Select an encryption type:

• DES: Use Data Encryption Standard (DES) as encryption algorithm.
• AES: Use Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) as encryption algorithm.

AES-192 and AES-256 are not supported by Net-SNMP. They lack RFC specification.

The type that you select must match the encryption type of your device.

Data Encryption Key

This setting is only visible if you select SNMP version v3 above. Enter an encryption key. If you provide a key, SNMP data packets are encrypted using the encryption algorithm selected above, which provides increased security. The key must match the encryption key of your device. Enter a string or leave the field empty.

If the key does not match the key configured on the target SNMP device, you do not get an error message.

Context Name

This setting is only visible if you select SNMP version v3 above. Enter a context name only if it is required by the configuration of the device. Context is a collection of management information accessible by an SNMP device. Enter a string.

SNMP Port

Enter the port for the SNMP communication. We recommend that you use the default value.

SNMP Timeout (Sec.)

Enter a timeout in seconds for the request. Enter an integer value. If the reply takes longer than the value you enter here, the request is canceled and an error message is triggered. The maximum timeout value is 300 seconds (5 minutes).

User Group Access

Define which user groups have access to the object that you are editing. A table with user groups and rights is shown. It contains all user groups from your setup. For each user group, you can choose from the following access rights:

• Inherited: Use the settings of the parent object.
• None: Users in this group cannot see or edit the object. The object does not show up in lists.
• Read: Users in this group can see the object and review its settings.
• Write: Users in this group can see the object, as well as review and edit its settings. However, they cannot edit access rights settings.
• Full: Users in this group can see the object, as well as review and edit its settings as well as edit access rights.

You can create new user groups in the System Administration—User Groups settings.