PRTG Network Monitoring: Complete Course with Labs

Learn how SNMP collects data from managed devices via SNMP agents, uses MIBs, and differentiates read-only and read-write access through the network management station.

Explore the differences between SNMP versions v1, v2, and v3, highlighting v1's insecure community name and v3's encrypted, user-based security.

Manage network devices with SNMP get and SNMP put, using read-only and read-write community strings, while securing the management station, and differentiate between SNMP traps and polling.

Explore object identifiers and OIDs as a hierarchical ISO and ITU-T standard for naming SNMP MIBs, including private enterprise sections and Cisco MIB examples.

Explain how SNMP polling runs over UDP, a connectionless transport, avoiding TCP overhead for large device sets, with UDP ports 161/162 and optional TLS or DTLS encryption at 10161/10162.

Explore practical PRTG Network Monitoring concepts in this lab-focused course. The instructor acknowledges the accent and promises practical lessons you can apply in real production environments, inviting feedback and reviews.

This module introduces the real network for the prtg course and shows how to build a hands-on lab in VMware Workstation using Cisco IOSv routers, switches, MikroTik, and firewall.

Build a hands-on lab to practice PRTG network monitoring alongside other tools, using Active Directory, Mikrotik, Cisco IOS, FortiGate firewall, and a dedicated monitoring server.

Download and install the VMware ESXi hypervisor in a monitoring lab using VMware Workstation, configure net zero bridged networking, assign a static IPv4 address, and verify connectivity.

Install a virtual machine inside an ESXi hypervisor by uploading the Windows Server 2019 ISO and creating the VM in the data store.

Learn how to install Windows Server 2019 in VMware Workstation and enable template mode for rapid deployment, then promote the server to a domain controller for lab.local with DNS.

Install Cisco iosv switch in a lab using VMware Workstation, import the vmdk/ovf, and set IP address 192.168 ten four via a serial port for ssh or telnet.

Install and configure a FortiGate firewall in a VMware Workstation lab by importing the FortiGate VM, upgrading compatibility, setting a static IP, and enabling http, https, and ping.

learn to create a windows template in vmware workstation, prepare it with sysprep, and deploy new virtual machines via snapshots and template mode for fast, consistent lab setups.

Understand PRTG's core server and local probe, where the probe sends queries and forwards results for analysis. Discover how remote probes extend monitoring with ssl encryption and a single port.

Deploy a prtg server on vcenter esxi by creating a custom virtual machine. Size ram and cpu, add a second disk for databases, and enable hotplug.

Install PRTG on Windows Server 2019, leverage a 30-day trial with embedded SQL Server, and secure the tool with SSL/HTTPS, password changes, and automatic sensor discovery.

Explore how sensors in PRTG monitor individual device aspects, how sensors have channels like disk free space, and how to add, view, and license sensors for effective monitoring.

Explore the device tree overview in PRTG, including the global header area, device library, sensors, maps, alarms, logs, and settings for efficient monitoring.

Learn to read prtg sensor states by color—green up, red down, yellow warning, pink acknowledged, blue pause, gray unknown—and adjust behavior for warnings, pauses, acknowledge alarms, and unusual baseline patterns.

Explore how sensors change state when they don't respond, triggering a warning or down state, and set limit-based alerting with lower and upper limits and lookup values.

This lecture breaks down PRTG version numbers and build notation, explains 64-bit versus 32-bit installations and six gigabytes of RAM requirements, and introduces Pasillas' release channels: Canary, Preview, and stable.

Learn to monitor Windows servers with WMI and SNMP in PRTG, add devices, configure SSL, manage credentials, and use auto discovery while avoiding server overload.

Configure Windows server for SNMP by installing SNMP service and WMI provider, set community strings and traps, then add Windows SNMP sensors in PRTG to monitor CPU and memory.

learn to add Cisco routers and switches to prtg, configure snmp read-only, restrict access, and enable auto discovery to create sensors for system health, cpu, memory, vlan, and traffic.

Configure esxi as a hypervisor on the prtg server, set up iSCSI, and deploy vmware sensors and snmp metrics to monitor data stores, hosts, and virtual machines.

Add your vCenter server to the PRTG monitoring tool, enable SSH and SNMP, configure a trap community and credentials, and deploy Linux SNMP, uptime, traffic, and vSphere sensors.

Configure SNMP v2c on a FortiGate firewall and add it to PRTG for monitoring, then deploy sensors for bandwidth, SNMP traffic, and system uptime.

Configure snmp on a mikrotik device via winbox, set community lab, enable trap targets to prtg, and add snmp sensors for memory, cpu load, and traffic in prtg.

Explore how PRTG monitors HP storage SAN using system health, logical, physical, and SSH enclosure sensors, with SSH and SNMP setup to ensure data accessibility and proactive troubleshooting.

Gain hands-on experience adding a QNAP NAS to PRTG using SNMP, configuring traps and credentials, and creating system health, disk, and memory sensors to monitor storage performance.

Create and design PRTG maps to visualize networks at a glance, drag devices and icons, connect sensors, and share via a web page or iframe with controlled public access.

Tune the PRTG map with advanced settings, add live FortiGate firewall graphs, and enable a network discovery sub view to monitor devices and virtual platforms.

Install remote probes in branch offices to monitor devices, offload work from the core server, and preserve bandwidth with secure TLS connections and local buffering up to 500,000 results.

Install and configure a remote probe server for PRTG by enabling remote probe connections on the core server, setting the probe connection IP and access key, and approving remote probes.

Create a Prtg cluster with a primary master and failover nodes. Use cluster, local, and remote probes with separate databases to prevent data gaps in monitoring and alerting.

Prtg failover cluster shows how to configure a master core server and a read-only cluster node, ensuring identical version and license, same time zone, and smtp notifications.