PRTG Manual: SNMP Traffic Sensor

Interface Number

Select the ports on SNMP devices with multiple interfaces that you want to monitor. PRTG creates one sensor for each port that you select.

Enable check boxes in front of the respective lines to select the items. Use the check box in the table header to select all items or to cancel the selection. In large tables, use the search function in the upper-right corner.

You can see the connection status of an interface in the respective table column.

You can select interfaces and cancel the selection by clicking Select all connected interfaces, Select all disconnected interfaces, and Deselect all interfaces.

Name for Traffic In Channel

For the standard channel Traffic In, enter the channel name here. The sensor shows it in graphs and tables. You can change this description and the description of all other channels in the channel settings later.

Name for Traffic Out Channel

For the standard channel Traffic Out, enter the channel name here. The sensor shows it in graphs and tables. You can change this description and the description of all other channels in the channel settings later.

Name for Traffic Total Channel

For the standard channel Traffic Total, enter the channel name here. The sensor shows it in graphs and tables. You can change this description and the description of all other channels in the channel settings later.

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:

▪bandwidthsensor

▪snmptrafficsensor

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 ().

Interface Number

Shows the number and name of the interface in the physical device that this sensor monitors.

PRTG shows this value for reference purposes only. We strongly recommend that you only change it if the Paessler support team explicitly asks you to do so. Wrong usage can result in incorrect monitoring data.

Additional Channels

By default, each SNMP Traffic sensor creates the channels Traffic In, Traffic Out, and Traffic Total. Select additional channels for all interfaces. Click the respective channel names to mark the channels and to monitor their data.

You can choose between the following additional channels:

▪Errors in and Errors out: The number of incoming and outgoing packets that could not be delivered because of errors.

▪Discards in and Discards out: The number of discarded incoming and outgoing packets even though no errors have been detected.

▪Unicast packets in Unicast packets out: The number of unicast packets that have been delivered.

▪Non Unicast packets in and Non Unicast packets out (32-bit only): The number of non-unicast packets that have been delivered.

▪Multicast packets in and Multicast packets out (64-bit only): The number of delivered packets that were addressed to a multicast address.

▪Broadcast packets in and Broadcast packets out (64-bit only): The number of delivered packets that were addressed to a broadcast address

▪Unknown Protocols: The number of received packets that were discarded because of an unknown or unsupported protocol.

You cannot delete additional channels later. You can only disable them.

If the sensor shows the Warning status with the message Channels not available, you can disable the affected channels to remove the warning.

Connection Status Handling

Define how PRTG reacts when an interface is operational. An interface that is not operational is, for example, an Ethernet port on a switch with no cable plugged in. This setting is valid for all selected interfaces. Choose between:

▪Show down status for all disconnected states: Show the Down status for a disconnected interface. This applies if the ifOperStatus of the interface is not "up".

▪Show down status when disconnected, ignore when deactivated: Show the Down status for a disconnected interface only if it is not deliberately deactivated in the configuration. This applies if the ifOperStatus of the interface is not "up" and the ifAdminStatus is "up". So the sensor stays in the Up status when the interface has been deactivated.

▪Ignore all disconnected states: Show the Up status.
Monitoring is discontinued without notice.

Alias Availability

Shows if an alias is available for automatic port name updates.

PRTG shows this value for reference purposes only. We strongly recommend that you only change it if the Paessler support team explicitly asks you to do so. Wrong usage can result in incorrect monitoring data.

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).

▪Show in and out traffic as positive and negative area graph: Show channels for incoming and outgoing traffic as positive and negative area graph. This visualizes your traffic in a clear way.
You cannot use this option in combination with manual Vertical Axis Scaling (available in the channel settings). Manual scaling is not possible if you choose this option.
You cannot show a positive/negative graph for a channel if you choose to display its data in percent of maximum (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.

Discards In

The number of incoming discards per second

Discards Out

The number of outgoing discards per second

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

Errors In

The number of incoming errors per second

Errors Out

The number of outgoing errors per second

Non-Unicast In

The number of incoming non-unicast packets per second

Non-Unicast Out

The number of outgoing non-unicast packets per second

Traffic In

The incoming traffic

Traffic Out

The outgoing traffic

Traffic Total

The total traffic

This channel is the primary channel by default.

Unicast In

The number of incoming unicast packets

Unit

The number of outgoing unicast packets per second

Unknown Protocols In

The number of incoming, unknown protocols per second