PRTG Manual: PRTG Housekeeping
Once you have prepared your IT infrastructure and set up the devices and sensors you need for monitoring your network with PRTG, you can let PRTG do its work. However, you should regularly review your setup to keep your installation of PRTG up to date and ensure the best possible monitoring for your network. In this section, you find some tips on what to check in your PRTG installation and, if necessary, how to clean it up.
In this section:
- Check if you still have your license document. If not, request your license from Paessler anew.
- Check if the customer contact details (including VAT identification number) that Paessler has from you are still valid. If you need to update your data, do not hesitate to contact us.
- If you use your own SSL certificate and not the default Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate delivered with PRTG, check if your certificate is still valid.
- Regularly check our Paessler Blog and/or subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date regarding PRTG and other IT-related content.
License and Version Check
- Check if your license is still up to date. You can view the activation status of PRTG under Setup | License.
This option is not available in PRTG hosted by Paessler. For PRTG hosted by Paessler, log in to your PRTG hosted by Paessler instance and manage your subscription via the Dashboard tab.
- For a quick overview of your license status, go to the Welcome page. There you can see how many maintenance days you have left and the number of sensors available to you.
The number of available sensors that is displayed here does not consider sensors in the Paused status for technical reasons. However, sensors in the Paused status are not included in the maximum number of sensors that your license allows. Add the number of your sensors that are in the Paused status to the displayed number to know exactly how many sensors are still available on your installation.
Software Version and Server Information
- Check if you run the most recent version of PRTG. You can view your PRTG version under Setup | PRTG Status, section Software Version And Server Information. The version number consists of the following parts: year, quarter, version, build. For example, if your PRTG version is 19.2.52.1161, this means that you have installed version 52, build 1161, which was released in the second quarter of the year 2019.
- Check if the selected release channel is still the one that fits your monitoring requirements. You can view the release channel you use under Setup | Auto-Update | Status. Available channels are Stable (most conservative option), Preview (thoroughly tested), and Canary (for testing only). To select a different release channel, click the Select Other Release Channel link.
You can also view your installed PRTG version and release channel in the footer of the PRTG web interface.
System and Performance Check
Check your overall system status under Setup | PRTG Status.
Section |
What to do |
---|---|
Software Version And Server Information |
Check your Server CPU Load. This value should be lower than 50%.
|
System Startup Log |
|
System Warnings |
Check if your system warnings say None. System warnings that might be shown are, for example:
|
Sensors by Interval |
|
System Settings |
|
Web Server Activity |
Check the Slow Request Ratio. This value should be lower than 10%. |
- Check if there are any scheduled auto-discoveries that you do not need anymore. You can view a list of all auto-discovery processes or running auto-discovery processes under Logs | System Events | Auto-Discovery.
- Check if similar sensors detection is enabled. If you do not need this analysis (which runs with low priority in the background), go to Setup | System Administration | Monitoring and select Turn analysis off.
- Check if recommended sensors detection is enabled. If you do not need this analysis (which runs with low priority in the background when you add a new device, when the last analysis was executed more than 30 days ago, or when you manually start it), go to Setup | System Administration | Monitoring and select Turn sensor recommendations off.
- Check if all your libraries are up to date. Remove all (default) libraries that you do not need.
- Check if there are any sensors that are still monitoring your network although you do not need them for your infrastructure, particularly if they have a high impact on system performance. For example, this includes the following sensor types: Sensor Factory, Packet Sniffer, VMware, Email Round Trip, SQL Server, CloudWatch, QoS, File, Folder, HTTP Full Web Page, and custom EXE sensors. Set the sensors to the Paused status if you do not want to completely delete them from your system.
- Check the number of channels per sensor. Sensors with more than 50 channels can have a high impact on system performance.
- Check the List of Available Sensor Types. Are there any new sensors that you do not know yet?
- Check if your user accounts and user groups are still up to date. Update user contact details (email address, phone number) if necessary, or disable users that do not work with the respective installation of PRTG anymore. Always keep in mind that multiple user accounts and groups can slow down web server performance.
- Check your user access rights settings.
- Check if the maps you created are still in use or if you could delete them.
- Check if there are any broken links in the maps that might need correction.
- Check if you can still retrieve embedded HTML objects and frames.
- Check if the contact details (email address, phone number for SMS) in your notification contacts are still up to date.
- Check if custom notification templates are still in use by clicking
under Setup | Account Settings | Notification Templates.
- Check if there are any new default notification templates that might be of use for your specific setup.
- Check if your notification templates still work by clicking
under Setup | Account Settings | Notification Templates.
- Check if there are any error messages regarding notifications under Logs | System Events | Notifications.
- Check for how many days different kinds of data are kept and if you might be able to optimize your settings so that the file containing this data does not get too large. To change the settings, go to Setup | System Administration | Core & Probes, section Historic Data Purging.
- Manually check the \Configuration Auto-Backups subfolder of the PRTG data directory: Are backups still being written? Are these backups perhaps filling up available disk space?
For more information, see also the Knowledge Base: How do I back up all data and configuration of my PRTG installation?
PRTG MANUAL
KNOWLEDGE BASE
How can I speed up PRTG—especially for large installations?
How and where does PRTG store its data?
How do I back up all data and configuration of my PRTG installation?
How can I move or migrate a PRTG installation to a different system or server?
My PRTG has crashed and I can’t restart it anymore. What can I do?
PAESSLER BLOG
7 Useful PRTG support resources you should know
PAESSLER WEBSITE
Release notes for the “Stable” release channel
- Active Directory Integration
- Application Programming Interface (API) Definition
- Filter Rules for xFlow, IPFIX, and Packet Sniffer Sensors
- Channel Definitions for xFlow, IPFIX, and Packet Sniffer Sensors
- Define IP Ranges
- Define Lookups
- Regular Expressions
- Calculating Percentiles
- Add Remote Probe
- Failover Cluster Configuration
- Data Storage
- PRTG Housekeeping
- Using Your Own SSL Certificate