PRTG Manual: Detailed System Requirements

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

This section was moved and is no longer up to date. To get a comprehensive overview about basic and detailed system requirements, use section System Requirements.

There are different aspects that you need to consider regarding the system requirements for PRTG. Meet these requirements to avoid issues while you monitor your network.

In this section:

z_i_podPRTG Hosted Monitor does not require any hardware for the PRTG core server, but it needs at least one remote probe installation to monitor your local network.

Supported Operating Systems for the PRTG Core Server and Remote Probes

Category

Requirements

Supported operating systems

The 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the following operating systems are officially supported for the PRTG core server service and PRTG probe service:

  • Microsoft Windows Server 2019*
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2016*
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2*
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2012*
  • Microsoft Windows 10
  • Microsoft Windows 8.1
  • Microsoft Windows 8
  • Microsoft Windows 7
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2*

* Windows servers in Core mode or Minimal Server Interface are not officially supported.

Operating system version

The version (32-bit or 64-bit) of the PRTG core server depends on the version of your operating system. The 64-bit version of the PRTG core server is installed if

  • the operating system is a 64-bit Windows system, and
  • the system provides 6 GB RAM or more.

Otherwise, the 32-bit version of the PRTG core server is installed.

Microsoft .NET Framework

Microsoft .NET Framework .NET 4.7.2 or later must be installed on the PRTG core server system or the remote probe system. For new installations of the PRTG core server or remote probes, we recommend .NET Framework 4.8.

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

z_i_round_blueThe .NET framework is imperative if you want to monitor VMware and XenServer virtual environments. Many other sensors also need an installed Microsoft .NET Framework.

Disabled FIPS mode

Make sure that the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) mode (Windows security option "System Cryptography: Use FIPS-compliant algorithms for encryption, hashing, and signing.") is disabled on Windows systems that run the PRTG core server service or PRTG probe service. FIPS-compliant encryption can cause issues with sensors that use the .NET framework.

z_i_square_cyanFor more information, see the Knowledge Base: Why should I disable the FIPS mode under Windows?

z_i_podPRTG Hosted Monitor is restricted to a maximum of 10,000 sensors. More sensors are not possible.

Hardware and Network Size Requirements for the PRTG Core Server

Hardware requirements for the PRTG core server service mainly depend on the sensors and scanning intervals that you use. Your network size can also influence the performance of your monitoring.

Sensors per PRTG core server

CPU cores

RAM

Disk space

Concurrently active administrator sessions

Number of remote probes

Up to 500

4

4 GB

100 GB

< 30

< 30

Up to 1,000

6

6 GB

500 GB

< 30

< 30

Up to 2,500

8

8 GB

750 GB

< 20

< 60

Up to 5,000

8

12 GB

1,000 GB

< 20

< 60

Up to 10,000

10 - 12

16 GB

1,500 GB

< 15

< 80

> 10,000

We recommend that you set up additional PRTG core servers. For more information on scaling, you can also contact the Paessler Presales team.

Hardware and Network Size Requirements for Remote Probes

Hardware requirements for the PRTG probe service mainly depend on the sensors and scanning intervals that you use. Your network size can also influence performance of your monitoring.

Sensors per remote probe

CPU cores

RAM

Disk space

Up to 200

2

2 GB

40 GB

200 - 2,000

4

4 GB

40 GB

2,000 - 5,000

6

6 GB

40 GB

> 5,000

We recommend that you set up additional remote probes. For more information on scaling, you can also contact the Paessler Presales team.

z_i_round_blueA remote probe system does not have any special disk requirements (< 1 GB). In general, we recommend at least 40 GB.

General Performance Impact Considerations

Category

Performance Impact Considerations

Hardware resources

For a PRTG core server to work properly, it is crucial to have a certain amount of hardware resources available. If the server runs out of resources, PRTG sends warning and emergency messages to the primary email address of the PRTG System Administrator user.

z_i_round_blueYou receive warning messages if the available disk space falls below 1 GB or if the available memory falls below 500 MB, and emergency messages if the available disk space or memory fall below 50 MB. In this case, react immediately and free up system resources.

Sensors

Ping and SNMP sensors create much less load than complex sensors like xFlow sensors, VMware sensors, Sensor Factory sensors, WMI sensors. or Syslog Receiver or SNMP Trap Receiver sensors, for example.

z_i_round_blueThere are also limitations for some sensors that do not depend on hardware resources, for example, WMI and SNMP v3 sensors. You can overcome these limitations if you distribute the sensors between remote probes.

z_i_round_blueFor clusters, we recommend that you stay below 2,500 sensors per cluster.

Channels

We recommend that you use sensors with less than 50 channels. Note that sensors with more than 50 channels are not officially supported and can have a high impact on system performance.

Scanning interval

For a single PRTG core server setup without a cluster, we recommend that you mainly use 1-minute scanning intervals for up to 2,000 sensors and 5-minute intervals if you have more sensors.

z_i_round_blueTo give you an impression: To monitor 5,000 sensors with a 1-minute scanning interval, PRTG takes 7.2 million measurements and evaluates, notifies, and stores them. This adds 700 MB of additional data to the database every single day.

CPU-intensive features

Try to limit the use of the following features:

Network connection quality

The quality of your network also plays an important role. When you monitor via User Datagram Protocol (UDP), for example, a high packet loss rate can lead to frequent timeouts. Remote probes that connect via unstable (WAN) connections can lead to delays as well.

Performance Impact Considerations Based on Sensor Types

You can find the performance impact of a specific sensor on the sensor's Overview tab or in the Add Sensor dialog.

z_i_square_cyanFor an overview list of sensors, including their performance impact, see section List of Available Sensor Types.

In general, consider the following rules for the of different sensor types:

Sensor Type

Performance Impact Considerations

SNMP v1 and v2, Ping, Port, and HTTP

We recommend that you use these sensor types for scenarios with thousands of sensors.

SNMP v3

SNMP v3 has performance limitations because of the use of encryption. The main limiting factor is CPU power. Furthermore, keep in mind that SNMP v3, unlike SNMP v1 and v2c, does not scale with more CPU power. Because of this limitation, you can monitor only a limited number of sensors per second using SNMP v3.

WMI

Try to keep the number of WMI sensors per probe below 120 sensors (with a 60-second scanning interval), or below 600 sensors (with a 300-second scanning interval).

xFlow

The maximum number of xFlow sensors depends on the traffic pattern, the number of xFlow packets per second that the probe receives, as well as the performance of the probe system.

Packet Sniffer

This sensor type creates the highest CPU load on the probe system. We only recommend this technology for monitoring low traffic connections (< 50 Mbit/s steady stream). If the traffic often exceeds 10 Mbit/s, use a dedicated remote probe.

VMware monitoring

Monitoring VMware is limited to about 30 sensors at a 60-second scanning interval, or 100 sensors at a 5-minute scanning interval. On probes that run on Windows Server 2012 R2 or later, you can use more VMware sensors. These limitations issue from the VMware platform.

z_i_square_cyanFor more information, see the Knowledge Base: How can I increase the connection limit on VMware systems? PE121

z_i_round_blueYou can overcome these limitations if you distribute the sensors between remote probes.

Running PRTG in Virtual Environments

You can run the PRTG core server and remote probes on virtualized platforms. However, PRTG consists of a lot of different components that all rely on the performance and the stability of the probe system where virtual environments add even more layers of complexity. This needs to be considered when you want to set up your PRTG installation in a way that you can achieve the same level of performance as on a physical server.

Most PRTG installations from 500 to 5,000 sensors do not need any specific optimization regarding your virtual infrastructure.

If you run larger installations of PRTG with more than 5,000 sensors, we strongly recommend that you follow the instructions in our Best Practice Guide: Running large installations of PRTG in a virtual environment.

z_i_round_redParticularly for virtual systems, make sure that you have a unique Windows security identifier per system.

Running PRTG in a Cluster

We recommend a single failover cluster for fail-safe monitoring. This consists of two PRTG core servers that each work as a cluster node.

In a cluster, the monitoring load doubles with each cluster node, so the performance of each additional cluster node is halved. Therefore, in a single failover cluster, divide our recommended numbers from earlier in the section in half.

z_i_podThis feature is not available in PRTG Hosted Monitor.

Supported Web Browsers

Category

Requirements

Supported browsers

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

  • Google Chrome 72
  • Mozilla Firefox 65
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer 11

z_i_round_blueFor security and performance reasons, we strongly recommend that you always use the latest version of Google Chrome to access the PRTG web interface.

Firefox

z_i_round_redFirefox is potentially vulnerable to cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. These XSS exploits are possible if you click, for example, phishing links in emails that contain malicious code, and you are logged in to PRTG with Firefox.

z_i_square_cyanFor more information, see the Knowledge Base: How secure is it to access the PRTG web interface with Firefox?

Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 and unsupported browsers

  • Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 and older versions of Microsoft Edge, as well as other browsers that are not officially supported, have issues with some functionalities of the PRTG web interface. However, you can access the PRTG web interface with any browser.
  • Deprecated Internet Explorer versions as well as some mobile browsers might not be able to display all features of the PRTG web interface.

Plugins

Plugins can also have an effect when you view the PRTG web interface. Make sure that you add exceptions for PRTG in the plugins' settings, particularly if you use ad blockers.

z_i_square_cyanFor more information, see the Knowledge Base: The logs page in the PRTG web interface does not load. What can I do?

Screen Resolution

A screen resolution of at least 1024x768 pixels is sufficient for most functions of PRTG. However, we recommend a screen resolution of 1200x800 pixels or higher.

Requirements for Monitored Devices

Category

Requirement

SNMP monitoring

The monitored devices must support SNMP v1, v2c, or v3. An SNMP-compatible software must be installed on the device. You must enable SNMP on the device and you must grant the PRTG core server system access to the SNMP interface.

z_i_square_cyanFor more information, see section Monitoring via SNMP.

Windows/WMI monitoring

To monitor via WMI, you need a Windows network. Use only the officially supported operating systems except for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 that has strong performance issues when you monitor via WMI.

z_i_square_cyanFor more information, see section Monitoring via WMI.

xFlow monitoring

The monitored devices must be able to send NetFlow (NetFlow v5, NetFlow v9, or IPFIX) data packets or sFlow v5 packets to the probe system.

z_i_square_cyanFor more information, see section Monitoring Bandwidth via xFlows.

Packet sniffer monitoring

PRTG can only analyze data packets that pass the local machine's network card. Switches with monitoring ports are necessary for network-wide monitoring in switched networks.

z_i_square_cyanFor more information, see section Monitoring Bandwidth via Packet Sniffing.

Other sensor types

You can find specific sensor and device requirements (for example, modules, components, device configurations) in the corresponding sensor section and in the Add Sensor dialog.

Requirements for Smartphones and Tablets

You can optionally use the PRTG apps for iOS and Android.

z_i_square_cyanFor more information and system requirements, see section PRTG Apps for Mobile Network Monitoring.

More

z_i_square_blueKNOWLEDGE BASE

Which .NET version does PRTG require?

How can I speed up PRTG—especially for large installations?

Why should I disable the FIPS mode under Windows?

How can I increase the connection limit on VMware systems? PE121

How secure is it to access the PRTG web interface with Firefox?

The logs page in the PRTG web interface does not load. What can I do?

Which ports does PRTG use on my system?

How do I run PRTG under a different Windows user account than the local system account?

 

z_i_square_bluePAESSLER WEBSITE

System requirements for PRTG Network Monitor

Welcome to PRTG