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difference between single device and multi device sensors?

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So I'm not understanding the value between single device sensors that check for one thing like CPU, memory, disk space available, etc (WMI sensors) when there are multi-device sensors that also check for this same info.

For someone trying to be as efficient as possible with their sensor count, what advantages do single device sensors have over a multi-device sensor?

For example: WMI Free Disk Space (Multi Disk) Sensor - https://www.paessler.com/manuals/prtg/wmi_free_disk_space_multi_drive vs WMI Volume Sensor - https://www.paessler.com/manuals/prtg/wmi_volume_sensor

or better yet Windows CPU Load Sensor - https://www.paessler.com/manuals/prtg/wmi_cpu_load_sensor vs WMI Vital System Data v2 Sensor - https://www.paessler.com/manuals/prtg/wmi_vital_system_data_v2_sensor

The Vital System Data v2 sensor seems to check tons of things with 1 sensor. Why wouldn't someone use this rather than 6 or 7 different sensors that all individually check for 1 thing?

prtg sensors windows

Created on Oct 13, 2020 2:38:42 PM



3 Replies

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Because the Vital System Data has a higher impact than the other Sensors who don't check for multiple metrics at the same time. Think of it as "the more amount of data I have within a WMI Sensor, the more strain I put on the target host". Ultimately, the monitoring may suffer if you put the Vital System Data v2 Sensor on many devices :)

Created on Oct 14, 2020 11:46:43 AM by Stephan Linke [Paessler Support]



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so ive stood up a test PRTG instance. It looks like even though I am using the 'vital system data' sensor, each check I select from that sensor shows up as a separate 'sensor' in the licensing.

So it doesn't seem like much point to use the vital system sensor and collect CPU, memory, disk, and network information vs just using individual sensors for cpu, memory, disk, and network since they both count as licensed sensors anyway.

Created on Oct 20, 2020 10:19:39 PM



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That is correct, yes. I have to revise on my previous reply, as they're all indeed separate Sensors, although you can create many of them on a device, depending on how many metrics are available :)

Created on Oct 22, 2020 5:59:02 AM by Stephan Linke [Paessler Support]




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