# How frequently should I monitor devices?

The general practice is to monitor critical devices more frequently than non-critical ones. The recommended monitoring intervals for small and medium-sized networks (up to 1000 devices) are tabulated below.

| Device Category | Monitoring Interval (minutes) |
|---|---|
| Routers, Critical Servers | 10 |
| Switches, Hubs, and Printers | 10 - 20 |
| Critical Services like Exchange, Active Directory | 10 - 20 |
| Desktops and Workstations | We recommend turning off monitoring for unimportant desktops and workstations to reduce the amount of network traffic generated by OpManager. This is done by clearing selection for Desktop category in Settings > Configuration > Monitoring Intervals. Alternatively, you can also monitor them less frequently, say for every 30-60 minutes. |

If there are other critical workstations that you want to monitor, you can set up monitoring for them individually.