This article applies as of PRTG 26


Moving a remote probe

It is possible to move a remote probe to a new system, although it does not necessarily make sense to unless you want to preserve historic data or there is a sensor that you must keep.


Before you try to move a probe, consider the following questions:

  • Are there any sensors you absolutely need to keep with their historic data?
  • Do you need to back up any historic data for sensors that you cannot move (aka, sensors on the probe device)?
  • Will the new probe device have the same IP address as the old probe device?
  • Are you trying to move a classic remote probe or a multi-platform probe?

In most cases you can create a new probe with a new GID and then manually drag and drop all groups or devices from the old to the new probe. This, however, does only not apply to sensors on the probe device as the probe device cannot be moved; each probe has its own unique probe device.


How to move a remote robe

Note: This guide was tested on the classic remote probe, but the steps are also relevant to the multi-platform probe. Please remain aware of the different paths on a Windows system versus on a Linux system and to use the multi-platform probe ID instead of the GID.

Windows systems

  1. Install a classic remote probe on the target system that you want to move the remote probe to.
  2. Open the PRTG Administration Tool on the source probe system and on the target probe system.
  3. Navigate to the Probe Settings for Core Connection tab on both.
  4. Copy the GID from the old remote probe on the source system to the remote probe on the target system .
  5. Save your settings.
  6. On the source system, open the Windows Services window.
  7. Find the PRTG Probe Service and change the Startup Type to Manual and stop the service. This prevents the remote probe from automatically starting again and prevents simultaneous GID connections to PRTG.
  8. If you have any custom sensors on the remote probe, copy the files from the source system to the target system. Custom sensors are located by default in the PRTG program directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\PRTG Network Monitor\Custom Sensors.
  9. You can now shut down the old probe system and power up the new one under the old IP address. If the new server has a new IP address, please make sure that this new IP is allowed to establish a probe connection to the core server. You can configure connections to the PRTG web interface via Setup | System Administration | Probes | Probe Connection Settings | Allow IP Addresses.
    Note: In previous versions, navigate to Setup | System Setup | Probe Management or Setup | System Administration | Core & Probes.
  10. The PRTG core server sends out the 'configuration' to the new remote probe with the information of what to monitor.
  11. Nearly all sensors will keep their historic data and also continue to work. A few sensors directly from the probe device might not continue to work, for example, Packet Sniffers, WMI Network Card Sensors (and sometimes other WMI Sensors) due to hardware differences.
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