<%NUMBERING1%>.<%NUMBERING2%>.<%NUMBERING3%> PRTG Manual: Monitoring

Available Intervals

Define the intervals available in the dropdown list of every object's settings. In the text field, enter one value in each line. Use s, m, h, and d to define seconds, minutes, hours, and days. By default, the following scanning intervals are available:

• 30s: 30 seconds
• 1m: 60 seconds
• 5m: 5 minutes
• 10m: 10 minutes
• 15m: 15 minutes
• 30m: 30 minutes
• 1h: 1 hour
• 4h: 4 hours
• 6h: 6 hours
• 12h: 12 hours
• 1d: 24 hours

We recommend that you do not use intervals below 10 seconds to prevent system overload. Intervals below 10 seconds are not officially supported. The maximum supported scanning interval is 10 days.

PRTG might convert values that you enter to a more readable equivalent of the values. For example, if you enter 24h (24 hours), PRTG displays this as 1d (one day) in the dropdown list.

Valid values are positive integers followed by s, m, h, and d. You can also define specific points in time to indicate when PRTG executes scanning actions. Enter up to 50 concrete Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) points in time according to the formula @ UTC hh:mm , hh:mm. You do not need to use a space before and/or after the comma. However, PRTG always saves the entries with a space both before and after the comma.

Your local time might be different from the UTC time.

For more information on how to set specific points in time as a scanning time for sensors, see the Knowledge Base: Can I set a sensor to run at a specific time?

Show Unusual When

Define when a sensor shows the Unusual status by comparing the weekday. If you enable the detection here, the average of the values that were measured on the day before is compared to the average of the same weekday in previous weeks. Choose from:

• Never: Disable unusual detection for weekday average.
• 24h average is <80% or >120% of weekday average: The average of the values measured on the day before is either lower than 80% or higher than 120% than usual on the same weekday.
• 24h average is <50% or >200% of weekday average: The average of the values measured on the day before is either lower than 50% or higher than 200% than usual on the same weekday.
• 24h average is <20% or >500% of weekday average (recommended): The average of the values measured on the day before is either lower than 20% or higher than 500% than usual on the same weekday.
• 24h average is <10% or >1,000% of weekday average: The average of the values measured on the day before is either lower than 10% or higher than 1,000% than usual on the same weekday.
• 24h average is <1% or >10,000% of weekday average: The average of the values measured on the day before is either lower than 1% or higher than 10,000% than usual on the same weekday.

For example, consider a traffic sensor that usually measures 100 MB average traffic on a weekday. If you choose the first option, the sensor would show the Unusual status if the average from the day before is below 80 MB or above 120 MB.

Show Unusual When

Define when a sensor shows the Unusual status by comparing the hour of the day. If you enable the detection here, the average of the values that were measured in the hour before is compared to the average of the same hour on the same weekday in previous weeks. Choose from:

• Never: Disable unusual detection for hour-of-day average.
• Hourly average is <80% or >120% of hour-of-day average: The average of the values measured in the hour before is either lower than 80% or higher than 120% than usual in this hour of this weekday.
• Hourly average is <50% or >200% of hour-of-day average: The average of the values measured in the hour before is either lower than 50% or higher than 200% than usual in this hour of this weekday.
• Hourly average is <20% or >500% of hour-of-day average (recommended): The average of the values measured in the hour before is either lower than 20% or higher than 500% than usual in this hour of this weekday.
• Hourly average is <10% or >1,000% of hour-of-day average: The average of the values measured in the hour before is either lower than 10% or higher than 1,000% than usual in this hour of this weekday.
• Hourly average is <1% or >10,000% of hour-of-day average: The average of the values measured in the hour before is either lower than 1% or higher than 10,000% than usual in this hour of this weekday.

Consider a traffic sensor that usually measures 10 MB average traffic within an hour. If you choose the first option, the sensor would show the Unusual status if the average from the hour before is below 8 MB or above 12 MB.

Record Unusual Events

Define if you also want to record unusual events and display them on the Log tab of a sensor that shows the Unusual status:

• Do not record unusual events
• Record and display unusual events on a sensor's Log tab (default)

Analysis Depth

Define the number of channels PRTG analyzes to detect similarities between sensors or turn the analysis off:

• Manage automatically based on sensor count (recommended): The analysis depth depends on the total number of sensors you have configured. PRTG analyzes all channels for up to 500 sensors, and only the primary channels for up to 1,000 sensors. For more than 1,000 sensors, the analysis is turned off. This is the default setting in PRTG on premises.
• Analyze primary channels only: Only the primary channels of sensor are analyzed. Be aware of potentially high CPU load on the PRTG core server system when choosing this setting for more than 1,000 sensors.
• Analyze all channels (higher CPU load): Similarity detection is applied to all channels. Be aware of potentially high CPU load on the PRTG core server system when choosing this setting for more than 500 sensors.
• Turn analysis off: No similarity detection takes place. Choose this option if you are not interested in the analysis results or if you want to keep the CPU load on the PRTG core server system at a minimum.

This is the default setting in PRTG Hosted Monitor.

Detection Engine

Define if you want PRTG to analyze your devices to recommend useful sensors:

• Manage automatically based on sensor count (recommended): PRTG runs the detection engine for installations with up to 5,000 sensors by default. If you exceed this threshold, PRTG disables the detection engine for performance reasons. We recommend that you set this option so you do not miss any important monitoring data about your network, without risking running into performance issues.
• Always show recommendations: PRTG always analyzes your devices even if your installation exceeds 5,000 sensors and you never miss any suggestion to complete your monitoring. If you enable this option, keep this setting in mind in case you encounter performance issues.
• Turn recommendations off: PRTG never recommends sensors. Select this option if you have performance issues with PRTG or if you do not want to see this information on devices' Overview tabs. Moreover, you do not find the option Recommend Now in device context menus or on Overview tabs anymore.

Run Discovery At

Define the time when PRTG automatically runs an auto-discovery in your network if you configured a daily or weekly Schedule in the auto-discovery group settings. Choose a full hour between 0:00 and 23:00. We recommend that you choose a time when there is little user activity in your network because auto-discoveries can produce a certain amount of load.

Beta Sensors

Select if you want to enable or disable sensors in beta status:

• Disable (default): Disable sensors in beta status.
• Enable: Enable sensors in beta status.
  Beta sensors then become available in the Add Sensor dialog.

If you disable beta sensors, existing beta sensors change to the Unknown status.

The operating methods and the available settings of sensors in beta status can change at any time. Do not expect that all functions work properly, or that this sensor works as expected at all. Be aware that sensors in beta status can be removed from PRTG at any time.

PowerShell Security Enhancement

Select if you want to improve PowerShell security by hiding command-line parameters in the process explorer and the event log:

• Disable (default): Disable PowerShell security enhancement.
• Enable: Enable PowerShell security enhancement.

Enabling this feature can also improve the performance of PowerShell sensors.

The operating methods of this feature can change at any time. Do not expect that all functions work properly, or that this feature works as expected at all. Be aware that this feature can be removed from PRTG at any time.

Desired Minimum Uptime

Define which uptime in percent PRTG regards as 100 percent. This setting affects the colors shown next to the sensor icons in reports. Select one of the predefined values between 90 % and 99.999 %.