<%NUMBERING1%>.<%NUMBERING2%>.<%NUMBERING3%> PRTG Manual: Architecture and User Interfaces

PRTG Network Monitor consists of three main categories: System parts, control interfaces, and a basic administration interface.

Core Server

The core server is the heart of your PRTG system and performs the following processes:

• Configuration management for monitoring objects (for example, servers, workstations, printers, switches, routers, virtual machines, and many more)
• Management and configuration of the connected probes
• Cluster management
• Database for monitoring results
• Notification management including a mail server for email delivery
• Report generator and scheduler
• User account management
• Data purging (culling data that is older than 365 days, for example)
• Web server and API server

In a cluster, the current master node is responsible for all of these tasks.

The built-in, fast, and secure web server (no additional IIS or Apache is required) supports HTTP as well as secure HTTPS (via SSL). It serves the web interface when you access it via a browser and also answers PRTG Application Programming Interface (API) calls (for example, for user scripts or the Enterprise Console).

Core server and probe(s) are configured as Windows services that are permanently run by the Windows system without the requirement for a logged-in user.

Probe(s)

On a probe, PRTG performs the actual monitoring via the sensors created on a device (for example, computer, router, server, firewall). The probe receives its configuration from the core server, runs the monitoring processes, and delivers monitoring results back to the core server. On every system running a PRTG core server, there is always a local probe running on the same machine.

Click here to enlarge: http://media.paessler.com/prtg-screenshots/probes.png

The actual monitoring is performed by PRTG probe processes that run on one or more computers. During installation, the system automatically creates the Local Probe. In a single-probe installation—which is the default setup—the local probe performs all monitoring.

The PRTG on premises core server with the local probe inside the corporate LAN (bottom-right in the figure above) is able to monitor services and servers in the entire Local Area Network (LAN). For PRTG on demand you need at least one remote probe installation in your network for this purpose.

Core server and probe(s) are configured as Windows services that are permanently run by the Windows system without the requirement for a logged-in user.

You can create additional Remote Probes to achieve monitoring of multiple locations, for LAN monitoring with PRTG on demand, or for several other scenarios. They use Transport Layer Security (TLS)-secured connections to the core and allow you to securely monitor services and systems inside remote networks that are not openly accessible or are secured by firewalls. For more information, please see Remote Probes and Multiple Probes.

For more information, see this video tutorial on our website: Distributed Monitoring with PRTG using Remote Probes

Click here to enlarge: http://media.paessler.com/prtg-screenshots/remote_probes_en.png

In a cluster setup, a cluster probe runs on all nodes. This is the additional Cluster Probe. All devices that you create on it are monitored by all nodes in the cluster, so data from different perspectives is available and monitoring for these devices always continues, also if one of the nodes fails.

PRTG Mini Probes allow you to create small probes on any device (not just on Windows systems). You can implement mini probes to gather monitoring data exactly like you need it and you can create them on any platform. For more information, see the Mini Probe API definition in the PRTG web interface (see section Application Programming Interface (API) Definition).

PRTG automatically monitors system health of its own core server and of each probe to discover overloading situations that may distort monitoring results. To monitor the system status of the probe computer, PRTG automatically creates a few sensors. These include Core Health and Probe Health, System Health, Cluster Health, disk free, and bandwidth sensors for all installed network cards, as well as a Common SaaS sensor that checks the availability of widely used SaaS providers.

We recommend that you keep these sensors, but you can optionally remove all except the Health sensors. They measure various internal system parameters of the probe system hardware and the probe's internal processes and computes a resulting value. Frequent or repeated values below 100% should be investigated. Please check the channels of a particular sensor for details.

More

Looking for a comprehensive PRTG training? PRTG e-learning in 9 modules:

• https://www.paessler.com/support/training/e-learning

Video Tutorials: Learn about the PRTG Network Monitor basics on the Paessler video tutorials page.

• https://www.paessler.com/support/videos/prtg-basics

Video Tutorial: Distributed Monitoring with PRTG using Remote Probes

• https://www.paessler.com/support/videos/prtg-basics/distributed_monitoring

Video Tutorial: What is a sensor?

• https://www.paessler.com/support/videos/prtg-basics/what-is-a-sensor

Video Tutorial: PRTG User Interfaces

• https://www.paessler.com/support/videos/prtg-basics/user-interfaces

 

Understanding Basic Concepts—Topics

• Architecture and User Interfaces
• Clustering
• Object Hierarchy
• Inheritance of Settings
• Tags
• Dependencies
• Scheduling
• Notifying
• Data Reporting
• User Access Rights
• IPv6