Knowledge Base

How PRTG Traffic Grapher stores its data

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A short description what files and folders PRTG Traffic Grapher uses, where they are located, and what they do.

Main Configuration files "PRTG Traffic Grapher.ini"

Note: This file was called "prtg4.ini" in PRTG version 4.

This file contains basic settings including the location of the current monitoring configuration file. This file is always located at: 

(common documents)\PRTG Traffic Grapher\prtg traffic grapher.ini"

(common documents) is provided by windows and should stay the same for all users on the system.

Under Windows 2000, XP, and 2003 (depending on the language of the windows installation) this generally would be:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\

Under Windows Vista (depending on the language of the windows installation) this generally would be:

C:\Users\Public\Documents\PRTG Traffic Grapher\

So the full path to the .ini file under 2000, XP, and 2003 is (note: we added a line break for better readability) :

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\
 PRTG Traffic Grapher\prtg traffic grapher.ini

The full path to the .ini file under Vista is (note: we added a line break for better readability) :

C:\Users\Public\Documents\
 PRTG Traffic Grapher\prtg traffic grapher.ini

Monitoring Config Files "(yourname).prtg"

This file contains the current configuration including all sensors, panels, and graphs.

The location of this file is stored in the prtg.ini file.

You can move and rename this file using the "File|Save as..." option and load any existing configuration using the "File|Open..." function.

The default name is default.prtg and the default location is the same as the ini file:

"(common documents)\PRTG Traffic Grapher\default.prtg"

Monitoring Data Folders

In the folder of the *.prtg file is a subfolder with the same name.
This subfolder contains a folder for each day in the syntax "yyyymmdd".

For example:

"(common documents)\PRTG Traffic Grapher\default\20050101"
"(common documents)\PRTG Traffic Grapher\default\20050102"
"(common documents)\PRTG Traffic Grapher\default\20050103"
etc.

These day folders contain one .dat file for each sensor. This .dat file contains the raw monitoring data of the sensor and is used for generating reports.

If you do a backup using a third party backup solution or move the .prtg file manually, it is important to keep all the .dat files and the folder structure with the .prtg file.

The "Save as" command moves and renames these folders automatically. Thus, basically, if you use this command, you can move all PRTG Traffic Grapher related data to a separate folder other than the default (use this, for example, to move all relevant files to a different drive, such as D:\).

If you only save the .prtg file all historic data is lost.

Additionally there is a "cache" folder. This contains pre-calculated data for the graphs in the GUI and web server. If this folder is deleted all data is recalculated from the raw data (slow start).

Auto Creation of New Configuration

PRTG creates a new empty configuration if...

- it cannot find the prtg.ini file
- it cannot find the .prtg file at the location stored in the .ini file

It is important that the settings of PRTG Traffic Grapher are saved to update the prtg.ini file with the current location of the .prtg file.
This always happens if PRTG Traffic Grapher is ended normally. It does NOT happen if PRTG Traffic Grapher is terminated abnormally using the task manager or rebooting the system while PRTG Traffic Grapher is running.

Questions to ask for debugging

Questions that should be answered in order to find related problems:

  • Did you use the "save as" or "new" command to move the configuration to that folder?
  • Are your users somehow configured to have different (common documents) folders?
  • Are you using a different account for the installation than for operation?
  • Is there some software that restores or deletes the content of the (common documents) folder?
  • What user account does the service use? (default is the "system account").
  • Has this user account access rights to the (common documents) folder and the .prtg file location (including subfolder)?

Notes

Program Updates

An (update) installation does not change any files in the (common documents) folder.

Removing Data

In order to remove all PRTG Traffic Grapher settings just delete the "(common documents)\PRTG Traffic Grapher" folder with all its data.

By Category

PRTG Traffic Grapher V6

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