Copying Devices by Cloning or Using Device Templates
After configuring a device with one or more sensors there are two options to copy it:
- cloning a device: Is the best option to simply duplicate a device only a few times with all its sensors and settings.
- using a device templates: Is the preferred option if you have many similar devices and if you do not want to create all devices manually through the web interface. This is also the better option if the devices do not have the same number of ports.
Cloning a Device
Choose the context menu item "Clone" from the device's context menu. PRTG will ask you for the new parent group and well as a new name for the device. The new device will be initially be paused to give you the chance to edit sensor settings if necessary. When all sensors are configured correctly you can resume monitoring for the device with all its sensors.
Using Device Templates
In order to create a device template PRTG stores the definitions of the sensors of a device in a device template file. Later this template file can be used to recreate all sensors that can successfully be recreated for the a device. To create a device template choose the "Create Device Template" item from the device's context menu and PRTG will ask you for a filename and a template name. The template file will be stored in the 'devicetemplate' folder of your PRTG installation. To create new devices with the same set of sensors you now have two options:
- Create an auto-discovery group, select option "Automatic sensor creation using specific device template(s)" and choose this specific device template from the list of templates
- Create a new device, select option "Automatic sensor creation using specific device template(s)" and choose this specific device template from the list of templates
Limitations of Device Templates
Copying devices using device templates has the following limitations (cloning a device does not have these limitations):
- Only the following sensor types are supported: DNS, FTP, HTTP, HTTP Advanced, IMAP, PING, POP3, PORT, SMTP, SNMP Custom, SNMP Traffic, WMI Custom, WMI Disk Space, WMI Memory, WMI Service, WMI Processor, WMI Network, WMI Event Log, WMI Page File, WMI File, WMI Process, WMI Selection, EXE, Remote Desktop.
- Credentials settings of the device are not stored in the device template file. You should enter credentials on the group level before you create devices using a device template.
- Sensors that are created based on available objects (e.g. SNMP Traffic and WMI Network Card sensors which look at available ports of a device) will be recreated from scratch for all available ports on the new device.
- Schedules, triggers, dependencies and channel settings are not stored in device templates.
Keywords: