Zoom Monitoring with PRTG

Zoom is a video conferencing platform that allows end users to communicate in online conference rooms via video, audio, chat, and screen sharing. It's widely used for virtual meetings, webinars, online classes, and social gatherings. Zoom became particularly popular during the COVID-19 pandemic as a tool for remote work and online education.

Zoom is accessible through the Zoom app on various devices (computers, smartphones, tablets) or directly through a web portal, making it a versatile tool for virtual video communication.

Zoom monitoring refers to the practice of overseeing and managing Zoom meetings to ensure they are running smoothly and securely. The benefits of Zoom monitoring can vary depending on the context in which it is used, such as in corporate environments, educational institutions, or public events. Here are some of the benefits:

• Preventing unauthorized access: Monitoring can help identify and prevent unauthorized participants from joining meetings, which is crucial for protecting sensitive information.
• Technical troubleshooting: Real-time monitoring allows IT teams to identify and resolve technical issues, such as poor audio/video quality or connectivity problems, ensuring a smooth meeting experience.
• Meeting recordings: Monitoring ensures that important meetings are recorded and stored properly, making them available for future reference, training, or legal purposes.
• License management: Organizations can monitor Zoom usage to ensure they are efficiently using their licenses and not paying for unnecessary resources.
• Webinar management: For large webinars or events, monitoring helps manage participant flow, question submissions, and overall event quality, ensuring a positive experience for attendees.
• Breakout room oversight: Monitoring ensures that breakout rooms are being used effectively and that participants are adhering to the meeting’s agenda.
• Enhanced user experience: Monitoring can help in troubleshooting issues with Zoom calls proactively, even before Zoom users enter a conference room. This way, they get a smooth experience when participating in a video conference.

PRTG is a proprietary network monitoring tool that monitors network performance and hardware and software health. Our all-in-one monitoring solution includes a native Zoom sensor that pulls data about the status of Zoom services and integrates it into your monitoring dashboard, so you can keep an eye on Zoom's performance alongside other critical network parameters.

To set up the sensor REST Custom sensor:

1. Paste the "zoom.status.template" file in your PRTG program directory's "Custom Sensors\rest" subfolder, and the "zoom.status.ovl" lookup file into the "lookups\custom" subfolder
2. Create a new device with the IPv4 Address/DNS Name to "status.zoom.us"
3. Add a REST sensor with the following parameters:
   1. Request protocol: HTTPS
   2. REST Query "/api/v2/components.json"
   3. REST Configuration "zoom.status.template"
   4. Scanning interval: 10 minutes

Find more details in our blog article: Know when Zoom is down with PRTG

Alongside Zoom-specific parameters, PRTG also has sensors to monitor connectivity, quality of service (QoS), the mean opinion score (MOS), as well as routers, switches, WiFi connections, and other network components that could affect your organization's VoIP capabilities.

Even better, PRTG monitors other video conferencing platforms, such as Cisco Webex, GoToMeeting, RingCentral, or join.me, and comes with native sensors for monitoring Microsoft services such as Teams.

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.