in the invention in the embodiment shown the monitoring system 10 comprises a first and second processing unit 12 14 with the second processing unit 14 being provided as a redundant processing unit for the first processing unit 12 redundancy is thus provided at the processing unit level each processing unit 12 14 is able to communicate e g via a bus especially a so called field bus e g profibus with one or more preprocessing units 16 18 20 from a plurality of theoretically possible preprocessing units 16 18 20 only a first a second and a third preprocessing unit 16 18 20 are shown in the figure each preprocessing unit 16 18 20 in this case is connected in a redundant manner both to the first processing unit 12 as also to its redundant second processing unit 14 one or more sensors 22 can be connected to each preprocessing unit 16 18 20 each sensor 22 is intended for detection of signals from an external technical process not shown when the monitoring system is used for vibration monitoring e g for recording vibration data of a technical process such as a gas turbine for example in the diagram depicted in the figure only one sensor 22 is shown by way of example this is redundantly connected to the first preprocessing unit 16 and the second preprocessing unit 18 this means that the second preprocessing units 18 assumes a function of a redundant preprocessing unit in relation to the first preprocessing unit 16 in relation to processing sensor.