# Configuring Process Monitors on Windows/Unix Servers & Desktops

[OpManager's process monitoring](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/process-monitoring.html) provides out-of-the-box support for monitoring the availability of all the processes running on a Windows or Unix system. Windows systems use WMI and Unix systems use CLI to monitor the processes that are running on a system. We also support SNMP in the Server/Desktop and Domain Controller categories.

- [Associating process monitors](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/process-monitor.html#associate)
  1. [From performance monitor settings page](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/process-monitor.html#perf)
  2. [From device snapshot page](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/process-monitor.html#ss)
  3. [From device template page](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/process-monitor.html#temp)
- [Configuring thresholds](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/process-monitor.html#thresh)

## Associating process monitors

A process monitor can be associated to a device in one of the following ways.

### From performance monitor settings page

1. Go to **Settings → Monitoring → Processes** and click on the **"Add"** button at the top right corner. You can also associate existing monitors to devices by selecting the **"Associate"** button.
2. Now, select the device name, and the corresponding credential and protocol.
3. A list of available processes will be displayed. You can select the required processes and click on the **"Save"** or **"Save and associate"** option.

![Process monitors configuration on windows/ unix servers and desktops: From performance monitor settings page](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/images/process-2.png)

### From device snapshot page

1. Navigate to **Inventory → Devices** and then click on a device to open its snapshot page.
2. Ensure that you have associated the [SNMP/WMI/CLI Credentials](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/add-credentials.html) to the device.
3. Click **Monitors → Process Monitors**.
4. Click **Add Monitor**, select the required Process Monitors and click **Add** at the bottom of the page to get these monitors associated to the device.

![Process monitors configuration on windows/ unix servers and desktops: From device snapshot page](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/images/process-1.png)

### From device template page

1. Go to **Settings → Configuration → Device Template**.
2. Click on a template and click the **"Add"** button found at the top of the **"Associated Monitors"** section.
3. You can now select the processes from the displayed list, and click on the **"Ok"** button.

![Process monitors configuration on windows/ unix servers and desktops: From device template page](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/images/process-3.png)

**Note:** The polling interval cannot be set at single monitor level. This value is same as the polling interval of the device.

## Configuring thresholds

You can set resource thresholds for the Process Monitor. Once a resource (CPU/memory) utilization by a process exceeds the configured threshold, an alert is triggered.

1. Under the device snapshot page, head to the monitors tab. Head to the process monitors section, and click on the Edit icon against the process name. (You can also [configure thresholds](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/configure-thresholds.html) from the performance monitor settings or device template pages.)
2. Configure the threshold values for CPU and Memory resources.
3. Configure the number of times you would like to allow threshold violation before being notified. For instance, if you configure the value as 3, OpManager will notify you if the resource threshold is violated 3 consecutive times.
4. Configure the number of the process instances, exceeding which you would like to be notified. For instance, if you would like to be notified if the number of Apache.exe instances on the monitored device exceeds 3, configure the value here as 3 and save the changes.

![Process monitors configuration on windows/ unix servers and desktops: Threshold configuration](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/images/process-1-config.png)

Alerts are triggered based on the above settings.

You can also view [active processes](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/view-active-process.html) on a device and process diagnostics against a system resource. We currently support active processes for SNMP/WMI/CLI protocols.