<%NUMBERING1%>.<%NUMBERING2%>.<%NUMBERING3%> PRTG Manual: Update From Previous Versions

If you already have installed a previous software version, there are several things you have to consider before you update to the current PRTG version. Please see section Detailed System Requirements to see all requirements for the current PRTG version.

Note: We recommend that you always have a proper backup of your monitoring data and configuration. In most cases both will be maintained when upgrading. Anyway, we recommend a backup before upgrading. Please see More section below.

Update From PRTG Network Monitor 12 or later

If you run PRTG Network Monitor with version 12, 13 or 14, simply install the latest version on top of the previous version. Your configuration will be kept. If you have configured PRTG as a cluster, you only have to install an update on any node server (master or failover). PRTG deploys the new version to the cluster automatically.

As of PRTG 14, Internet Explorer 9 is no longer officially supported for access to the PRTG web interface.
Also as of PRTG 14, PRTG core and probes do not support Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 (including SP1 and SP2) officially anymore.
As of PRTG 15, Internet Explorer 10 is no longer officially supported for access to the PRTG web interface.

Note: We recommend that you always have a proper backup of your monitoring data.

Web Interface Customizations as of PRTG Network Monitor 13.2.3

As of PRTG version 13.2.3, the website folder of the PRTG program directory is not used any more. This means that if you update from an older PRTG version than 13.2.3 to the current version, all existing customizations of the web interface will be disabled and you have to revise them. You may find a way for a similar customization that you can add to the files in the current webroot folder that contains the web interface files now. For details, please see the section More.

Update From PRTG Network Monitor 9

If you use PRTG 9 now, your configuration will be kept when installing the current PRTG version in Standalone Mode or when installing a Master Node. There are only a few things you should consider.

Discontinued Sensors: Existing instances of the following sensor types will stop working as of PRTG V12 and must be replaced with their successor sensor types!

- VMware Host Server (SOAP)
- VMware Virtual Machine (SOAP)
- Xen Virtual Machine

If your configuration contains these sensor types, they will stop monitoring after upgrading to the current version. We recommend that you to pause them to keep their data. In order to continue monitoring, please add the sensors anew (for example, using the auto-discovery).
Please install .NET 4.0: We strongly recommend that you install .NET 4.0 on systems that run the core server (and the remote probes, if you use those). Otherwise the following features will not work: VMware auto-discovery and monitoring, Citrix XenServer auto-discovery and monitoring, SIP Options Ping Sensor, Windows Last Update Sensor.
Changed Geo Maps Provider: When you update to the current PRTG version, the provider for geographical maps will automatically be switched from Google Maps to MapQuest (using Open Street Map data).
Windows 2000 Not Supported: Since PRTG 7 we do not officially support Windows 2000 systems any more. This means, PRTG cannot be installed on systems running Windows 2000, and you cannot officially monitor Windows 2000 systems (for example, via WMI). However, if you could successfully monitor your Windows 2000 systems with PRTG 9, this might actually not be possible any more with the current PRTG version. Especially the WMI Service Sensor will show an error message when monitoring Windows 2000 systems under the current PRTG version. For a work around, please see the More section below.

Note: We recommend that you to have a look at the Detailed System Requirements before updating to the current version! Officially supported operating systems, browsers, and other requirements may have changed since version 9.

Update From PRTG Network Monitor 7 or 8

If you use PRTG 7 or 8 now, you have to update PRTG to intermediate versions first to ensure all data is carried over correctly. You cannot update to PRTG 15 or later directly from PRTG 7 or 8!

We recommend that you first update to the latest PRTG 8 version.
From the latest PRTG 8 version update to PRTG version 9.
From PRTG 9, update to the current PRTG version.

Please contact our technical support to obtain download links for these PRTG versions. Always keep a proper backup of your configuration and monitoring data!

Updating from PRTG 7 or 8 to Current PRTG Version

Packet Sniffer (Content) sensors are not supported any more. Existing sensors of this type will automatically be switched to Packet Sniffer (Header) sensors after the update. As a benefit, you can now also sniff IPv6 traffic.
Internet Explorer 8 is no longer supported for access to the PRTG Ajax web interface or to the mobile web GUI.
You may experience a slow Enterprise Console (former 'Windows GUI') due to different reasons. For detailed information, please see the Knowledge Base article linked in the More section below.
When installing a failover node on top of an existing stand-alone PRTG 7, 8, 9, 12, or 13+ installation, the configuration cannot be kept and is written to a backup folder. Then, the new cluster configuration is received from the master node of the cluster. As all nodes work with the same configuration, a failover node's old configuration and monitoring data can no longer be used. If you want to keep a configuration of PRTG 7, please install the master node on top of the old installation and use other servers for the failover node installations.
Since PRTG 9 the SNMP sensors use the IPv4 Outgoing IP set for the probe service (this setting was formerly ignored by those sensors, using the auto setting instead). If you experience failing sensors, please check the setting in the probe settings. For detailed information please see the More section below.
If you have (manually) configured the PRTG probe or PRTG core service to run under a different Windows user account (for example, for successful internet access through an ISA server firewall), please apply the respective Windows user account for the "PRTGProbeService" and/or "PRTGCoreService" anew after installing the current PRTG version. For detailed information please see the More section below.
System Requirements for the PRTG core server and probes: Please have a look at our latest Detailed System Requirements.
If you use the default data path in your PRTG setup, it will be changed automatically. Up to version 8 all data was stored in a sub folder reflecting a PRTG version number (v7 or v8). As of version 9 this sub folder is omitted, and data is stored directly at %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application data\Paessler\PRTG Network Monitor. During setup, all data will be moved to the new directory. If you use a custom data path it will not be changed.
Up to version 8 all data in the registry was stored in a sub key reflecting a PRTG version number (v7 or v8). As of version 9 this sub key is omitted, and registry data is stored directly under the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Paessler\PRTG Network Monitor (on 32-bit systems) respectively HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Paessler\PRTG Network Monitor (on 64-bit systems). During setup, all existing registry values will be moved to the new key.

Note: We strongly recommend that you to have a look at the Detailed System Requirements before updating to the current version! Officially supported operating systems, browsers, and other requirements may have changed since version 8.

Updating from PRTG 7 to Current PRTG Version

Regarding custom sensors, the interpretation of returned values is handled more strict as of PRTG 8. If you use custom sensors with PRTG 7, these may not work with the current PRTG version if they do not fully apply to the API definition.

Update From Older PRTG Products

For all other predecessor products, a direct data import into the current version is not possible.

If you have been using IPCheck 5 or PRTG Traffic Grapher 6, please perform a clean installation of PRTG Network Monitor and set up your configuration anew. Using PRTG's Auto-Discovery is the easiest way to quickly configure a monitoring of your entire network. Please see Quick Start Guide section for more information.

Knowledge Base: How do I backup all data and configuration of my PRTG installation?