Pandora FMS FAQ
Do you have any questions?

Do you offer consulting services to support deployment?

Yes, we offer on-site or remote consulting services. These services can be of the type “closed project (turnkey)” or by bags of hours. We start from half a day to the possibility of having a technician specialized in Pandora FMS in the long term.

What kind of support is available?

The license includes 8×5 technical support through our ticketing tool.
Optionally we offer 24×7 support services with a dedicated phone number.

Do you make custom plugins?

Generally when we support a Pandora FMS deployment we adjust existing plugins or develop new plugins at the request of our customers. We also help you to adapt your scripts to work with Pandora FMS.

Is there a limit to the number of support incidents?

There is no limit to the number of incidents or queries.

Can I buy support for the free version?

We have support packs for a limited number of issues, regardless of whether it is for the free version or for any of the paid versions. You can purchase them here.

Does technical support include remote assistance?

The support team will do everything possible to fix the problem. If it is necessary for a support technician to enter your systems, we can do so; as well as get our development team to fix any bugs that directly affect you as soon as possible. However, technical support does not include administration or maintenance. For consulting support you can hire separate packs of hours of systems consulting.

What can I do if I need help with a migration from other software or a complex Pandora FMS upgrade?

You can hire a bag of consulting hours with our team. This serves both to study the problem and the development of small scripts needed and, of course, the performance -remote- on your equipment. We have migrated installations from different manufacturers, and it is always a consulting process, not just running a script.

What kind of certifications does Pandora FMS have?

As a company, we are ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 certified. Our project managers are certified in ITIL v4 and we comply with the National Security Scheme in its highest category.

What type of model do you offer, On-premise or SAAS?

We offer both models, being the software exactly the same. It is possible to migrate from one model to the other, being a service that we offer (with a cost independent of the license cost).

Given that Pandora FMS offers license, with annual support renewal and also in subscription model, which is better?

The subscription model is ideal if we want to pay less in the first year or if the license costs are charged to a third party, so that it is easier to estimate the costs year by year, as part of a service. From the 5th year onwards, a license is always more economical.

Is it possible to invoice in US dollars with payment to a US account?

It is possible, for this we use a bank (WISE) with an account in USD that allows both international transfer payment (SWIFT) and local transfer payment between accounts in the USA (ABA). You can pay in US dollars from anywhere in the world.

Can the project be invoiced in different phases?

In the case of large projects, especially with new clients, we apply a phased payment scheme, with an initial payment and partial payments after certain milestones have been reached.
As for the payment period after the invoice has been issued, we maintain a 30-day term. There is the possibility of extending invoicing periods to 60, 90 or 120 days, although this option usually carries an additional surcharge of between 1% and 4%.

Can we have a payment schedule and can we pay monthly?

In projects involving extensive services or large licenses, we choose to structure payments in installments. This practice is not common for smaller projects. Monthly payments are reserved exclusively for Software as a Service (SaaS) and Maintenance as a Service (MaaS) versions.

Since we do not have a local account, we can invoice through a third party, is this correct?

It can be done, although this generally increases costs due to the third party commission.

Is the maintenance payment for the second and third year paid in advance or is it paid each year?

We offer the option of prepayment for these periods, which provides the advantage of applying a discount and avoids possible increases associated with price revisions. If you opt for annual payment, it is important to note that annual renewals usually involve a slight increase, linked to inflation adjustments.

Our license includes annual support, we cannot make monthly payments, any problems with credit card payments?

No problem. We accept all types of credit cards, although for credit card payments there may be a small charge for bank commission depending on the country of origin.

Can you deploy agents yourselves?

We can do it directly as part of the implementation, we can automate it or create custom installers so that after the first implementation phase you can include it in your new system provisioning processes.

What kind of services do we need to monitor, could you send me an example?

We can do an implementation study and provide you with guidelines to follow or even execute the complete implementation of the system ourselves.

I am interested in VMware, Oracle, Exchange, Active Directory, DB2, JBOSS, Tomcat and Weblogic plugins, among many others, what do I have to do to access them?

All these plugins are ONE. To have access to the Marketplace and enjoy the ONE plugins you will have to purchase a ONE license. With the Open Source version you will only be able to use the Open Source plugins.

Is the SAP plugin included in the ONE license?

No, this is the only exception along with the IBM i plugin. This plugin is SAP ™ certified and sold separately.

Is the IBM i plugin included in the ONE license?

No, this is the only exception along with the SAP plugin. This plugin is created by a company specialized in IBM i and is sold separately.

Is it easy to perform a new integration in Pandora FMS? What is the process to integrate Pandora FMS with my tool?

It is very simple. Pandora FMS has a powerful API with which we can make GET/SET calls to be able to integrate with any third party application, either to send information collected by Pandora FMS or to introduce new information to it.

What is included in the Pandora FMS license?

Pandora FMS license includes technical support, updates (patches and new versions), access to the complete library of modules and plugins online with more than 500 plugins, access to the manufacturer’s knowledge base, with hundreds of technical articles, troubleshooting and specific tips, and the Enterprise code, so you could access the source code and modify it according to your needs.

How is Pandora FMS licensed?

It is licensed by agents. Other manufacturers license by metrics, by technologies or by functionalities, but Pandora FMS licenses by agents.

How many versions of Pandora FMS are there?

There are four versions: Free, NMS, ONE and the SaaS.
The Free version is a completely free version, limited to 50 agents or 600 monitors, but with no time limit or any other functionality. It is supported by the community and has endless resources, free courses and access to all documentation and KB.
The NMS version is a version oriented to network monitoring, without other features such as user experience, inventory, log collection, etc.
The ONE version is the version with all the features, and is licensed by number of devices to monitor, starting from 100 devices.
SaaS is an Enterprise version offered as a Service. The MaaS version is a SaaS version customized for each customer and with operation services included.
Compare the different versions on our website.

What is an agent?

An agent is any monitored device, in a physical environment such as a router, switch or server or in a virtualized environment a Host would be each Virtual Machine with a unique IP address.

Is there a minimum number of devices required to obtain the license?

Yes, the minimum license for sales with technical support is 100 agents.

Do I have to pay every year?

In the license version you can decide not to renew the license, so you will have no support, no access to new versions and no patches. You will also not have access to the Enterprise module library and knowledge base, but the software will continue to work at full capacity.
In the pay-per-use version, if payment is not made, the software stops working.

If the license cost is based on the number of agents/servers, is there a maximum number of modules/monitors?

An agent can be an information container capable of monitoring 50 or 1000 different devices if necessary. For this reason, there is no limit to the number of devices or modules monitored by a single agent. This way of working will be very useful when you need to monitor network equipment because, for example, a 24-port switch can easily report on a hundred modules. It will also make your work considerably easier when you need to monitor backbone routers, as you can monitor hundreds of modules with the same agent.

What if network devices are monitored with SNMP, does that count as an agent?

Yes, an agent can be a Router, a Switch, an Access Point, a firewall, a NAS, etc.

What factors do I need to consider when deciding the number of agents I need?

By having a licensing model based on the number of agents and not the number of metrics monitored, you may think it is a good idea to monitor all your devices with a single agent. This might be very wise if you only need to check very simple things, such as the connectivity of your devices. However, if you need to query more information, it might be better to group fewer devices into each agent. This way, the information will be much more organized and structured, and the experience will be more agile, fast and practical, which will make your work much easier.

How to license several Pandora FMS installations?

If it is a redundant type installation (active/passive) you will only need to pay for one license. However, if the installation is multisite (export server, metaconsole, active/active cluster) you will need a license for each independent server.

Is Pandora FMS an On-premise or SaaS solution?

Pandora FMS is a traditional on-premise software product, that is, you purchase a license and install and maintain it in your own facilities. It is licensed and also by “subscription”.
We also have a “pay-per-use” model as a cloud service that we call MaaS (Monitoring as a Service) in which case we provide the software, the server and we keep it updated and managed by the customer. Learn more about MaaS.

Differences Between Online Courses (eLearning) and Instructor-Led Courses

Online Courses (eLearning)

• Mode: Delivered through our online platform (academy.pandorafms.com).
• Pace: Allows students to learn at their own pace. They have 6 months from the course enrollment date.
• Content: Includes a combination of theory, practical exercises (with resolution videos), and self-assessments.
• Support/Tutoring: Includes an individual internal messaging system for unlimited questions to the tutor, plus three hours of online tutoring via videoconference (to be scheduled).

Instructor-Led Courses (On-site)

• Mode: In-person sessions held at our headquarters (Las Rozas, Madrid) or at the client’s facilities.
• Duration: Usually last six hours per day.
• Group Size: Limited to a maximum of eight students.
• Personalization: Often adapted to the participants’ previous knowledge level.
• Recommendations: It is recommended to have completed at least the PAB and PAO courses before attending in-person training. For advanced courses, PAT and PAE will also be required.

Who can deliver official Pandora training?

Any certified partner holding the PAI (Pandora Instructor) credential and the corresponding course certification can deliver most of the courses.

How can I get certified?

Exclusively through our online platform: academy.pandorafms.com

Is it possible to deliver instructor-led training online?

No. We have done it for years, but the experience was not as positive as we would have liked, which is why we no longer offer it. Instead, we propose taking a course through eLearning and contracting additional training hours, to extend the tutoring time to more hours (e.g., 10 hours). The costs are significantly lower, the flexibility is much greater, and the results are far better.

Does the training include certification?

No. It must be purchased separately. The online training through academy.pandorafms.com includes attendance and completion certificates, as well as self-assessment tests, but it is not an official certification.

What is the certification?

The certification consists of an exam that combines theoretical and practical tests. Its purpose is for Pandora FMS to validate that the individual has a minimum level of knowledge about the platform. Several levels of certification are available.

Certification Requirements

Anyone can take the certification exam, regardless of whether they have completed the official training or have prepared independently using the documentation available online.

It is important to note that some certification levels, such as the PAE (Pandora FMS Advanced Engineer), require having previously obtained a lower level (for example, the PAT – Pandora FMS Advanced Technician).

For personal validation during the certification process, it is essential to have a camera and a microphone.

How many attempts are included with each certification?

Each certification includes 2 attempts to pass each exam. In cases where the certification includes both a theoretical and a practical exam, such as the PAT and PAE, there will be two attempts for each exam, for a total of 4 attempts.

Do certifications expire?

The certificate covers an LTS version, which has an approximate duration of 3 years.

Can I retake the exam if I fail?

Yes. You can use the included attempts. If they are exhausted, you must purchase the certification again to obtain additional attempts.

Which certification do I need based on my technical role?

• PAB / PAO → Basic users and operators
• PAT → Technicians and implementers
• PAE → Advanced administrators, architects, and consultants

(The exact recommendation depends on your role and level of responsibility with Pandora FMS. If in doubt, consult your sales representative.)

In which language are the certification exams conducted?

The exams are available in Spanish and English.

How long do the certification exams last?

It depends on the level and type of test. Duration ranges from 20 to 120 minutes.

How long are the included certification attempts valid for?

They are valid for up to one month from the date of the first attempt.

What happens if all available attempts are used?

If all included attempts are used and the certification is not passed, the certificate will not be issued and it will be necessary to purchase the certification again to obtain new attempts.

Is it possible to purchase additional attempts for a certification exam?

No.

Can I reschedule the exam date once it has been booked?

No. Unless sufficient notice is given and it falls within the official sessions established by the training department. If the student does not attend without justified cause or is more than 30 minutes late, the session will be considered used.

What happens if I experience a technical issue during the exam?

It must be reported immediately to [email protected].
The training department will evaluate the issue and determine whether a retake or rescheduling is appropriate.

How long does it take to issue the certificate once the exam is passed?

Within the next 15 working days.

Is the certificate digital and downloadable?

Yes. It is digital and sent via email through [email protected]

Are the certifications tied to a specific version of Pandora FMS?

Yes, to the current LTS version.

Can training and certification be purchased separately and invoiced independently?

Yes. You can take the training without certification and request access to the exam only, without completing the online training.

What is the difference between updates for the ONE and Free versions?

With the ONE version, if a bug or critical vulnerability is found, you will receive a customized hotfix through support within hours. With the Free version, you will have to wait for the patch to be released in the next version. 

What is the difference between Pandora Open and Pandora FMS FREE?

Pandora Open is open-source software with the same roots as Pandora FMS, but it lacks many of the features found in the ONE or FREE versions. It has many features, but it is generally based on the “do-it-yourself” principle, including installation from source code. You can use the code to modify it or extend it by creating your own version (such as a fork). Unlike the Free version, there is no usage limit; you can use it with as many agents or modules as you want. The Free version has all the features of the ONE version but is limited to 50 agents or 600 modules.

What is the process for upgrading from the Free version to the ONE version? Will I lose all my data?

The migration process from the Free version to the ONE version is simple and fast, with no loss of the information currently being monitored. You can count on our services to help you with monitoring, or our support team will provide you with the simple steps to upgrade to the ONE version.

What is the real capacity of Pandora FMS in production?

Rakuten, one of the largest online stores in Japan, and Telefónica, one of the largest multinationals in the telecommunications sector, use Pandora FMS with thousands of agents. See more references and success stories of companies around the world using Pandora FMS Enterprise. Our largest installation in production has more than 80,000 agents with more than one million metrics.

How does Pandora FMS scale?

A single Pandora FMS instance can manage a maximum of about 3000 agents. If you want to monitor larger environments, for example, 50,000 devices, you need Command Center: a part of Pandora FMS that monitors different independent instances to work in a unified way.

Do you have high availability?

Yes, in all the components. For the DB we have an active/passive system, so it is necessary to replicate the DB and use a balancer to make the switchover. We have a solution that integrates all the components and to which we give 100% of the support, without the need of additional elements external to Pandora FMS. Our HA system is compatible with locating the different components of the architecture in geographically independent networks, with different addressing and thousands of kilometers away.

What systems does Pandora FMS support?

We can monitor Windows (from Windows 2000 onwards), UNIX (HPUX, Solaris, AIX), Linux (any distribution), BSD, Mac OSX and Android systems.

Where is the Pandora FMS server installed?

We have official support for RedHat linux (this includes Alma and Rocky Linux) and in version 764 we added support for Ubuntu Server (this also includes Debian). Pandora FMS server can not be installed on Windows (previous versions did allow it but this support is no longer possible).

Does Pandora FMS work on Windows?

Pandora FMS can monitor windows systems, remotely and with agents. The Pandora FMS main server kernel runs only on Linux Redhat, Centos, Ubuntu, Rocky or Alma. The satellite server can be installed on windows.

What database does Pandora FMS support?

MySQL8 and compatible systems.

What network technologies does Pandora FMS support?

ICMP, TCP, SNMP v1, v2 and v3. Netflow, SFlow and JFlow. Network discovery with SNMP, WMI and SSH scripts.

Is it possible to create network maps with Pandora FMS?

Yes, at level 2 (linking, joining port to port), and at level 3 (detecting routes and hooking parents to children). This can be done automatically via discovery or manually using our visual map editor. If you want to learn more about implementing network maps feel free to explore the resources:

Blog – Network Maps
Manual – Data Presentation and Network Maps

Video Tutorial – Network Maps

Can Pandora FMS do user experience monitoring?

User experience describes the interaction of a user with a product or service, such as an application or a web page. User experience monitoring is in charge of supervising the different steps in which this interaction is carried out (for example, the purchase process in a web page) in order to verify that this experience is as expected and that it is not hindered by failures or delays that could frustrate it. Pandora FMS does this in a centralized or distributed way.

I want to monitor a web service, how do I do it?

Pandora FMS is able to perform web browsing checks, simulating the actions of any user. With this you will be able to check contents, texts, navbars, banners, and execute any complex embedded application (HTML5, Javascript, etc), Pandora FMS underneath uses a real virtualized browser to perform the checks.

What data can the inventory register in Pandora FMS?

Pandora FMS can collect data from different sources, from hardware, such as CPU model, graphic card, RAM memory or hard disk, among others, to software, such as applications, patches, operating system version, processes running on the machine, etc. Thanks to a simple script you will be able to generate customized modules to collect such information, through agents or remotely.

Is it easy to monitor IoT with Pandora FMS?

Pandora FMS can monitor any element that is connected to a network: this includes smartwatches, irrigation systems, thermostats, smart tv, home automation in general, etc.
It has never been so easy to connect any device to your systems and processes to have everything under control, in a single platform.

Is it possible to measure the SLA with Pandora FMS?

Pandora FMS has several ways to measure the SLA of your services, and several types of reports to do so (timelines, daily, weekly, monthly, customized over time, availability and others). You will also be able to design service maps to measure the SLA in real time.
For specific information about SLA, we recommend you:

Explore our SLA Reporting Video Tutorial.

Read more about What is an SLA in our blog.

How does Pandora FMS work with logs?

Pandora FMS collects and displays in a single view the logs collected by the agents or through standard systems such as Syslog. The same monitoring agent is used to collect Windows events and/or text logs. Alerts can be created, searches can be made and reports can be created with this information.

How long does Pandora FMS store the collected information?

Pandora FMS can store decades of information if necessary. It has an independent historical database to store all the information (monitoring data).
The logs are stored in a non-SQL storage system and can be stored for several years if necessary (although a lot of disk space will be required).

What server requirements do I need to install Pandora FMS?

To monitor 1000 agents you need a machine with the following requirements.
OS: Redhat 8 / Rocky 8 / Almalinux 8 (from August 2022 also Ubuntu server).
Hardware: 4 Cores, 8GB RAM, 60 GB disk.

For the on-premise version, is it necessary to have physical servers or is it enough with virtual servers? Do you provide some kind of virtualized image or ISO disk?

It doesn’t matter, the installation system is the same. The client provides the base operating system (installed by default) and executes a command, Pandora FMS will be installed automatically downloading everything necessary from the internet (including dependencies).

Do you have an internal audit?

It has a complete internal auditing system, which allows exporting logs to third parties and having control of what each user does and what he/she modifies within the tool.

Is it possible to create a maintenance on monitors and service maps that is defined in a user-friendly interface?

Yes, we call it “Planned Shutdowns”, and they allow you to remove from SLA reports, screens and reports, what happens on systems where a shutdown has been planned.

Is it possible to rerun the check when needed, especially in the case of Windows server checks. Is there an easy-to-use interface, such as a button, to do this?

It is necessary to define a “remote control” operation to restart monitoring in the agent. This control is executed as a manual action from the console. After pressing the button, the agent will send the updated information in about 15-25 seconds.

How long does an upgrade take, and is there an upgrade functionality with no downtime?

Agents are not routinely updated. Server/console updates are integrated into the system, and could be a 90-second procedure if all goes well. No loss of service is involved.

What level of access can be given to the Pandora FMS console: administrator, operator, read-only user?

Fully customizable, per user, per customer/group (it is multitenant).

What is the maximum limit of users in the Pandora FMS console at the same time?

Limited only by server memory. We have clients with hundreds of users connected.

Can Aruba network devices be monitored and a network map created automatically?

Yes, it has a public MIB.

Do you have any out of the box integration with HPE oneview?

OneView is a solution for infrastructure operation, the integration should be defined as part of a project. It could be complex, but we have experience with some similar cases (Remedy, Jira, Zendesk, etc.).

Can new devices be auto-discovered and is monitoring automatically included in the discovered device?

If we have a network recognition task running, VMWare, Azure… and a new device is introduced in that network, Pandora will recognize it and create a new agent with the basic monitoring assigned to the task. To include the monitoring automatically, you can create autoconfiguration rules associated by operating system, IP ranges or custom fields.

If I have multiple identical devices that I want to do the same monitoring on, is there any functionality to do it in a simple way?

There are by default multiple monitoring policies to start easily and massively the monitoring of basic metrics divided by OS. Additionally in the policies you can enter the execution of scripts, sending scripts and alerting Pandora FMS.

What is the limit of agents in the service, does it have a limit of alerts or storage?

There is no limit to the number of agents, although the service starts from 20/100 agents (SaaS/MaaS). There is also no limit on the alerts or reports you can use.

How long is historical data stored for?

For monitoring data history, it is stored for 1 year in SaaS and MaaS, although this limit in MaaS could be upgradable. For log storage, 10GB per day is provided for SaaS and 10GB per day for MaaS, with the possibility of increasing this limit in MaaS.

What is the availability of the service and what happens if it fails during a weekend?

The service level agreement (SLA) for service availability is 99.5% for SaaS and 99.7% for MaaS, with additional options to upgrade SLA levels.

What security does the service offer?

In addition to a contractually guaranteed availability SLA, at MaaS all our servers are unique to each client, we have 24/7 monitoring, our own system security and, of course, the service includes backups. We are an ISO/27001 certified company.

What are managed services for?

Available in three levels (Basic, Standard, Advanced), our managed services allow our team to manage the tool for you for a number of hours per month. This way, for time-consuming routine tasks, you can delegate them to our team, saving valuable time and resources for other activities. In addition, our staff is certified at the highest level in Pandora FMS and can perform the tasks immediately, without the need to train your staff in Pandora FMS.
For example, you can delegate tasks such as creating reports or alerts, configuring thresholds or policies, integrating new monitoring with library plugins or even developing small integrations through scripts. Just create a ticket and we will take care of the rest. In the Advanced service, you will even have a phone number to call for more fluid communication.

Would it be possible to install an Office from Pandora RMM to any agent with windows?

Through an unattended installation package. A binary and the command to install it, as well as, optionally, a way to evaluate the successful installation, are distributed through the RMM console.

Would it be possible with Pandora RMM, to obtain the events from Windows?

By default, the Windows monitoring agent, can
take events and show them in the logs console, associated to this agent. The same as the log of an Apache, or of a Mysql server in a Linux.
The RMM license covers all the Pandora FMS functionalities, in workstation type equipments.

How is Pandora SIEM licensed?

For each line of data processed. It is licensed by lines of data processed per second, through a monthly average. It must be taken into account that Windows events, when captured by the Windows agent, are converted into a log line. The log line can have hundreds of characters, it is not limited in size. A SIEM can process several thousand lines of data per second, but produce only one relevant security event, depending on its configuration.

Is Pandora FMS a Nagios fork?

No, Pandora FMS code started to be developed in 2004 from 0. If you want more information about Pandora FMS history you can find it here.

Who develops Pandora FMS?

Pandora FMS S.L (formerly known as Ártica), is the company behind Pandora FMS. It is headquartered in Madrid (Spain).

How can I test the product and for how long?

A 30-day fully functional Pro version is available. Order it now on our website.