In our ongoing series about optimizing your PRTG monitoring setup, we've already covered how to discover and monitor all devices and how to move beyond generic sensors with vendor-specific options. If you missed these articles, we recommend checking them out before diving into this week's topic. 😉
Now that you've ensured complete device coverage and implemented vendor-specific sensors, it's time to take your monitoring to the next level with third-party sensors and templates. These powerful additions allow you to monitor systems not covered by built-in capabilities, providing a comprehensive view of your entire IT environment.
Although PRTG comes with an impressive array of built-in sensors, there are always specialized systems and unique monitoring requirements that require custom solutions. Perhaps you need to monitor:
In these situations, third-party sensors and templates become extremely useful, allowing you to extend PRTG's capabilities to cover virtually any system in your environment.
The PRTG Sensor Hub is a centralized repository of additional monitoring content created both by Paessler and the active PRTG user community. Think of it as an app store for your monitoring system – a place where you can find ready-made solutions for specific monitoring challenges.
The Sensor Hub offers a variety of resources to improve your monitoring capabilities.
1️⃣ Custom sensors - Scripts and extensions that add monitoring capabilities for specific systems
2️⃣ Device templates - Pre-configured collections of sensors for particular devices or applications
3️⃣ Notification templates - Ready-made notification setups for various alerting scenarios
These resources cover a wide range of technologies and use cases. They range from common platforms, such as Broadcom, Axis, and Sophos, to highly specialized systems.
Device templates are one of the most valuable resources in the Sensor Hub. These ready-made configurations allow you to quickly deploy comprehensive monitoring for specific systems without manually adding and configuring each sensor.
For instance, rather than researching and adding each sensor individually for a Sophos firewall, you can apply a Sophos device template that automatically adds all the necessary sensors with the correct thresholds already configured. This saves time and ensures that you're monitoring all the important metrics for that system.
The custom sensors in the Sensor Hub allow you to monitor systems that aren't supported by PRTG's built-in sensors. These sensors usually come in the form of scripts (PowerShell, Python, etc.) that collect data from the target system and send it back to PRTG.
For example, you may find custom sensors for the following:
*️⃣ Industry-specific equipment like medical devices or manufacturing systems
*️⃣ Specialized software applications without built-in monitoring interfaces
*️⃣ Legacy systems that use older or proprietary protocols
*️⃣ Cloud services with unique APIs
The PRTG Sensor Hub relies on contributions from the community. Users who develop custom monitoring solutions often share them, providing access to the collective expertise of thousands of IT professionals. If you're facing a monitoring challenge, chances are someone has already created and shared a solution for it.
The PRTG Sensor Hub offers filtering options to help you find exactly what you need:
✅ Search by category - Browse resources by technology area (servers, storage, network, etc.)
✅ Search by vendor - Find resources specific to hardware or software manufacturers
✅ Search by resource type - Look specifically for sensors, templates, or other resource types
✅ Keyword search - Find resources related to specific technologies or use cases
Most custom sensors in the PRTG Sensor Hub come with clear installation instructions. The typical process involves:
1️⃣ Downloading the sensor script
2️⃣ Placing it in the appropriate PRTG scripts directory
3️⃣ Restarting the PRTG probe service
4️⃣ Adding the new sensor to your devices through the PRTG web interface
Once you've implemented custom sensors, consider enhancing their visualization using lookups. Lookups allow you to translate numeric values into meaningful text and color-coded status indicators. Watch this tutorial to learn how to use lookups effectively in PRTG:
To use a device template from the PRTG Sensor Hub:
1️⃣ Download the template file (.odt format)
2️⃣ Place it in the "devicetemplates" subfolder of your PRTG program directory
3️⃣ Use the template during auto-discovery or when manually adding devices
The SNMP Custom sensor and SNMP Library sensor are powerful tools that extend your monitoring capabilities. They enable you to monitor virtually any SNMP-enabled device by specifying the exact OIDs (object identifiers) that you want to track.
With these sensors, you can:
✅ Monitor specific metrics not covered by standard sensors
✅ Create custom thresholds and alerts for specialized hardware
✅ Track performance indicators unique to your environment
✅ Build comprehensive monitoring for devices without vendor-specific sensors
To see these powerful sensors in action, check out the following video:
📺 PRTG Tutorial - SNMP Custom Sensors and SNMP Library Sensors
Let's consider a real-world example: Monitoring a custom-built application that tracks manufacturing processes. While PRTG doesn't have a built-in sensor for this application, the Sensor Hub offers a PowerShell script that:
By implementing this custom sensor, you gain visibility into a critical business application alongside their standard infrastructure monitoring, creating a truly comprehensive monitoring environment.
Ready to enhance your PRTG setup with third-party sensors and templates? Here's what to do:
🧩 Identify monitoring gaps - Make a list of systems or metrics you can't currently monitor with built-in sensors
🧩 Explore the PRTG Sensor Hub - Search for resources related to these systems
🧩 Test in a non-production environment - Always test new sensors in a controlled environment first
🧩 Implement and refine - Deploy successful sensors to your production environment and adjust thresholds as needed
🧩 Share your creations - Consider contributing your own custom sensors to help the community
Using third-party sensors and templates from the PRTG Sensor Hub allows you to monitor virtually any system in your environment, providing complete visibility into your IT infrastructure.
Next week's article will explore how to set up and optimize PRTG notifications, ensuring you are alerted about the right issues at the right time.