Ipswitch WhatsConfigured

Overview:

If you’re responsible for an ever changing network - establishing, fine tuning and managing configuration changes is likely one of your biggest headaches. As your network grows in complexity, so do the tasks related to maintaining accurate device configurations. For better or worse, configuration files, access credentials, and information requirements vary by device type and from vendor to vendor. Soon you have a plethora of devices that are impossible to manage without some automation and standardization. And if your change management policies require you to ensure compliance - managing through manual configuration changes becomes nearly impossible. 

So how do you manage this complexity and still ensure your device configurations are accurate and not contributing to network problems? Or even making them vulnerable to data loss and malicious attacks?

Life just got a little easier. With our new WhatsConfigured plug-in you can feel confident your network is well configured, your configuration data is protected, and secure from unauthorized users. Fully integrated into the WhatsUp Gold product family, WhatsConfigured automates network device configuration file backup, restore, storage, and change management processes – eliminating common manual and repetitive configuration tasks. And it provides in-depth traceability and accountability of changes by tracking changes when they occur. With Whatsup Gold and WhatsConfigured in place you’ll know exactly what’s on your network, how it is configured, and how everything is performing.

• Automate the configuration and change management for network devices
• Dynamically access, download, and store configuration files
• Schedule and execute configuration changes for individual or groups of network devices
• Alert on configuration changes and restore a known good configuration as required
• Compare stored startup or running configuration files  to reduce troubleshooting effort
• Maintain audit trails of all configuration changes to ensure accountability and traceability

Key capabilities of WhatsConfigured include:

Extensive Vendor Device Support

Network configuration management presents a host of challenges because of the diversity of vendors, devices, and access mechanisms supported.  Infrastructure components like routers, switches, gateways, wireless access points, firewalls, VLANs and routing protocols including OSPF and BGP, as well as management mechanisms such as IPSLA and flow monitoring add to the complexity.

WhatsConfigured automates the execution of scheduled tasks relating to current network configuration backups, startup configuration file backups and password change management for an individual device or across groups of devices. Each scheduled task is carried out through the execution of task scripts. Scheduled tasks can also be monitored for successful completion – generating alerts when failures occur, or when configuration changes are detected.

Integrated Alerting and Reporting

WhatsConfigured integrates with WhatsUp Gold’s Alert Center to provide alerting on configuration management events. Like other Alert Center items, notification policies can be assigned to alert conditions once they are configured. Comparison of network file configurations against stored configurations or between two selected devices can be initiated from the WhatsUp Gold reports tab. All alerts and reports are easily accessible anytime, anywhere through the integrated WhatsUp Gold web console.

WhatsConfigured helps navigate through this maze of configuration choices by supporting multiple protocols including secure SNMP v1-3, SSH2, Telnet, and TFTP to enable the management of your entire network infrastructure from a single platform.

Features:

A fully integrated network configuration and change management plug-in, WhatsConfigured is accessible from both the WhatsUp Gold Web and Windows consoles. WhatsConfigured is supported across all WhatsUp Gold editions (Standard, Premium, Distributed and MSP).

WhatsConfigured Configuration Capabilities

• Secure access to  network devices based on industry standard  SNMP v1-3, SSH and Telnet protocols
• Download and storage of unlimited versions of configuration files for each network device
• Secure storage  of password and authentication credentials for each network device
• Allows manual selection, viewing and comparison of network device configuration files through the Whatsup Gold console
• Uses the WhatsUp Gold workspace, reporting and Alert Center functionality for integrated network management
• Communicates status of WhatsConfigured application via system log reports
• Broad and diverse vendor support including devices from Cisco, Juniper, HP, Dell, Foundry, Extreme and others

Change Management Capabilities

• Runs scheduled (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly or custom) or on-demand tasks;  including backup and restore of startup and running device configurations
• Manages and update passwords across individual devices or device groups, on a scheduled or on-demand basis
• Alerts when a device configuration file changes, downloads the running configuration file and initiates automatic comparison with stored configuration files to highlight differences and speed up operational response
• Alerts when the configuration backup task fails to run on a device or when a scheduled or scripted configuration task fails to execute
• Enables the deployment of customized task scripts to carry out both manual and automated action following a configuration change, e.g. rebooting a device once the configuration file has been updated
• Logs all device configuration events including file changed and time of change, for audit and control purposes

Benefits:

Ensuring Network Health and Reliability

The new WhatsConfigured plug-in augments the management benefits of the WhatsUp Gold product family in multiple ways: 

Network device misconfigurations are one of the primary causes of service degradation and failure. WhatsConfigured minimizes the impact of downtime from configuration errors in two ways:

1. By automating the process of configuration updates and changes – it eliminates the likelihood of human error in carrying out complex configuration tasks.
2. If downtime occurs, you can use WhatsConfigured to determine if a configuration change is the cause of the problem. In the event a change is at the root of the problem, you can use WhatsConfigured to immediately restore backup configurations and improve service.

WhatsConfigured provides a central repository for backup and storage of all network configuration data. By storing all configuration data, it ensures that startup, and  running  configurations are always available. And automated configuration and password updates across device groups ensure consistency in network deployments, maintaining data and access security.

When configuration changes happen, whether authorized or unauthorized, WhatsConfigured sends notifications via the Alert Center ensuring that the right constituents are notified and appropriate action is initiated.

WhatsConfigured automates all manual and repetitive tasks, greatly reducing the time and man-hour cost of configuration management. Network administrators and managers can set up scheduled tasks within WhatsConfigured to roll out configuration or password changes to existing devices following established policies; provision a new device with a standardized configuration; or restore baseline configurations to one or more devices if changes need to be rolled back.

WhatsConfigured logs each change on a monitored device and provides a complete audit trail of including the exact configuration file that was changed, time of change.  This data helps ensure only authorized personnel make changes in compliance with network configuration policies and unauthorized changes are immediately detected, investigated and rolled back to maintain compliance.

FAQ:

What is Network Configuration and Change Management?

Network Configuration and Change Management (NCCM) is the process of creating and maintaining a central and up-to-date record of all network devices configurations. NCCM is also a critical discipline within ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) initiatives – supporting either a centralized or a federated CMDB (Configuration Management Database) architecture.

Networks have become extremely complex and achieving optimal network configuration is as much of an art as it is a science. Network management professionals spend a significant amount of time establishing and fine-tuning configurations to ensure stable network performance, protect data and secure networks from unauthorized users. Configuration changes are continuously needed to support new services, policies and perform network optimization. These changes cannot occur without robust change management processes, which in turn require that network device configurations be standardized, maintained and documented with a full record of all changes. Fully documented configurations are also an essential element of complying with legislative initiatives (like HIPAA, SOX and BASEL II), as well as ensuring adherence to Government Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs) and industry standards such as PCI and ITIL.

Apart from being critical to proper functioning of network devices, configuration data is vital to many aspects of the operations process, including:

• Rapid on-boarding of new network devices
• Troubleshooting network problems caused by configuration changes
• Maintaining compliance with network and security policies
• Ensuring security of access to network devices
• Automated backup of network device configurations
• Documenting configuration event and change data for detailed audit  purposes
• Providing quick access to backup startup, and running configurations
• Enabling manual and automated comparison of different configuration file versions

WhatsConfigured is a fully integrated plug-in to the WhatsUp Gold product family. It utilizes all of the common functionality across reporting, alerting and visualization capabilities of WhatsUp Gold. Once set up, WhatsConfigured reports and alerts can be accessed from both the Windows and Web consoles.

WhatsConfigured licenses can be purchased for a tiered number of network devices. Currently available tiers are as follows – 10, 25, 100, 300, 500, 1000, 2500, 3500, 5000 network devices. WhatsUp Gold is a pre-requisite for using WhatsConfigured. It does not work as a standalone.

WhatsConfigured supports network equipment from multiple manufacturers out of the box. Since this list is regularly updated please check back for changes.

Cisco Switches & Routers	Recommended IOS Versions
800, 1700, 2600, 2800, 3700, 3800	12.4 / 12.4T
Catalyst 2960, 3560, 3750	12.2SE
Catalyst 4500 and 4900	12.2SG
Catalyst 6500	12.2SX
7200, 7301 routers	12.4 / 12.4T / 12.2SB
7304 routers	12.2SB
7500 routers	12.4 / 12.0S
10000 routers	12.2SB
7600 routers	12.2SR

In general, any Cisco device that is running version 8.4 or later of IOS is supported by WhatsConfigured.

Additional Cisco Devices

• Cisco IDS
• Cisco Aironet Wireless Access Points

HP Switches

• 8212zl
• 5400zl
• 5300xl
• 6400cl
• 6200yl
• 6108
• 4200vl
• 3500yl
• 3400cl
• 2910al
• 2610
• 2810
• 2510
• 2500

Juniper

• Juniper J and M series routers
• Juniper EX switches
• NetScreen Firewall

Juniper configuration files can be downloaded using SCP (part of SSH), FTP or TFTP.

Dell PowerConnect

• 3300 Series switch

Other vendors

• All switches from vendors like Foundry and Extreme are also supported.