SSH monitoring with PRTG
Check mission-critical Unix network components securely
- Monitor macOS, Linux, and other Unix-based devices through Secure Shell
- Keep an eye on the health and performance of your SAN
- Get automatically alerted about performance issues with custom notifications
PRTG makes SSH monitoring easy
Custom alerts and data visualizations make it easy to monitor, identify, and prevent Linux server availability and performance issues.
Simple, effective, secure: Greater security doesn’t mean less usability
It's hard to beat SSH for security.
But if your organization's network uses various Windows Server versions as well as macOS and Linux systems, and other Unix network devices – and, let's face it, that's the case in most organizations – the number of different monitoring tools you'll need to have in place can quickly reach a hair-tearing level of complexity.
The whole point of network monitoring tools is that they should make your life easier, not harder. Which is why we've designed Paessler PRTG to be as simple and intuitive as it gets.
Whether your devices support SSH, SNMP, or another protocol, our monitoring environment brings together all your data in one place, giving you a single, unified view of your network's health, and taking the effort out of ensuring it stays fast, stable, and reliable.
What SSH monitoring looks like in PRTG
Diagnose network issues by continuously monitoring FTP servers, storage area networks (SAN), and Linux network components. Show response time, disk space, system health, and other key metrics in real time and visualize data in graphic maps & dashboards to identify problems more easily. Gain the visibility you need to troubleshoot low availability, high memory load, lack of disk space, and more.
Start monitoring via SSH with PRTG and see how it can make your network more reliable and your job easier.
Reasons why to choose PRTG as your SSH monitoring tool
Effortless setup
No need to fiddle about with device settings. Or, worse, install software on every device you want to monitor. Our agentless monitoring software comes with an automatic network discovery that will detect the devices, establish your SSH connection, and even set up the appropriate sensors for you.
Complete visibility
Availability. Performance. Operating system status. Memory. Server load. With a range of SSH-native sensors and the ability to create your own, PRTG can track every variable you can think of, and present the data in a format anyone can understand.
Speedy troubleshooting
Zoom in on problems promptly, before they spiral out of control. Once you pick your preferred thresholds, PRTG watches them like a hawk and alerts you using customizable notification templates if your device risks going under or over. Which means fewer disruptions and a shorter to-do list.
Secure data traffic
Keep track of important health stats, without putting your organization at risk. PRTG's SSH sensors support all major encryption algorithms and authentication cyphers, so unauthorized individuals won't be able to make sense of your data, even if they manage to intercept it.
Easily find the source of the problem with our PRTG SSH monitoring solution
Real-time alerts and custom notifications make it easy to solve issues such as low availability, high memory load, lack of disk space, and other performance issues of Unix-based systems.
PRTG is compatible with all major vendors, products, and systems
How to monitor your network using Secure Shell
Connected a device to PRTG using its IP address or DNS name? PRTG comes with many preconfigured sensors for SSH monitoring out of the box.
- The SFTP Secure File Transfer Protocol sensor monitors the response time of Linux and Unix FTP servers using FTP over SSH.
- The SSH SAN System Health, SSH SAN Physical Disk, SSH SAN Logical Disk, and SSH SAN Enclosure sensors keep a close eye on your storage area networks' physical and logical disks, system status, I/O operations, transferred data, and hardware health parameters such as voltage or temperature.
- The SSH Remote Ping checks the connectivity, response time, and packet loss between Linux or macOS and other devices using ICMP, echo requests, and SSH.
- The SSH Meminfo sensor monitors memory use on Linux and Unix systems.
- The SSH Load Average sensor monitors Linux and Unix systems' load averages.
- The SSH INodes Free and SSH Disk Free sensors monitor free index nodes and free disk space on Linux, Unix, and macOS system disks.
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Can't find what you need? Write your own.
Create a script via the PRTG API that returns a numerical value, XML file, or JSON file from the device you want to monitor and track it using the SSH Script sensor. Or use SSH Script Advanced if you want to track multiple channels.
PRTG makes SSH monitoring easy
Custom alerts and data visualizations make it easy to monitor, identify, and prevent Linux server availability and performance issues.
“Excellent tool for detailed monitoring. Alarms and notifications work greatly. Equipment addition is straight forward and server initial setup is very easy. ...feel safe to purchase it if you intend to monitor a large networking landscape.”
Infrastructure and Operations Engineer in the Communications Industry, firm size 10B - 30B USD
Create innovative solutions with Paessler’s partners
Partnering with innovative vendors, Paessler unleashes synergies to create
new and additional benefits for joined customers.
UVexplorer integrates tightly with PRTG to bring fast and accurate network discovery, detailed device inventory, and automatic network mapping to the PRTG platform.
UVnetworks
Easily find the source of the problem with our PRTG SSH monitoring solution
Real-time alerts and custom notifications make it easy to solve issues such as low availability, high memory load, lack of disk space, and other performance issues of Unix-based systems.
Monitor using SSH: FAQ
What is the SSH protocol?
SSH (Secure Shell) is a protocol that creates an encrypted connection between two systems, enabling them to exchange data securely over unsecured connections.
Think of it as sending a padlocked box made of bulletproof steel through the post. While somebody might be able to get their hands on the box without permission, doing so would be useless, because the tough material and padlock mean they wouldn't be able to open it and find out what's inside.
Similarly, while somebody might be able to intercept data transferred over SSH, they wouldn't be able to make sense of it without the encryption key.
How does SSH work?
The SSH client initiates a connection to the SSH server on a specific port (default is port 22).
The SSH server responds with its public key and a list of supported encryption and hashing algorithms.
The client and server negotiate to select a mutually supported encryption, hashing, and SSH key exchange algorithm.
The client and server use the chosen key exchange algorithm (e.g., Diffie-Hellman) to securely generate a shared secret key. This key is used to encrypt the session.
The client uses the server's public key to verify the server’s identity. If the server’s public key matches a known and trusted key stored on the client, the server is authenticated.
The client must authenticate itself to the server using one or more methods such as:
- The client sends a password to the server (encrypted).
- The client uses a private key to sign a message. The server verifies this signature using the client’s public key.
Once both the server and client are authenticated, an encrypted session is established using the shared secret key.
All data sent between the client and server is encrypted, ensuring confidentiality and integrity. SSH can be used for various purposes such as remote command execution, file transfer (using SCP or SFTP), and tunneling other protocols.
What is SSH monitoring?
SSH (Secure Shell) monitoring refers to the process of overseeing and tracking activities and connections related to SSH, a protocol used for securely accessing remote computers. Main aspects include:
- Session logs: Monitoring logs to track when users connect and disconnect, including timestamps and source IP addresses.
- Failed login attempts: Keeping an eye on failed login attempts to identify potential brute-force attacks or unauthorized access attempts.
- Concurrent sessions: Monitoring the number of active SSH sessions to detect unusual activity or resource usage.
- Command logging: Tracking commands executed by users during their SSH sessions to audit actions and detect malicious activities.
- File transfers: Monitoring file uploads and downloads via SCP or SFTP to ensure data security and compliance with policies.
- Unusual patterns: Detecting unusual login patterns, such as access from unusual locations or at unusual times.
- Intrusion detection: Integrating with intrusion detection systems (IDS) to correlate SSH activity with other network events for comprehensive security monitoring.
- Resource usage: Monitoring the resources consumed by SSH sessions, such as CPU and memory usage, to ensure system performance.
- Latency and throughput: Tracking the performance of SSH connections to diagnose network issues or bottlenecks.
- Access control: Ensuring that only authorized users can establish SSH connections.
How does SSH monitoring work in PRTG?
PRTG can collect health and performance data and system information from any device that supports SSH access. This includes macOS, Linux, and UNIX-based hardware or software. SSH's security, encryption, and remote access and command execution capabilities also make it a good choice for monitoring storage area networks.
How do I set up SSH monitoring in PRTG?
In PRTG's device settings, key in the login details for the system you want to monitor, ideally with root access. That's it. PRTG will connect to it and establish the connection. You can log in with a password or OpenSSH-RSA private key, and set it up so any new devices are added to your monitoring environment automatically.
Which types of encryption algorithms do PRTG's SSH sensors support?
PRTG supports ciphers, MACs, key exchange algorithms, and host key algorithms. Here's a list of the specific values we support.
What is a sensor in PRTG?
In PRTG, “sensors” are the basic monitoring elements. One sensor usually monitors one measured value in your network, for example the traffic of a switch port, the CPU load of a server, or the free space on a disk drive.
On average, you need about 5-10 sensors per device or one sensor per switch port.
PRTG: The multi-tool for sysadmins
Adapt PRTG individually and dynamically to your needs and rely on a strong API:- HTTP API: Access monitoring data and manipulate monitoring objects via HTTP requests
- Custom sensors: Create your own PRTG sensors for customized monitoring
- Custom notifications: Create your own notifications and send action triggers to external systems
- REST Custom sensor: Monitor almost everything that provides data in XML or JSON format
Paessler conducted trials in over 600 IT departments worldwide to tune its network monitoring software closer to the needs of sysadmins. We asked: would you recommend PRTG?
Over 95% of our customers say yes!
The result of the survey: over 95% of the participants would recommend PRTG – or already have.
Paessler PRTG is used by companies of all sizes. Sysadmins love PRTG because it makes their job a whole lot easier. Bandwidth, servers, virtual environments, websites, VoIP services – PRTG keeps an eye on your entire network. Everyone has different monitoring needs. That’s why we let you try PRTG for free.Still not convinced?
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Start monitoring via SSH with PRTG and see how it can make your network more reliable and your job easier.
PRTG |
Network Monitoring Software - Version 24.3.100.1361 (September 25th, 2024) |
Hosting |
Download for Windows and cloud-based version PRTG Hosted Monitor available |
Languages |
English, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese |
Pricing |
Up to 100 sensors for free (Price List) |
Unified Monitoring |
Network devices, bandwidth, servers, applications, virtual environments, remote systems, IoT, and more |
Supported Vendors & Applications |