<%NUMBERING1%>.<%NUMBERING2%>.<%NUMBERING3%> PRTG Manual: Auto-Discovery

Group Name

Enter a meaningful name to identify the group. The name is shown in the device tree and in all alarms.

Tags

Enter one or more tags. Confirm each tag with the space, comma, or enter key. You can use tags to group objects and use tag-filtered views later on. Tags are not case-sensitive. Tags are automatically inherited.

Auto-Discovery Level

Define the level of detail for the auto-discovery:

• Standard auto-discovery (recommended): Creates a set of standard sensors for standard monitoring. This option works fine for most installations.
• Detailed auto-discovery: Creates all standard sensors and additional sensors from detailed variants of device templates. As a result, you might get many sensors. This option is suitable for small network segments and whenever you want to monitor the maximum number of sensors available.
• Auto-discovery with specific device templates: Customize the auto-discovery and select or combine standard, detailed, and custom device templates. From the list below, select one or more templates.

Auto-discoveries can be resource intensive and are primarily intended for devices on the same network as your probes.

Device Templates

This option is only visible if you enable using specific device templates above. Select one or more templates by adding a check mark in front of the respective template name. You can also select all items or cancel the selection by using the check box in the table header. PRTG uses the selected templates for auto-discovery on the selected device. Choose from:

• ADSL
• Amazon Cloudwatch
• Buffalo TeraStation NAS
• Cisco ASA VPN
• Cisco Device (Generic)
• Dell EqualLogic
• Dell MDI Disk
• DNS Server
• Environment Jacarta
• Environment Poseidon
• FTP Server
• Generic Device (PING only)
• Generic Device (SNMP-enabled)
• Generic Device (SNMP-enabled, Detailed)
• HTTP Web Server
• Hyper V Host Server
• IPMI enabled devices
• Juniper NS Device
• Linux/UNIX Device (SNMP or SSH enabled)
• Mail Server (Generic)
• Mail Server (MS Exchange)
• Microsoft SharePoint 2010
• NAS LenovoEMC
• NAS QNAP
• NAS Synology
• NetApp
• NTP Server
• Printer (HP)
• Printer Generic
• RDP Server
• RMON compatible device
• Server (Compaq/HP agents)
• Server (Dell)
• Server Cisco UCS
• Server IBM
• SonicWall
• SSL Security Check
• Switch (Cisco Catalyst)
• Switch (Cisco IOS Based)
• Switch (HP Procurve)
• UNIX/Linux Device
• UPS Health (APC)
• UPS Health (Generic)
• UPS Health (Liebert)
• VMware ESX / vCenter Server
• Webserver
• Windows (Detailed via WMI)
• Windows (via Remote PowerShell)
• Windows (via WMI)
• Windows IIS (via SNMP)
• XEN Hosts
• XEN Virtual Machines

Once the auto-discovery is finished, PRTG creates a new ticket and lists the device templates that it used to create new sensors.

Schedule

Define when PRTG runs the auto-discovery:

• Once: Perform the auto-discovery only once. PRTG adds new devices and sensors once. If you select this option, you have to start the auto-discovery manually.
• Hourly: Perform the auto-discovery for new devices and sensors every 60 minutes.
  Use this option with caution. Frequently executed auto-discoveries might cause performance issues, in particular when large network segments are scanned every hour.
• Daily: Perform the auto-discovery for new devices and sensors every 24 hours. The first auto-discovery runs immediately, all other discoveries start at the time defined in the Auto-Discovery settings section under Setup | System Administration | Monitoring.
• Weekly: Perform auto-discovery for new devices and sensors every 7 days. The first auto-discovery runs immediately, all other discoveries start at the time defined in the Auto-Discovery settings section under Setup | System Administration | Monitoring.

The Schedule is set to Once on all devices created by the scheduled auto-discovery for performance reasons.

IP Selection Method

Specify how you want to define the IP range for auto-discovery:

• Class C base IP with start/end (IPv4): Define an IPv4 class C address range.
• List of individual IPs and DNS names (IPv4): Enter a list of individual IPv4 addresses or Domain Name System (DNS) names.
• IP and subnet (IPv4): Enter an IPv4 address and subnet mask.
• IP with octet range (IPv4): Enter an IPv4 address range for every IP octet individually. With this, you can define very customizable IP ranges.
• List of individual IPs and DNS names (IPv6): Enter a list of individual IPv6 addresses or DNS names.
• Use computers from the Active Directory (maximum 1000 computers): Search in the Active Directory for computers to perform the auto-discovery.
  Specify your Active Directory domain in advance in the system administration. For more information, see section System Administration—Core & Probes.

PRTG can only discover subnets with up to 65,536 IP addresses. If you define a range with a higher number of addresses, the discovery stops before it is completed.

IPv4 Base

This field is only visible if you enable Class C base IP with start/end (IPv4) above. Enter a class C network as IP base for the auto-discovery. Enter the first three octets of an IPv4 IP address, for example, 192.168.0.

IPv4 Range Start

This field is only visible if you enable Class C base IP with start/end (IPv4) above. Enter the IP octet of the class C network specified above from which PRTG starts the auto-discovery. This completes the IP base above to an IPv4 address. For example, enter 1 to discover from 192.168.0.1.

IPv4 Range End

This field is only visible if you enable Class C base IP with start/end (IPv4) above. Enter the IP octet of the class C network specified above at which PRTG stops the auto-discovery. This completes the IP base above to an IPv4 address. For example, enter 254 to discover up to 192.168.0.254.

IPv4/DNS Name List
IPv6/DNS Name List

This field is only visible if you select the List of individual IPs and DNS names option above. Enter a list of IP addresses or DNS names that the auto-discovery scans. Enter each address in a separate line.

IPv4 and Subnet (IPv4)

This field is only visible if you enable IP and subnet (IPv4) above. Enter an expression in the format address/subnet, for example, 192.168.3.0/255.255.255.0. You can also use the short form, like 192.168.3.0/24 in this example. PRTG scans the complete host range (without network and broadcast address) defined by the IP address and the subnet mask.

IP with Octet Range

This field is only visible if you enable IP with octet range (IPv4) above. Enter an expression in the format a1.a2.a3.a4, where a1, a2, a3, and a4 each are a number between 0-255, or a range with two numbers and a hyphen like 1-127. All permutations of all ranges are calculated. For example, 10.0.1-10.1-100 results in 1,000 addresses that PRTG scans during the auto-discovery.

Organizational Unit

This field is only visible if you enable Use computers from the Active Directory (maximum 1000 computers) above. Enter an organizational unit (OU) to restrict the Active Directory search to computers that are part of this OU. For top-level OUs, use the distinguished name (DN) format without OU= and without the domain components (DCS). If you leave this field empty, there are not any restrictions.

Example:

• For the DN OU=Domain Controllers,DC=example,DC=com, enter only Domain Controllers.

Make sure that the OU contains computer accounts. If the OU is empty, you receive an error message.

If you have sub-OUs, use the DN format without the leading OU= and without the DCs.

Examples:

• For the DN OU=webserver,OU=production,DC=example,DC=com, enter only webserver,OU=production.
• For the DN OU=intranet,OU=webserver,OU=production,DC=example,DC=com, enter only intranet,OU=webserver,OU=production.

Make sure that the OU contains computer accounts. If the OU is empty, you receive an error message.

Do not enter the domain components. PRTG automatically uses the domain components from the domain name you entered under Setup | System Administration | Core & Probes.

Name Resolution

Define how to monitor newly discovered devices. This affects only new devices, the setting for other devices remains unchanged. Depending on your selection, the IP Address/DNS Name field of an added device shows the DNS name or IP address that PRTG uses to access the target device. Choose between:

• Use DNS names (recommended): Monitor newly discovered devices via their DNS names (if available).
• Use IP addresses: Monitor newly discovered devices via their IP addresses.

We recommend that you use the default value.

This setting does not affect how PRTG shows the devices in the device tree.

Device Rescan

Define if you want to add devices that already exist to the selected group as well:

• Skip auto-discovery for known devices/IPs (recommended): Do not rescan known devices or IP addresses, only add devices with new IPs or DNS names. PRTG does not add devices that are already included elsewhere in your configuration, for example, in other groups.
• Perform auto-discovery for known devices/IPs: Rescan devices with known IP addresses with every auto-discovery. This option adds devices that already exist in other groups to this group as well and runs the auto-discovery on the newly added devices.
  The auto-discovery does not run on devices that already exist in this group. If you want to run the auto-discovery for these devices, you have to start the auto-discovery on these devices manually.

We recommend that you use the default value.

In certain cases, the IP resolution might not work and might result in a device not being added if it has the same local IP address as in a different LAN.

Click to interrupt the inheritance. See section Inheritance of Settings for more information.

Domain or Computer Name

Define the authority for Windows access. This is used for Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) and other Windows sensors. If you want to use a Windows local user account on the target device, enter the computer name here. If you want to use a Windows domain user account (recommended), enter the (Active Directory) domain name here. If not explicitly defined, PRTG automatically adds a prefix to use the NT LAN Manager (NTLM) protocol. Do not leave this field empty.

User

Enter the username for Windows access. Usually, you use credentials with administrator rights.

Password

Enter the password for Windows access. Usually, you use credentials with administrator rights.

Click to interrupt the inheritance. See section Inheritance of Settings for more information.

User

Enter a login name for the access via Secure Shell (SSH) and Web-based Enterprise Management (WBEM). Usually, you use credentials with administrator rights.

Login

Define the authentication method to use for login:

• Login via Password: Provide a password for login.
• Login via Private Key: Provide a private key for authentication.
  PRTG can only handle keys in OpenSSH format that are not encrypted. You cannot use password-protected keys here. In the text field, paste the entire private key, including the "BEGIN" and "END" lines. Make sure that the respective public key is provided on the target machine. For details, see section Monitoring via SSH.

Password

This field is only visible if you enable Login via Password above. Enter a password for the Linux access via SSH and WBEM. Usually, you use credentials with administrator rights.

Private Key

This field is only visible if you enable Login via Private Key above. Paste a private key into the field (OpenSSH format, unencrypted). Usually, you use credentials with administrator rights.

If you do not insert a private key for the first time, but change the private key, you need to restart the PRTG core server service for the private key change to take effect. For details, see section Monitoring via SSH.

For WBEM Use Protocol

This setting is only relevant if you use WBEM sensors.

Define the protocol to use for WBEM:

• HTTP: Use an unencrypted connection for WBEM.
• HTTPS: Use a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encrypted connection for WBEM.

For WBEM Use Port

This setting is only relevant if you use WBEM sensors.

Define the port to use for WBEM:

• Set automatically (port 5988 or 5989): Use one of the standard ports, depending on whether you choose unencrypted or encrypted connection above.
• Set manually: Use a custom port.

WBEM Port

This setting is only visible if you enable Set manually above. Enter the WBEM port number.

SSH Port

Enter the port number to use for SSH connections.

By default, PRTG automatically uses this setting for all SSH sensors unless you define a different port number in the sensor settings.

SSH Rights Elevation

Define the rights that you want to use to execute the command on the target system:

• Run the command as the user connecting (default): Use the rights of the user who establishes the SSH connection, as defined above.
• Run the command as another user using 'sudo' (with password): Use the rights of another user with a password required for sudo to run commands on the target device, for example, as root user.
• Run the command as another user using 'sudo' (without password): Use the rights of another user without a password required for sudo to run commands on the target device, for example, as root user.
• Run the command as another user using 'su': Use the rights of another user with su to run commands on the target device.

Target User

This field is only visible if you select a sudo or su option above. Enter a username to run the specified command as a user other than root. If you leave this field empty, you run the command as root. Make sure that you set the Linux password even if you use a public or private key for authentication. This is not necessary if the user is allowed to execute the command without a password.

Password

This field is only visible if you choose to run the commands using su or sudo with password above. Enter the password for the specified target user.

SSH Engine

Select the method that you want to use to access data with SSH sensors:

We strongly recommend that you keep the default engine. For now, you can still use the legacy mode to ensure compatibility with your target systems.

• Default (recommended): This is the default monitoring method for SSH sensors. It provides the best performance and security.
• Compatibility Mode (deprecated): Try this legacy method only if the default mode does not work on a target device. The compatibility mode is the SSH engine that PRTG used in previous versions and is deprecated. We will remove this legacy option soon, so try to get your SSH sensors running with the default SSH engine.

You can also individually select the SSH engine for each SSH sensor in the sensor settings.

Click to interrupt the inheritance. See section Inheritance of Settings for more information.

User

Enter a login name for access to VMware and Xen servers. Usually, you use credentials with administrator rights.

Password

Enter a password for access to VMware and Xen servers. Usually, you use credentials with administrator rights.

single sign on (SSO) passwords for vSphere do not support special characters. See the sections for VMware sensors for details.

VMware Protocol

Define the protocol used for the connection to VMware and XenServer:

• HTTPS (recommended): Use a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encrypted connection to VMware and Xen servers.
• HTTP: Use an unencrypted connection to VMware and Xen servers.

Session Pool

Define if you want to use session pooling for VMware sensors:

• Reuse session for multiple scans (recommended): Select this option to use session pooling. With session pooling, a VMware sensor uses the same session as created in advance to query data and does not need to log in and out for each sensor scan. We recommend that you choose this option because it reduces network load and log entries on the target device, resulting in better performance.
• Create a new session for each scan: If you select this option and disable session pooling, a VMware sensor has to log in and out for each sensor scan. We recommend that you use the session pooling option above for better performance.

Click to interrupt the inheritance. See section Inheritance of Settings for more information.

The settings you define in this section apply to the following sensors:

• ADO SQL v2 sensor
• Microsoft SQL v2 sensor
• MySQL v2 sensor
• Oracle SQL v2 sensor
• PostgreSQL sensor

Port for Databases

Define which ports PRTG uses for connections to the monitored databases:

• Set automatically (default port, recommended): PRTG automatically determines the type of the monitored database and uses the corresponding default port to connect. See below for a list of default ports.
• Define one custom port valid for all database sensors: Choose this option if your database management systems do not use the default ports. Define the port for database connections manually below. If you choose this option, PRTG uses the custom port for all database sensors.

If you choose the automatic port selection, PRTG uses the following default ports:

• Microsoft SQL: 1433
• MySQL: 3306
• Oracle SQL: 1521
• PostgreSQL: 5432

Custom Database Port

Enter the number of the port that PRTG uses for database connections. Enter an integer value.

All database sensors on this device use this port to connect.

Authentication Mode

Select the authentication method for the connection to the Structured Query Language (SQL) database:

• Windows authentication with impersonation: If you select this option, PRTG uses the Windows credentials as defined in the particular device settings for the database connection.
  The user whose credentials are used needs to have permission to log on to the probe system with a database sensor. This is required for the impersonation.
• SQL server authentication: Choose this option if you want to use explicit credentials for database connections.

User

This field is only visible if you enable SQL server authentication above. Enter the username for the database connection.

Password

This field is only visible if you enable SQL server authentication above. Enter the password for the database connection.

Timeout (Sec.)

Enter a timeout in seconds for the request. Enter an integer value. If the reply takes longer than this value defines, the sensor cancels the request and triggers an error message. The maximum timeout value is 300 seconds (5 minutes).

Click to interrupt the inheritance. See section Inheritance of Settings for more information.

Access Key

Enter your Amazon Web Services (AWS) access key.

For more information about the permissions that are required for querying the AWS API, see the Knowledge Base: How do I set permissions for the Amazon Web Services (AWS) API key to use certain sensors in PRTG?

Secret Key

Enter your AWS secret key.

For more information about the permissions that are required for querying the AWS API, see the Knowledge Base: How do I set permissions for the Amazon Web Services (AWS) API key to use certain sensors in PRTG?

Click to interrupt the inheritance. See section Inheritance of Settings for more information.

SNMP Version

Select the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) version for the device connection:

• v1: Use the simple v1 protocol for SNMP connections. This protocol only offers clear-text data transmission, but it is usually supported by all devices.
  SNMP v1 does not support 64-bit counters. This might result in invalid data when monitoring traffic via SNMP.
• v2c (recommended): Use the more advanced v2c protocol for SNMP connections. This is the most common SNMP version. Data is still transferred as clear text, but SNMP v2c supports 64-bit counters.
• v3: Use the v3 protocol for SNMP connections. It provides secure authentication and data encryption.

When using SNMP v3, you can only monitor a limited number of sensors per second because of internal limitations. The limit is somewhere between 1 and 50 sensors per second (depending on the SNMP latency of your network). This means that using an interval of 60 seconds limits you to between 60 and 3000 SNMP v3 sensors for each probe. If you experience an increased Interval Delay or Open Requests with the Probe Health sensor, distribute the load over multiple probes. SNMP v1 and v2 do not have this limitation.

Community String

This setting is only visible if you select SNMP version v1 or v2c above. Enter the community string of your devices. This is a kind of "clear-text password" for simple authentication. We recommend that you use the default value.

Authentication Type

This setting is only visible if you select SNMP version v3 above. Select the authentication type:

• MD5: Use message-digest algorithm 5 (MD5) for authentication.
• SHA: Use Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) for authentication.

If you do not want to use authentication, but you need SNMP v3, for example, because your device requires context, you can leave the field Password empty. In this case, SNMP_SEC_LEVEL_NOAUTH is used and authentication is entirely deactivated.

The type you select must match the authentication type of your device.

User

This setting is only visible if you select SNMP version v3 above. Enter a username for secure authentication. This value must match the username of your device.

Password

This setting is only visible if you select SNMP version v3 above. Enter a password for secure authentication. This value must match the password of your device.

Encryption Type

This setting is only visible if you select SNMP version v3 above. Select an encryption type:

• DES: Use Data Encryption Standard (DES) as encryption algorithm.
• AES: Use Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) as encryption algorithm.

AES-192 and AES-256 are not supported by Net-SNMP. They lack RFC specification.

The type that you select must match the encryption type of your device.

Data Encryption Key

This setting is only visible if you select SNMP version v3 above. Enter an encryption key. If you provide a key, SNMP data packets are encrypted using the encryption algorithm selected above, which provides increased security. The key must match the encryption key of your device. Enter a string or leave the field empty.

If the key does not match the key configured on the target SNMP device, you do not get an error message.

Context Name

This setting is only visible if you select SNMP version v3 above. Enter a context name only if it is required by the configuration of the device. Context is a collection of management information accessible by an SNMP device. Enter a string.

SNMP Port

Enter the port for the SNMP communication. We recommend that you use the default value.

SNMP Timeout (Sec.)

Enter a timeout in seconds for the request. Enter an integer value. If the reply takes longer than the value you enter here, the request is canceled and an error message is triggered. The maximum timeout value is 300 seconds (5 minutes).

Click to interrupt the inheritance. See section Inheritance of Settings for more information.

The proxy settings determine how a sensor connects to a URL. You can enter data for an HTTP proxy server that sensors use when connecting via HTTP or HTTPS.

This setting only affects monitoring and it determines the behavior of HTTP sensors. To change proxy settings for the PRTG core server, see section System Administration—Core & Probes.

The SSL Certificate sensor and the SSL Security Check sensor do not support HTTP proxies but you can configure connections via SOCKS proxies in the sensors' settings.

Name

Enter the IP address or Domain Name System (DNS) name of the proxy server. If you leave this field empty, no proxy is used.

Port

Enter the port number of the proxy. Often, port 8080 is used. Enter an integer value.

User

If the proxy requires authentication, enter the username for the proxy login.

Only basic authentication is available. Enter a string or leave the field empty.

Password

If the proxy requires authentication, enter the password for the proxy login.

Only basic authentication is available. Enter a string or leave the field empty.

Click to interrupt the inheritance. See section Inheritance of Settings for more information.

User Group Access

Define the user groups that have access to the object. You see a table with user groups and group access rights. The table contains all user groups in your setup. For each user group, you can choose from the following group access rights:

• Inherited: Inherit the access rights settings of the parent object.
• No access: Users in this user group cannot see or edit the object. The object neither shows up in lists nor in the device tree.
  There is one exception: If a user in this user group has access to a child object, the parent object is visible in the device tree but users in this user group cannot access it.
• Read access: Users in this group can see the object and view its monitoring results. They cannot edit any settings.
• Write access: Users in this group can see the object, view its monitoring results, and edit its settings. They cannot edit its access rights settings.
• Full access: Users in this group can see the object, view its monitoring results, edit its settings, and edit its access rights settings.

To automatically set all child objects to inherit this object's access rights, enable the Revert children's access rights to inherited option.

For more details on access rights, see section Access Rights Management.