SolarWinds / PRTG
Network performance monitoring and alerting platforms for IT infrastructure teams.
What it is
About SolarWinds / PRTG
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) and PRTG Network Monitor (by Paessler) are the two most widely deployed network monitoring platforms in enterprise IT environments. They continuously poll network devices (routers, switches, servers, firewalls) using SNMP, WMI, and ICMP to collect performance metrics — CPU load, memory utilisation, interface throughput, packet loss, latency — and alert when thresholds are breached. Dashboards give network engineers real-time visibility of the entire infrastructure estate without needing to log into each device individually. For network engineers and IT managers, monitoring platforms are the difference between reactive firefighting (learning about problems from users) and proactive management (detecting degradation before it causes a service impact). Both SolarWinds and PRTG also support application performance monitoring, NetFlow traffic analysis, and log management — expanding from pure infrastructure monitoring towards broader observability. The SolarWinds supply chain attack (2020, SUNBURST) made security teams worldwide review their trust in monitoring agents — a now-standard element of monitoring platform evaluation.
What you can do with it
Capabilities
Add a network device to PRTG using auto-discovery and configure SNMP sensors for CPU, memory, and interface monitoring.
Create a dashboard showing real-time bandwidth utilisation across all WAN links with threshold alert indicators.
Set up an email alert that fires when a critical interface exceeds 80% utilisation for more than 5 minutes.
Use SolarWinds NPM to identify the root cause of a network slowdown by correlating latency spikes with interface errors.
Configure a NetFlow collector to analyse which applications and users are consuming the most bandwidth.
How to learn it
Learning Resources
PRTG manual and tutorials at paessler.com/manuals/prtg — comprehensive free documentation
SolarWinds free training at thwack.solarwinds.com/community — community forums and self-paced courses
YouTube: "PRTG setup tutorial" and "SolarWinds NPM walkthrough" return practitioner-produced guides
Paessler free PRTG trial (100 sensors, unlimited time) — hands-on setup in a lab environment is the fastest learning path
Pro Tip
Set up a sensor hierarchy from day one that mirrors your network's logical structure — monitoring platforms that grow organically without a device/group taxonomy become impossible to navigate at scale, and reorganising a live monitoring system with thousands of sensors in production is a painful project.
Skills that use this tool
Roles that use this tool