Paessler AG announced a new sensor type for its core product, PRTG Network Monitor, that enables users to monitor Docker containers, giving them key insights into performance, availability and other metrics.

PRTG Network Monitor is a comprehensive monitoring solution with more than 200 out-of-the-box sensor types, capable of monitoring everything from routers and switches to virtual machines and, now, Docker containers. Docker has become an increasingly popular technology with both DevOps teams and network administrators since its launch in 2013. Network administrators in particular have used containers to efficiently roll out and manage applications. With this progress in mind, Paessler created a dedicated Docker Container Sensor to give users the ability to monitor containers without the need to acquire a specific application performance monitoring solution. PRTG users can now monitor container status, uptime/downtime, CPU usage, memory, packets and traffic in/out, and exit code.

"IT should be able to monitor its entire infrastructure from one solution, and Docker is quickly becoming a part of that infrastructure," said Andrew Cutting, Director of Channel Sales, North America, Paessler. "It has always been our belief that IT is best served by a single pane of glass view of its infrastructure, and to make that a reality for PRTG Network Monitor, we have incorporated the Docker Container Sensor. This new sensor affirms are longstanding commitment to our customers to provide a fully-featured, flexible and vendor-neutral monitoring solution."

The Docker Container Sensor displays values for each metric within channels in PRTG Network Monitor. Users can define threshholds in each specific channel that will affect the sensor's status and trigger notifications and alerts.