This article applies to PRTG Network Monitor 16.x.23 or later
Monitoring SCVMM Hosts and SCVMM Virtual Machines
The SCVMM Host sensor and the SCVMM Virtual Machine sensor are two sensor types that we remove in context of The PRTG Sensor Cleanup. You could use these sensors to monitor hosts and virtual machines (VM) managed by a Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) like Hyper-V, VMware, or XenServer hosts and VMs. As of PRTG version 16.1.23 you cannot add these sensors anymore and running SCVMM sensors are removed from PRTG with version 16.x.25 which is expected in May 2016.
Nevertheless, you can still continue (or start) monitoring your SCVMM. For example, you can use an EXE/Script sensor that runs an according PowerShell (ps1) script.
We provide a custom script for SCVMM monitoring for download, plus you can use a device template to add SCVMM sensors automatically to an SCVMM device. Please follow the steps below to add sensors to your PRTG installation which monitor SCVMM hosts and SCVMM virtual machines.
Using the PowerShell script you can monitor the following values on a SCVMM host:
- Overall State
- Communication State
- CPU Utilization
- Total Memory
- Available Memory
- Cluster Node Status
- Virtual Server State
- Computer State
- Host Cluster
For an SCVMM virtual machine the custom sensor can show the following values:
- Status
- CPU Usage
- PerfDiskBytesRead
- PerfDiskBytesWrite
Requirements
To use the custom sensors for SCVMM monitoring, you need to fulfill the following requirements. These are the same as for the SCVMM sensors which were available out of the box in previous PRTG versions:
- PowerShell 4.0 installed on the computer running the PRTG probe (local or on the remote probe system)
- .NET 4.0 on the computer running the PRTG probe
- Windows credentials in the settings of the device which represents your SCVMM
- Remote PowerShell 2.0 enabled on the target SCVMM device
- VMM PowerShell Plugin installed on the target SCVMM device (under Windows 2008/2012 it is part of the VMM 2008/2012 Administrator Console)
- Windows Management Framework 1.0 or later installed on the computer running the PRTG probe (because the included System.Management.Automation namespace is required by the SCVMM sensors)
- Requirements for Windows Server 2012 compatibility:
- The SCVMM PowerShell module has to be in the directory
C:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center 2012\Virtual Machine Manager\bin\psModules\virtualmachinemanager\virtualmachinemanager
- Set the execution policy in PowerShell to allow the execution of
Import-Module C:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center 2012\Virtual Machine Manager\bin\psModules\virtualmachinemanager\virtualmachinemanager
Use the command Set-ExecutionPolicy (we recommend RemoteSigned).
Please see also this Knowledge Base article: PowerShell Sensors: FAQ
Steps to Go
- Download the SCVMM sensor package that contains the PowerShell script, the device template, and the lookup files: PRTG-SCVMM-HyperV.zip
- Unzip and save the script PRTG-SCVMM-HyperV.ps1 into the \Custom Sensors\EXE subfolder of your PRTG program folder on the system with the probe from which you want to monitor your SCVMMs.
- Open a PowerShell (32 bit) with admin privileges on this system and execute the following command (and confirm it):
Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
- Note: Executing the PowerShell script with PowerShell (x86) will not work with the script. The sensor message is UnauthorizedAccess when trying a 64-bit PowerShell.
- Unzip and save the following lookup files into \lookups\custom subfolder of your PRTG program folder on the PRTG server.
Note: This step is not necessary if you come from a PRTG version previous to 16.1.23.
- prtg.standardlookups.hyperv.clusternodestatus.ovl
- prtg.standardlookups.hyperv.communicationstate.ovl
- prtg.standardlookups.hyperv.computerstate.ovl
- prtg.standardlookups.hyperv.hoststatus.ovl
- prtg.standardlookups.hyperv.virtualserverstate.ovl
- prtg.standardlookups.hyperv.vmstatus.ovl
- Add a device to PRTG that represents your SCVMM.
- Provide your Credentials for Windows Systems (if the inherited credentials are not sufficient for the SCVMM).
- Add a new HTTP Push Data (Advanced) sensor to the device, name it any way you like (e.g. "Template Sensor"), and pause it. Note its sensor ID.
- Create a new EXE/Script sensor and select the PRTG-SCVMM-HyperV.ps1 script
- Set the timeout to 900 seconds
- Enter the corresponding parameters (explained in the table below).
- Click Continue.
When you enter the data in the script directly, you can also test it on the fly. Initially, it will look like the attached screenshot #1, consequential runs will look like #2.
Note that the sensors may not have data directly after the first run. This is due to the startup of the sensors taking some time and the script may push values prior to that.
Verbose output of the sensor when initially executed / adding new hosts or VMs
Verbose output of the sensor when executed with existing GUID file

Custom SCVMM Sensor Monitoring a Virtual Machine
Parameters
Parameter | Description |
prtgHostName | The URL of your PRTG webinterface, e.g. http://prtg.acme.com or https://prtg.acme.com |
prtgPort | The port used by your PRTG webinterface, e.g. 80 or 443 |
prtgUserName | A user with read/write permissions to the device, or a PRTG administrator |
prtgPassHash | The passhash of the above user |
prtgPushPort | The push port you configured in the template HTTP Push Advanced sensor |
prtgScvmmDeviceId | This is the ID of the device that resembles your SCVMM server Recommended value %deviceid |
prtgTemplateSensor | This is the ID of the HTTP Push Data (Advanced) template sensor(not the sensor token, but the PRTG ID) |
Userdomain | The domain of the user that will be used for remote powershell access Recommended value %windowsdomain |
Username | The username that will be used for remote powershell access Recommended value %windowsuser |
Password | The password of the user that will be used for remote powershell access Recommended value %windowspassword |
Verbose | When this is set, the script will output debug messages. This can always be enabled as it doesn't bother PRTG. |
Version History
Version | Release Notes |
1.3 | [Changed] Switched to HTTP Push Sensor based system. No device templates needed, better for large environments. [Notes] It's an simple EXE/Script sensor now, no longer EXE/Script Advanced. Device templates are no longer needed, as the sensor automatically creates new sensors for new hosts and VMs with each run. With every run, we only run Get-VMHost and Get-VM once on the SCVMM host, receiving all objects at once, not once for every VM. A GUID file is maintained for every SCVMM host that will prevent sensor duplicates. Performance wise, it should be way easier and faster. Three VMs and one host take 2s to scan. Better, more verbose script output to see what the script actually does, receives and evaluates. |
1.21 | [Changed] Device template now has a timeout of 5min, for large environments. [Changed] Default VMsensor interval set to 10m (since they're 10m averages) |
1.2 | [Improved] naming conventions of the sensor [Fixed] auto discovery now works with stable |
1.1 | [Improved] documentation [Fixed] Values weren't retrieved correctly when multiple VMs were present. [Fixed] Values weren't retrieved correctly due to lookup bug |
1.0 | Initial Release |
Flow chart

Credits
RICHARD GARNER, computerservicecentre.com
For going through countless tests and bugfixing with me, and improvement ideas - Thanks! :)
Notes
Attention This will not work if your PRTG server uses HTTPS with an unsigned SSL certificate due to PowerShell being picky and only accepting signed ones.
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