Keep your AD secure, organized, and error-free, with PRTG Active Directory monitoring
- Monitor your entire Active Directory domain forest
- Track group memberships and inactive users
- Set up automatic alerts at different escalation levels
Our users give top ratings for monitoring with Paessler PRTG
PRTG Active Directory monitoring: What you’ll find on this page
- A place for everything in your Active Directory – and everything in its place
- All your Active Directory issues, solved
- Flexible, integrated, proactive: Why choose PRTG as your Active Directory monitoring tool
- Your Active Directory in the cloud: Keep an eye on Microsoft Entra ID
- Watch our 5-minute video on Active Directory monitoring
- Monitoring Active Directory: FAQ
PRTG makes monitoring your Active Directory easy
Custom alerts and data visualizations make it easy to monitor, identify, and prevent replication errors, network vulnerabilities, and other issues.
A place for everything in your Active Directory – and everything in its place
You can't run Windows infrastructure smoothly if your Active Directory isn't well-organized. But tracking all the important metrics – and digging deep enough into the details to troubleshoot effectively – isn't always easy or straightforward.
Paessler PRTG keeps a close watch on your Active Directory 24/7, so you don't have to. It automatically flags replication errors, unusual activity, and other critical performance and security issues, empowering you to address vulnerabilities before bad actors can exploit them.
All your Active Directory issues, solved
Powerful, versatile, and easy to use, PRTG helps you make short work of common Active Directory issues and keeps your network running smoothly.
Prevent replication errors
Replication errors happen for many reasons, including the number of consecutive synchronization failures, the time of the last synchronization attempt, and the number of pending replication operations.
PRTG's Active Directory Replication Errors v2 sensor monitors up to eight different parameters simultaneously, sounding the alarm if a process is at risk.
Monitor AD group members
Track Active Directory group memberships, set limits, and get alerted when new users join, or membership goes over a pre-determined number. With PRTG, nobody can access your Active Directory without your say-so.
To keep an eye on AD group membership, use the EXE/Script Advanced sensor and use our officially provided script.
Track deactivated AD users
Yes, really. Maintaining an overview of logged-out users or deactivated user accounts is next to impossible with standard AD tools or manual searches.
Our ready-made script enables you to query your Active Directory on command and get a list of users that are logged out, including deactivated user accounts, for easier AD auditing.
What Active Directory monitoring looks like in PRTG
Diagnose network issues by continuously monitoring domain controllers, group memberships, and network resource usage. Show the status of replication processes, logged out or deactivated users, and other key Active Directory stats in real time and visualize data in graphic maps & dashboards to identify problems more easily. Gain the visibility you need to troubleshoot AD problems.
Device tree view of the complete monitoring setup
Active Directory Replication Errors sensor in PRTG
Custom PRTG dashboard showing a domain overview
Start AD monitoring with PRTG and see how it can make your network more reliable and your job easier.
“All-around winning “The real beauty of PRTG is the endless possibilities it offers” “Outstanding cloud IT experts agree: Paessler PRTG is a great solution for IT infrastructure monitoring
network monitor”
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Flexible, integrated, proactive: Why choose PRTG as your Active Directory monitoring tool
Plug-and-play setup
Get started faster than you can say "Active Directory". The prompts are intuitive and easy to understand. And you can customize PRTG any way you like, so it suits your organization's unique needs.
Comprehensive monitoring
Every Active Directory stat you need to know about, at your fingertips: device status, login activity, replication and synchronization… PRTG can even track group membership numbers and individual users' status.
Real-time alerting
Pick your preferred warning and error thresholds, and PRTG will take care of the rest, letting you know as soon as there's an issue so you can go in and do some Active Directory troubleshooting before your colleagues notice something's wrong.
Your Active Directory in the cloud: Keep an eye on Microsoft Entra ID
If you use Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) and want to keep an eye on what’s happening there, we’ve got you covered as well.
Set up, for example, a Microsoft Azure Subscription Cost sensor to keep your subscription costs in check. Or create a custom PRTG sensor for monitoring activities that might pose a risk:
- Be informed about risky sign-ins, for example, from an unusual or suspicious country
- Get alerts about impossible travel activities, for example, if an account logs in from Germany and two minutes later from Hongkong
- Check for AD accounts that Microsoft believes are exposed to a risk
- Keep an eye on new devices that are registered for Multi-Factor Authentication
By the way, did you know that you can use Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) single sign-on to log in to PRTG? For more information, read our blog article.
Easily find the source of the problem with our PRTG Active Directory monitoring solution
Real-time alerts and custom notifications make it easy to solve replication errors, network vulnerabilities, and other issues.
PRTG is compatible with all major vendors, products, and systems
Your Active Directory monitor at a glance – even on the go
Set up PRTG in minutes and use it on almost any mobile device.
Create innovative solutions with Paessler’s partners
Partnering with innovative vendors, Paessler unleashes synergies to create
new and additional benefits for joined customers.
“Excellent tool for detailed monitoring. Alarms and notifications work greatly. Equipment addition is straight forward and server initial setup is very easy. ...feel safe to purchase it if you intend to monitor a large networking landscape.”
Infrastructure and Operations Engineer in the Communications Industry, firm size 10B - 30B USD
PRTG makes monitoring your Active Directory easy
Custom alerts and data visualizations make it easy to monitor, identify, and prevent replication errors, network vulnerabilities, and other issues.
Monitoring Active Directory: FAQ
1. What is the Active Directory?
Active Directory (AD) is a directory service developed by Microsoft that centralizes network management and authentication. It stores information about objects on a network, such as users, computers, and groups, and enables administrators to organize and secure this information. AD plays a crucial role in managing access to network resources, facilitating user authentication, and simplifying the administration of network resources in Windows environments.
2. What is Active Directory monitoring?
Active Directory monitoring involves the continuous tracking and analysis of activities within the Active Directory (AD) environment. It includes monitoring user logins, changes to user accounts, group memberships, and other AD-related events. The goal is to ensure the security and integrity of the directory service, identify potential security threats or unauthorized access, and respond promptly to any suspicious or anomalous activities.
3. Why use Active Directory monitoring software?
Put simply, because it makes your life much easier. Specialized Active Directory monitoring tools promptly alert you when something goes wrong, so you don't have to worry about replication errors, network vulnerabilities, or other issues falling through the cracks while you're busy with other (equally important) tasks.
4. What information can I get from PRTG's Active Directory sensor?
PRTG's preconfigured Active Directory Replication Errors v2 sensor displays all the key metrics you need to spot, troubleshoot, and fix data replication errors:
- Pending replication processes and synchronization sequences
- Time and result of last synchronization attempt
- Last successful synchronization
- Consecutive synchronization errors
- Whether the data source is available
You can collect even more data by monitoring Active Directory ports (53, 88, 389, 445, 464) with the Port Range sensor.
5. Can I monitor more than the Active Directory with PRTG?
Yes, of course. PRTG is a comprehensive, all-in-one IT infrastructure monitoring tool that can keep an eye on your entire network. Here are some more examples:
- VPN monitoring: Monitor VPN connections and measure traffic, load, and the number of users. Identify connection problems and suspicious traffic.
- Ping monitoring: Use ping to check the availability of all your network devices. If the ping fails, you will be notified immediately.
- VoIP monitoring: Monitor the quality of your VoIP connections. By preventing malfunctions and verifying service level agreements, you’ll save time and money.
- SSL monitoring: Determine the extent to which your connections are protected. You can therefore learn if your connections are strong, weak, or not protected at all.
6. What is a sensor in PRTG?
In PRTG, “sensors” are the basic monitoring elements. One sensor usually monitors one measured value in your network, for example the traffic of a switch port, the CPU load of a server, or the free space on a disk drive.
On average, you need about 5-10 sensors per device or one sensor per switch port.
PRTG: The multi-tool for sysadmins
Adapt PRTG individually and dynamically to your needs and rely on a strong API:- HTTP API: Access monitoring data and manipulate monitoring objects via HTTP requests
- Custom sensors: Create your own PRTG sensors for customized monitoring
- Custom notifications: Create your own notifications and send action triggers to external systems
- REST Custom sensor: Monitor almost everything that provides data in XML or JSON format
Paessler AG conducted trials in over 600 IT departments worldwide to tune its network monitoring software closer to the needs of sysadmins. We asked: would you recommend PRTG?
Over 95% of our customers say yes!
The result of the survey: over 95% of the participants would recommend PRTG – or already have.
Paessler PRTG is used by companies of all sizes. Sysadmins love PRTG because it makes their job a whole lot easier. Bandwidth, servers, virtual environments, websites, VoIP services – PRTG keeps an eye on your entire network. Everyone has different monitoring needs. That’s why we let you try PRTG for free.Still not convinced?
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PRTG |
Network Monitoring Software - Version 24.2.94.1400 (April 10th, 2024) |
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Hosting |
Download for Windows and cloud-based version PRTG Hosted Monitor available |
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English, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese |
Pricing |
Up to 100 sensors for free (Price List) |
Unified Monitoring |
Network devices, bandwidth, servers, applications, virtual environments, remote systems, IoT, and more |
Supported Vendors & Applications |
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