PRTG Manual: PRTG Housekeeping
IMPORTANT INFORMATION |
---|
This section was moved and is no longer kept up to date. For more information, see the Knowledge Base: What do I have to consider when I want to do a regular cleanup of my PRTG environment?. |
Once you have prepared your IT infrastructure and set up the devices and sensors that 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 to 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 SSL certificate of PRTG, check if your certificate is still valid.
- Regularly check the 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 Information.
This option is not available in PRTG Hosted Monitor. For PRTG Hosted Monitor, log in to your PRTG Hosted Monitor instance and manage your subscription there.
- 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 does not consider sensors that are in the Paused status for technical reasons. However, sensors that are 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 | System 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 | System Status.
Section |
What to do |
---|---|
Software Version and Server Information |
Check the Server CPU Load. This value should be lower than 50%. For information on how to improve your system performance, see the Knowledge Base: How can I speed up PRTG—especially for large installations?. |
System Startup Log |
For further log files and where to find them, see section Data Storage. |
System Warnings |
Check if your system warnings say None. System warnings that might be shown are, for example:
|
Sensors Sorted by Interval |
Tip: Change the scanning interval in the root group settings and use the inheritance mechanism to use this scanning interval for all objects that are below in the object hierarchy. |
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 Disable detection of similar sensors.
- 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 Disable sensor recommendations.
- 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 the performance of the PRTG web server.
- 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 that contains 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?.
KNOWLEDGE BASE
How can I speed up PRTG—especially for large installations?
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 Address Ranges
- Define Lookups
- Regular Expressions
- Calculating Percentiles
- Add Remote Probe
- Failover Cluster Configuration
- Data Storage
- Using Your Own SSL Certificate