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PRTG Manual: System Information

<%NUMBERING1%>.<%NUMBERING2%>.<%NUMBERING3%> PRTG Manual: System Information

With the System Information feature, you can see what is going on in the systems you have in your network. It shows

basic system data of your device like BIOS serial number or MAC and IP addresses,
all connected hardware types as well as their states and properties,
the software you have installed, including version and vendor information,
the users connected to your system and their domains,
a list of all active or stopped Windows system services plus their properties, and
a list of all processes that are running on your system, including their ID and start time.

System Information Tab on a Windows Device

System Information is available for all devices that you add and that run with an officially supported Windows version. You can also retrieve system information from Linux, Unix, or other devices that have the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) enabled.

Some of the system information listed earlier may not be available depending on the request method you use (Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) or SNMP). To get all available information, activate both request methods, as far as possible.

Find and Use System Information

Go to a device and click the System Information tab to see available information.

Basically, you already meet the main prerequisites for retrieving system information for your device if you already monitor a network device with WMI and SNMP sensors. The System Information feature uses the same technologies. The data is automatically displayed in the corresponding System Information table and you can directly analyze your system. If you do not use WMI or SNMP sensors yet, see section Prerequisites that shows in detail what you need to get system information.

System Information is enabled by default. To retrieve the data, PRTG automatically uses the Credentials for Windows Systems and the Credentials for SNMP Devices as defined in the device settings or as inherited from a parent object like the root group. Consider this when you monitor devices outside the local network, especially when using SNMP v1 or SNMP v2c that do not provide encryption.

PRTG automatically uses the SNMP Compatibility Options as defined in the device settings or as inherited from a parent object like the root group.

System information for your devices is for informational purposes only. We cannot guarantee that the data displayed in PRTG fully corresponds to the device parameters.

You cannot use this feature on the hosted probe of a PRTG hosted by Paessler instance. You can use this feature on remote probes.

Prerequisites

Fulfill the following requirements to show all available system information data for a device. It is not necessary to fulfill every single requirement, but then, some tables do not show all data or may even remain empty. For example, if you do not configure SNMP on the target device, you get less information for the System table.

Valid credentials in the device settings (or inherited): Enter correct settings for the target device in the sections Credentials for Windows Systems and Credentials for SNMP Devices.
Remote Registry Windows service: Enable the Remote Registry Windows service on the target computer, for example, via services.msc, and set the start type to automatic.
Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Windows service: Enable the RPC Windows service on the target computer, for example, via services.msc, and set the start type to automatic.
WMI on the probe system and target system: Configure WMI on the target system and on the probe system with the device. In particular, configure the firewall of the target system to allow WMI. For more information, see section Monitoring via WMI and the Knowledge Base: General Introduction to WMI and PRTG.
SNMP on the target system: Configure SNMP on the target system. For more information, see section Monitoring via SNMP and the Knowledge Base: General Introduction to SNMP and PRTG.

Usually, you see data come in after a few minutes, depending on the protocols you use (WMI takes longer than SNMP). A System Information table shows an error message if PRTG cannot get data, for example, because of misconfiguration.

For more information about error messages, see the Knowledge Base: How can PRTG get data for System Information tables?

No Data Available: Check the Preconditions

System Information (Device Tab)

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 for Devices

Select a device and click the System Information tab.

If you do not see a System Information tab for your device, you need to enable System Information in section Advanced Network Monitoring in the device settings (or inherit it from an object higher in the hierarchy). System Information is enabled by default. If System Information is disabled, the System Information tab is not available for the device.

Analyze Your Systems

On the System Information tab, PRTG displays a table for each system information category for this device: System, Hardware, Software, Users, Services, and Processes.

Category	System Information	Request Method (WMI or SNMP)
System	Show information about the device like BIOS serial number, IP addresses, MAC addresses, and Windows version.	WMI and SNMP
Hardware	Show hardware that is connected to the device like disk drives, CD/DVD, video controllers, processors, network adapters, sound devices, printers, and memory. You can see Class and Caption of a hardware device. In the Properties column, you get more information about the hardware (for example, the description).	WMI and SNMP
Software	Show installed software and the Version number on the device. In the Properties column, you get more information about the software (for example, the size). PRTG uses Uninstall registry keys to retrieve the list of installed software, so the displayed software might differ from the software that the target Windows system shows under Programs and Features. The System Information scan for software on the probe device uses the credentials that the probe runs with and ignores credentials from the Settings tab.	WMI and SNMP
Users	Show the user accounts connected to the device and their Domain.	WMI
Services	Show the available Windows services on the device. This table shows the State of the service (running, stopped) and the start type (Startmode automatic, manual, or disabled). In the Properties column, you can get more information about a service (for example, the description).	WMI
Processes	Show the processes that are running on the device as listed on the Processes tab of the Windows Task Manager. You can also see the Start Time (only WMI) and Process ID of a process.	WMI and SNMP

Click the refresh button in the upper-right corner of a table to retrieve new information for this System Information category. The time stamp shows the time passed since the last table refresh.

Table Refresh

PRTG automatically retrieves data for all tables once every 24 hours, including System, Hardware, and Software. The tables Users, Services, and Processes refresh each time you open the System Information tab. PRTG also updates all system information tables when the PRTG core server is restarted, for example, after an update.

PRTG can perform up to 24 system information scans simultaneously, so it may take some time until the tables are filled after a server restart.

You can sort each table via the column headers. For more information, see section Working with Table Lists.

User accounts with read-only access rights can view system information on the respective device, but they cannot manually refresh tables.

Data Storage

PRTG stores data files with the retrieved system information in the corresponding \System Information Database subfolders of the PRTG data directory.

If you delete a device, the system information files of this device remain in these subfolders unless you manually delete them.

PRTG uses the following subfolders for System Information data.

System Information Database Subfolders
hardware	Data for the Hardware table
loggedonusers	Data for the Users table
processes	Data for the Processes table
services	Data for the Services table
software	Data for the Software table
system	Data for the System table

KNOWLEDGE BASE

How can PRTG get data for System Information tables?

https://kb.paessler.com/en/topic/67824

My WMI sensors don't work. What can I do?

https://kb.paessler.com/en/topic/1043

My SNMP sensors don't work. What can I do?

https://kb.paessler.com/en/topic/46863

My HTTP sensors don't work. What can I do?

https://kb.paessler.com/en/topic/85284

Why do I get DoS Alarms on my QNAP?

https://kb.paessler.com/en/topic/80421

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