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How can I silently install a remote probe in my network?

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I would like to automatically deploy and configure a remote probe in my network. However, because this is an isolated network it is not possible to install the remote probe directly on the server via PRTG’s web interface.

Is there another option to install a remote probe silently on a server and include the configuration?

configuration installation probe prtg remote-probe remote-probe-install silent

Created on Jun 12, 2014 1:28:49 PM by Gerald Schoch [Paessler Support]

Last change on Jun 12, 2014 1:29:13 PM by Gerald Schoch [Paessler Support]



2 Replies

Accepted Answer

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This article applies to PRTG Network Monitor 13 or later

Silent Installation of Remote Probes

PRTG Network Monitor provides the possibility for a semi-automatic installation of remote probes directly from PRTG’s web interface. For details, please see PRTG Manual: Remote Probe Quick Install. This is basically a silent installation.

However, if this mechanism does not work for your network configuration (please also note that it is an experimental feature!), for example, if you want to deploy and configure the remote probe on a server in an isolated network, you can try the following workaround. This is a semi-automatic approach and basically works like manually cloning an existing remote probe.

Steps to Go

Semi-Automatic Deployment and Configuration of Remote Probes

Caution: Please back up your system before manipulating the Windows registry!

Important note: This approach is not officially supported! It will not work in every case.

  1. On a machine which is already running a PRTG Remote Probe, navigate to the program folder of this probe.
  2. Copy the whole program folder (e.g., %programfiles%\PRTG Network Monitor) to the target machine. Note: Do not yet run PRTG Probe.exe!
  3. Open the registry editor on the machine with the original probe and navigate to the following key:
    1. On a 64-bit Windows system, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Paessler\PRTG Network Monitor\Probe
    2. On a 32-bit Windows version, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Paessler\PRTG Network Monitor\Probe
  4. Copy the following values and insert them via the registry editor on the target machine:
    1. isLocalProbe
    2. Password
    3. Server
    4. ServerPort
  5. These registry values will tell the new remote probe then to connect to your PRTG Core Server. Do not copy any other values than the mentioned ones because this might cause the probe to register as an existing probe with your core server.
  6. Register resp. install the Probe Service. You can use certain tools for this or execute the following command on the target machine (adjust the path to where you have copied the probe program folder to!): c:\<PRTG Remote Probe Program Dir>\"PRTG Probe.exe" –Install
  7. Finally, run PRTG Probe.exe

Approve the new probe connection in PRTG and you can monitor the desired server via the new remote probe as usual.

Note: You may have to set the Probe Access Key for the remote probe manually.

Created on Jun 12, 2014 1:30:20 PM by Gerald Schoch [Paessler Support]

Last change on Apr 8, 2016 2:52:31 PM by Gerald Schoch [Paessler Support]



Votes:

1

For what it's worth, we have had success with:

  1. Copying the probe exe installer (in our case by using our RMM scripting tool to grab it from our core server directly via the filesystem, but you could also use https://<yourprtgserveripaddress>/public/PRTG_Remote_Probe_Installer.exe?filetype=.exe&username=prtgadmin&password=prtgadmin ) to the target server for the new probe
  2. Setting up the minimum registry keys as above
  3. Running the installer with the switches /verysilent /norestart /nocloseapplications /log="some log for troubleshooting"

It seems that if the above registry keys are present at install, the service doesn't launch the the PRTG Probe Administration tool and the probe should check in as expected.

Presumably the same officially unsupported statement applies here as well.

Created on Mar 6, 2017 2:56:56 PM

Last change on Apr 7, 2017 12:44:48 PM by Luciano Lingnau [Paessler]




Disclaimer: The information in the Paessler Knowledge Base comes without warranty of any kind. Use at your own risk. Before applying any instructions please exercise proper system administrator housekeeping. You must make sure that a proper backup of all your data is available.