Unified Hardware Scanner

Q: Can PRTG monitor network bandwidth and hardware performance together?

Both in the same platform, yes. NetFlow, sFlow, jFlow, IPFIX, and SNMP traffic sensors handle bandwidth alongside hardware health sensors on the same devices. Bandwidth utilization, Top Talkers, Top Connections, and Top Protocols in the same dashboard view as temperature readings and component status. That combination is useful when you're correlating a performance complaint with what the physical hardware was doing at the time.

Monitor server, network, and infrastructure hardware health across Dell, HPE, Cisco, and hundreds of device types from a single dashboard

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PRODUCT OVERVIEW

How Do You Monitor Hardware Health Across a Mixed-Vendor Environment?

Most environments run a mix of Dell servers, HPE ProLiant systems, Cisco switches, APC UPS units, and storage from various vendors. Pulling hardware health data out of all of them typically means logging into multiple vendor consoles, each with its own format, access method, and blind spots. The result is fragmented visibility that only shows part of the picture at any given time.

Paessler PRTG consolidates this using SNMP, WMI, SSH, and WBEM to reach hardware across the stack and create vendor-specific sensors automatically during discovery. It tracks temperature, fan speed, power supply status, and hardware components from Dell PowerEdge servers, HPE ProLiant systems, Cisco UCS hardware, APC UPS devices, NetApp, Synology, Buffalo TeraStation, HP LaserJet printers, VMware ESXi hosts, Linux and macOS systems, Windows servers, and hundreds of additional device types via SNMP. The preconfigured sensor library handles most environments out of the box, including custom device types where vendor-specific sensors are not available.

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PRTG is compatible with all major vendors, products, and systems

Full Hardware Visibility, From Discovery to Alert

Keep Your Hardware Running to Avoid Unplanned Downtime

Hardware health changes gradually. Fans slow down, power supplies degrade, temperatures creep up a degree at a time. PRTG's system scanner gives you continuous visibility into component health across servers, network devices (e.g. router, switch, ...), and infrastructure using SNMP, WMI, and SSH. You get live system status on fans, power supplies, temperature sensors, and storage enclosure health. Set custom alert thresholds and catch degrading hardware early enough to act on it.

Monitor temperature, fan speed, power supply status, and hardware components across vendor hardware
Get alerts when hardware metrics exceed your operational tolerances
Track historical trends to spot components degrading over time
Replace failing hardware during planned maintenance windows, not emergency ones
Monitor enclosure health on Dell EMC Unity systems and memory controllers for HPE ProLiant servers

Unified Hardware Visibility Across Multiple Vendors

Most multi-vendor environments end up running four or five monitoring tools in parallel. Dell has its own console, APC has another, Cisco something else. The problem isn't just the switching, it's that none of them share context.

PRTG builds vendor-specific sensors that understand each manufacturer's hardware, not generic SNMP polling with a label on it. Auto-discovery handles the identification: Dell PowerEdge servers get Dell system health sensors, HPE ProLiant hardware gets HPE-specific ones. Worth noting, the whole process takes minutes, not an afternoon of manual mapping. One dashboard at the end of it.

Vendor-specific sensors for Dell, HPE, Cisco, APC, NetApp, Synology, and hundreds of additional device types
Auto-discovery maps detected manufacturers to the right sensors automatically
Single dashboard, no vendor console switching
SNMP, WMI, SSH, and WBEM protocol support across Windows, Linux, and VMware environments

Minutes to Monitor, Not Days of Manual Configuration

Configuring sensors manually for every server, switch, and UPS in a mid-sized environment takes time most IT teams don't have. PRTG's auto-discovery handles the identification and setup automatically. Standard device templates already know what to pull from Dell PowerEdge servers, HPE ProLiant systems, and Cisco UCS hardware. You're not building sensor configs from scratch for each device type. Installation to system monitoring in minutes, not days.

Auto-discovery creates hardware sensors for detected devices without manual setup
Preconfigured templates for Dell, HPE, Cisco, APC, and other major vendors
Default, detailed, or template-based discovery depending on your network size
Sensors know what hardware components to monitor out of the box
Get monitoring running, then fine-tune thresholds once you have real data to work from

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PRODUCT OVERVIEW

Hardware System Information for Troubleshooting and Inventory

Troubleshooting performance issues without reliable hardware inventory is guesswork. PRTG's system information feature pulls hardware details automatically via WMI and SNMP: BIOS serial numbers, MAC addresses, IP addresses, installed hardware components, operating system versions. All of it refreshes every 24 hours without touching the devices. Also covers the audit and capacity planning side of things, so you're not maintaining a separate inventory sheet that's usually out of date anyway.

Automatic hardware inventory via WMI (Windows) and SNMP (network devices)
BIOS serial numbers, MAC addresses, IP addresses, and system specs in one interface
Installed hardware components, software versions, and running processes
Data refreshes automatically every 24 hours
Covers warranty tracking, compliance reporting, and capacity planning without a separate tool

Customizable Alerts That Focus on What Matters

Generic SNMP traps flood your inbox with noise while critical hardware failures get lost in the clutter. PRTG lets you set threshold-based alerts customized to your environment. Define what "warning" and "critical" mean for CPU temperature, fan speed, or power supply status based on your operational tolerances. Alerts go to email, SMS, push notifications, and external services via HTTP action notifications.

Threshold-based alerting triggers when hardware metrics exceed your defined limits
Customize warning and critical thresholds for each hardware sensor
Multi-channel notifications: email, SMS, push notifications, and external integrations via HTTP actions
Escalation workflows ensure critical hardware alerts reach the right people
Reduce alert fatigue by focusing on actionable hardware status changes

How PRTG Monitors Hardware

PRTG uses multiple protocols to collect hardware health data depending on what the device supports and what access is available. The method matters because different protocols expose different data. Here's how each one works in practice.

SNMP Hardware Monitoring

SNMP is the primary method for network devices and most server hardware. PRTG queries vendor MIBs directly, so Dell PowerEdge sensors pull chassis status and BIOS health, HPE ProLiant sensors track memory controllers and system health, APC sensors cover UPS battery status, load, and runtime. Fan status, power supply condition, temperature readings, component states, error counts. The data comes from the manufacturer's own MIB definitions, not generic OID polling.

WMI Hardware Monitoring

For Windows servers and workstations, PRTG uses WMI to reach hardware information the OS exposes. That includes system data like BIOS serial numbers, IP addresses, MAC addresses, and Windows version, plus hardware inventory and software. The System Information feature pulls all of this automatically and populates specs, installed software, running services, and active processes without any manual queries.

SSH Hardware Monitoring

Linux, Solaris, and macOS hardware gets monitored via SSH. PRTG runs system commands over the connection to retrieve disk space, memory usage, CPU load, system health metrics, and storage array data. Works for physical servers and appliances that surface hardware data through standard command-line utilities.

WBEM Hardware Monitoring

VMware ESXi hosts need a different approach since you're after the physical hardware underneath the hypervisor. PRTG's VMware Host Hardware (WBEM) retrieves pyhsical host metrics such as temperature, fan speed, power supply status, and component health via VMware’s CIM/WBEM interface (if enabled). So you're not just monitoring the VMs, you can see what the physical layer is doing.

Auto-Discovery and Preconfigured Sensors

Auto-discovery scans the network, identifies device types, and deploys the right sensors automatically. Device templates for Dell, HPE, Cisco, APC, and other vendors define which sensors get created and what they monitor. Three modes: default discovery works for most environments, detailed discovery gives broader sensor coverage, template-based discovery gives you full control over what gets deployed. After the initial run you can add sensors manually or adjust templates to match your specific hardware.

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PRTG Hardware Scanning vs. Manual Hardware Diagnostics

FEATURE	Manual Hardware Diagnostics Manual Hardware Diagnostics	PRTG Hardware Scanner PRTG Hardware Scanner
Time to gather hardware status across 50 devices	Manual Hardware Diagnostics Hours. Log into each device individually using vendor tools like iDRAC, iLO, or UPS software	PRTG Hardware Scanner Minutes: all hardware status on one dashboard with real-time updates
Multi-vendor hardware monitoring	Manual Hardware Diagnostics Multiple tools required: Dell OpenManage, HPE OneView, APC PowerChute, Cisco tools, and so on. None of them share data	PRTG Hardware Scanner One platform for Dell, HPE, Cisco, APC, and hundreds of additional device types via SNMP, WMI, and SSH
Historical hardware trends	Manual Hardware Diagnostics Manual: export logs per device, compile into spreadsheets, build graphs yourself	PRTG Hardware Scanner Automatic: PRTG stores historical data and displays trend graphs, including degradation over time
Proactive hardware alerts	Manual Hardware Diagnostics Reactive. You find out when users report something broken, or during a manual check	PRTG Hardware Scanner Threshold-based alerts fire when temperature, fan speed, or component status drifts past your defined limits
Setup and configuration	Manual Hardware Diagnostics Days: vendor-specific agents, separate configuration per device	PRTG Hardware Scanner Minutes: auto-discovery deploys preconfigured sensors, vendor templates handle the rest

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“From a server perspective, we're monitoring all of the key components of our service such as CPU usage, RAM disk space, the Windows services that it's running, and network connectivity of that server. In terms of networks, we’re monitoring all of our switches, firewalls, and access points. It’s really useful to be able to easily pull performance metrics from the PRTG dashboard.”

Ollie Kerslake, Infrastructure Lead

Riverford Organic Farmers

“The tool has given us greater control over all types of devices connected to the network (switches, IP telephony, security cameras, IoT, WiFi) that previously remained opaque when dealing with service incidents. This has improved our ability to diagnose and resolve problems, which has translated into greater efficiency and a better user experience in both internal and public services.”

Jordi Tolosà Bel, New Technologies Technician

Vinaroz City Council

“Our objective was to be able to monitor the health of our most critical servers containing data and applications, but also the flows and bandwidth between headquarters, our 50 servers in the cloud and the 15 servers at our production sites. For us, it is essential to have a proactive approach to understand where the weaknesses of the IT system are to be able to improve them.”

Marc Boullier, CIO

Carambar & Co

Paessler PRTG Network Monitor licenses & pricing

Choose the PRTG Network Monitor subscription that's best for you.

License Name	Price	License Details	Get started	Pricing Details
PRTG 500	^$200	per month paid annually	Buy now Buy now	Enough to monitor multiple aspects of 50 devices
PRTG 1000	^$358	per month paid annually	Buy now Buy now	Enough to monitor multiple aspects of 100 devices
PRTG 2500	^$742	per month paid annually	Buy now Buy now	Enough to monitor multiple aspects of 250 devices
PRTG 5000	^$1,300	per month paid annually	Buy now Buy now	Enough to monitor multiple aspects of 500 devices
PRTG 10000	^$1,642	per month paid annually	Buy now Buy now	Enough to monitor multiple aspects of 1000 devices

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[H2] XXX: Frequently Asked Questions

What types of hardware can PRTG monitor?

The short answer is most things in a standard enterprise environment. Server hardware: Dell PowerEdge, HPE ProLiant, Cisco UCS. Network devices, storage systems (Dell EMC, NetApp, Synology), APC UPS units, HP LaserJet printers, VMware ESXi hosts, Windows and Linux systems. Anything outside the preconfigured vendor list gets covered via SNMP, WMI, SSH, or WBEM. Custom development isn't something you'd typically need.

Does PRTG require agent installation on monitored hardware?

Nothing gets installed on the monitored device. PRTG connects using protocols the hardware already runs: WMI on Windows servers, SNMP on network devices and most servers, SSH on Linux, WBEM on VMware ESXi. That includes appliances where OS access is restricted or unavailable.

What hardware components does PRTG track (CPU, GPU, motherboard, SSDs, etc.)?

That depends partly on the vendor. PRTG collects temperature, fan speed, power supply status, RAID controller health, memory controllers, enclosure health, and component-level status via SNMP or WMI. What actually shows up is determined by what each manufacturer exposes through their MIBs or WMI classes. Dell PowerEdge gives you chassis status, BIOS health, system management data. HPE ProLiant covers memory controllers and system health. Some vendors are more forthcoming than others.

Does PRTG provide real-time hardware monitoring with graphs and dashboards?

Polling runs every 60 seconds by default, adjustable per sensor. Hardware metrics come through as graphs, gauges, or status indicators on dashboards you configure yourself. Historical data stays stored, useful for spotting degradation patterns before they turn into failures. Also accessible via web browsers on desktops, laptops, tablets, and mobile.

What hardware information does PRTG collect (BIOS, motherboard, warranty details, system specs)?

PRTG's System Information feature collects BIOS serial numbers, IP addresses, MAC addresses, operating system versions, installed hardware components, software, and running processes via WMI or SNMP. Refreshes every 24 hours automatically. Worth being direct here: warranty expiration dates are not collected and PRTG doesn't do asset lifecycle management. The focus is hardware health and system status.

Can PRTG monitor network bandwidth and hardware performance together?

PRTG can monitor both network bandwidth and hardware perfromance in the same platform, yes. NetFlow, sFlow, jFlow, IPFIX, and SNMP traffic sensors handle bandwidth alongside hardware health sensors on the same devices. Bandwidth utilization, Top Talkers, Top Connections, and Top Protocols in the same dashboard view as temperature readings and component status. That combination is useful when you're correlating a performance complaint with what the physical hardware was doing at the time.