This article applies as of PRTG 26.1.118


Grant WMI permissions to non-admin users

By default, only members of the Administrators group have permission to access WMI namespaces. If you want to use a Windows account or security group with fewer privileges than an administrator account for WMI monitoring, you must configure additional permissions on each target system. This article describes the required steps.


Solution

Choose the Windows account that you want to use for WMI monitoring or create a new one. When you have the account, the solution consists of two steps.

  1. Add the account to the Remote Management Users group on the target system to allow WSMan connections. For more details on this group, see the Microsoft documentation: Remote management users.
  2. Grant the Windows account access to the Root\CIMV2 namespace.

Note: If you want to grant the necessary permissions to a security group instead of an individual user account, the steps are the same.


Step 1: Add the Windows account to the Remote Management Users group

  1. On the target system, open Computer Management.
  2. Go to Local Users and Groups | Groups.
  3. Click Remote Management Users.
  4. Click Add.
  5. Enter the Windows account that you want to use for WMI monitoring. Enter the account name directly as an object name and click Check Names. If you want to search for the object name, click Advanced.
  6. Click OK to save your changes.

This allows the account to connect to the target system via WSMan.


Step 2: Grant access to the WMI namespace

All WMI sensors in PRTG query classes under the Root\CIMV2 namespace. You must grant access to this namespace to the Windows account that you want to use for WMI monitoring.

  1. On the target system, open Computer Management.
  2. Navigate to Services and Applications | WMI Control.
  3. Right-click WMI Control and select Properties.
  4. In the WMI Control Properties window, click the Security tab.
  5. Expand Root and select CIMV2.
  6. Click Security.
  7. Click Add and add the Windows account that you want to use for WMI monitoring.
  8. Select the newly-added account and click Advanced.
  9. Select the account again and click Edit.
  10. Set the following:
    • In Type, select Allow.
    • In Applies to, select This namespace and subnamespaces.
    • In Permissions, select Enable Account, Execute Methods, Remote Enable.
  11. Click OK to close all open windows, then click Apply in WMI Control Properties.


You can now enter the Windows account in the Credentials for Windows Systems in PRTG and use it for WMI monitoring.