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PRTG Manual: Review Monitoring Data

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Probe, group, device, and sensor pages have tabs that you can use to navigate between the different options. For example, you can view your network's status, view monitoring results, or change settings.

Tabs Bar on Sensor Pages

Overview

The Overview tab shows an overview of the currently selected object and its sensors. The pages share a common structure, but some elements differ, depending on the type of object:

For probes and groups, the Overview tab shows a tree-like view with devices and sensors, a Geo Map, as well as summary graphs for different timespans of the current probe or group.
For devices, the Overview tab shows device details, a Geo Map, and summary graphs for different timespans, colored gauges for high priority sensors, as well as a table list of all sensors on this device. Additionally, you see a table list with Recommended Sensors.

You can turn off the sensor recommendation (and disable this table list) in System Administration—Monitoring.

Assign 4 star (****) or 5 star (*****) priorities to the sensors to display their gauges on your device overview pages. 5 star sensors are represented by larger gauges (upper row on the screenshot) rather than 4 star sensors (lower row on the screenshot).

For sensors, the Overview tab shows sensor details, current status, colored gauges, sensor graphs for different timespans, a table with all sensor channels, as well as similar sensors which show correlations in your network.
Gauges and switches represent sensor values on Overview tabs of devices and channel values on Overview tabs of sensors. They visualize the current value of a sensor or a channel, so you can use them as a quick status indicator. The red and yellow sections of gauges correspond to the error and warning limits of the sensor channel settings. Device overview tabs only show gauges of high priority sensors, sensors with priorities of 3 stars (***) or less are omitted here. Sensor overview tabs show gauges of all sensor channels (except the Downtime channel), regardless of priority. The primary channel is displayed with the large gauge. Sensor channels that display binary values such as on/off or successful/failing (due to your lookup configuration) are visualized as switches not gauges. Switches only show red or green for their respective two states.

For the gauge to remain legible, we recommend that you stay below 120 lookup values for primary channels, which belong to sensors with a 5 star priority. For sensors with a priority of 4 stars, the recommended limit is around 40 lookup values.

Device Overview Tab with Gauges for High Priority Sensors, Sensors Table List, Geo Map, and Mini Graphs

Click here to enlarge: https://media-s3.paessler.com/prtg-screenshots/device_overview_tab2.png

Toplists

Toplists are available for xFlow and Packet Sniffer sensors only. Toplist graphs are displayed right on the sensor overview page. Please see the section Toplists.

Live Data and Data By x Days

Select one of the tabs Live Data (available for sensors only), 2 days, 30 days, or 365 days to display an object's monitoring data live (sensors only), or for different timespans and in more or less detail. The time that graph legends and data tables show depends on the time zone settings for the currently logged in user.

The days mentioned here is the default setting. You can change the shown days of the different graphs under System Administration—User Interface.

2 Days Tab of a Firewall with Overview Graph and Sensor Mini Graphs

Click here to enlarge: https://media-s3.paessler.com/prtg-screenshots/2days_devicetab.png

Live Data and Data By x Days—Probes, Groups, and Devices

For probes, groups, and devices, each of the tabs shows a summary graph for the current object and mini graphs for all sensors on this object, as well as a data table for the current object. For performance reasons, PRTG never displays more than 50 mini graphs. Hover over a mini graph to display the graph legend.

Summary graphs show the number of alarms as well as three index graphs. These graphs indicate response time, CPU usage, and bandwidth usage for all sensors. Index graphs are similar to a stock index. The shown values are based on the readings of all sensors of this object. PRTG computes these values using statistics and by comparing the values to the highest and lowest readings ever recorded.

The three index graphs show overall (or global) trends in your network. If these values increase over a specific time frame, then CPU load, bandwidth load, or response time respectively have worsened during this time. For example, a CPU Load Index value of 90% means that the average CPU load for all CPU sensors of your current configuration is at 90% of the highest ever measured CPU usage value.

The following four channels are available in the summary graph:

Alarms: Sums up the number of all down states of sensors on this object during the given time span. This graph provides you a bird's eye view of your network issues. It cannot be hidden.
Response Time Index: Indicates the request times in your network.
CPU Load Index: Indicates the CPU usage in your network.
Traffic Index: Indicates the bandwidth usage in your network.

For more details about the index graphs, see the Knowledge Base: How does PRTG compute CPU Index, Traffic Index and Response Time Index?

You can hide all channels individually except the "Alarms" channel. To do this, remove the check mark symbol in front of a channel name besides the graph, and the corresponding channel's line will disappear. You can also Show all or Hide all channels by clicking on the buttons below the channel names. The graph view will be reset immediately.

Sensor Live Data Tab for a Traffic Sensor

Live Data and Data By x Days—Sensors

For sensors, each tab shows a graph and data table for the selected sensor. When viewing the data of a sensor running on a cluster probe, you can additionally select if you want to show the data of all nodes, or of one specific node only. Please use the Select Cluster Member bar below the tabs.

Multi-node graphs are never displayed as filled graphs, but are displayed with lines only. However, historic data reports can have filled multi-node graphs.

While viewing a sensor graph you can hide single sensor channels individually. Simply remove the check mark symbol in front of a channel name below the graph, and the according channel's line will disappear. You can also Show all or Hide all channels by clicking on the buttons besides the channel names.

Live Data and Data By x Days—Interactive Graphs

The graphs on a sensor's historic data tabs and in "zoomed graphs in new windows" (see below) belonging to other monitoring objects are all interactive. You can zoom in and scroll along the time axis with the corresponding buttons.

Graph Buttons

The following actions are available for graphs:

<< scrolls one graph window left and >> one graph window right. The scrolled time depends on the graph you select, for example, 2 days on a 2 days graph.
< scrolls left and > right on the time axis. The scrolled time depends on the graph you select.
+ zooms into and - out of the graph. The displayed time depends on the graph selected. For example, you can zoom in a 30 days graph so that it shows data for 6 days.
x resets the graph to the default view.

In the upper right corner of each graph, three small icons are located :

Zoom graph in new window: Opens a larger version of the graph in a new browser window.
Download the graph (PNG or SVG): Shows a PNG or SVG file of the graph in a new browser window. You can then save or copy it for later use.

For each graph, you can also choose which specific channels (only on sensor pages) or indexes you want to see via the corresponding check boxes or the Show all and Hide all buttons.

Warning or error limits are only shown in graphs (highlighted in yellow or red) if you select exactly one channel with a limit.

Historic Data

The Historic Data tab is available for sensors only. Please see section Historic Data Reports.

Sensor Lists

Viewing lists of sensors is a great way to keep an eye on your network status because you can select which kind of sensors you would like to see. There are many different sensor list views available, such as a list of favorite sensors and top 10 lists, lists filtered by current sensor status, value, availability, tag or type, sensor cross reference, and many more.

Sensor lists are accessible via the main menu bar. Click the Sensors entry to show a table list of all sensors. In the table list displayed here, you can re-arrange the items by clicking the column's header items (see section Working with Table Lists). Hover over it to show other menu options. For detailed information about the available options, see the Main Menu Structure (Sensors) section.

Alarms

The Alarms tab is not available for sensors, but for probes, groups, and devices only. Please see the Alarms section.

System Information

The System Information tab is available for devices only. Please see section System Information.

Log

The Logs tab shows past activities and events regarding the currently selected object. Please see the Logs section.