Your network is always changing and
evolving. New devices and systems are being added, existing
infrastructure is being moved around and older equipment
is being phased out. Your effort to manage the network
is limited by what you know about it at any instant.
As a Network manager, you need a way to keep track of
all the changes on a regular basis and adjust your monitoring
scope and coverage as things evolve - automatically.
In fact, knowing that a piece of infrastructure exists
is often not enough. You need to know what role it plays
in your network and application delivery chain and what
attributes it has. You also need to know what other
devices or systems it is connected to and how it impacts
overall service delivery.
In
short, powerful and automated discovery and mapping
capability is essential to Network Management. Without
it your network management capabilities cannot scale,
be accurate or efficient. WhatsUp Gold offers just what
you need – an industry-leading mix of automation and
intelligence that makes new service deployment and management
as easy as it can be.
With WhatsUp Gold Network Discovery you can:
- Discover (Layer 3) and map what’s on your network
and keep track of changes as it evolves
- Automatically assign roles to devices based
on intelligent matching against pre-set templates
and attributes
- Automatically deploy and start active, passive
or performance monitors based on assigned roles
and attributes
- Start, stop, manage & schedule the discovery
process both from the Windows console and the WhatsUp
Gold web portal
- Retain the flexibility to make changes to any
role or monitoring profile at any time or create
new profiles as required
WhatsConnected: Advanced Discovery & Topology Mapping
An even more powerful combination of Layer 2 and
3 discovery, and topology based mapping available separately
through the WhatsConnected
plug-in. Using WhatsConnected, you can create
Layer 2 topology based relationship maps which can be
easily imported into WhatsUp Gold Discovery and Mapping
in a few clicks – providing a single pane of management
of all related network discovery information.
WhatsUp
Gold Layer 3 Network Discovery
WhatsUp Gold’s automated and rapid Layer 3 device
discovery uses wizard-based tools to simplify and make
network discovery fool-proof, no matter the size or
complexity of the infrastructure. It can leverage multiple
types of discovery options including - SNMP SmartScan,
IP address range scan, single device scan or host file
import.
Once discovered, a more detailed scan using SNMP
credentials is executed. The depth of collected information
enables WhatsUp Gold Discovery to automatically assign
a role to the device through intelligent matching against
pre-defined templates. Pre-defined templates include
the likes of router, switch, email server, web server
etc. - and are automatically set up as relevant active,
passive or performance monitors on discovered devices.
Role attributes can be easily changed or new roles created
if required. Devices can also be assigned multiple roles
with a combination of monitors running on them.
WhatsUp Gold Layer 3 Network Mapping
WhatsUp Gold provides hierarchical maps of the Layer
3 view of the network. This includes a complete and
accurate representation of the real network and application
environment with drill downs to subnets and virtual
LANs. Drag and drop device icons make it easy to change
device positions and attributes and create relationships.
Automatic correlation of monitors, alerts and actions
to devices on the topology maps ensures that if an event
is occurring, it can be located, understood and controlled
quickly.
Welcome
Center
The new Welcome Center available in the WhatsUp Gold
console enables first time users to launch discovery
with minimal configuration (via the Quick Setup Assistant)
and reap immediate results. It also provides one-stop
access to all WhatsUp Gold information including product
documentation, instructional videos and forum posts
and even external RSS feeds.
Discovery Console
The Discovery Console provides Network managers real
time visibility on the configuration and status of the
discovery process within WhatsUp Gold. Discovered device
counts and their status, attributes discovered per device,
current discovery session metrics, list of scheduled
discovery processes and a summary of saved results are
all provided. The Discovery console is available as
part of the Windows client interface as well as the
WhatsUp Gold web portal.
Flexible Discovery Process
After WhatsUp Gold discovers and identifies the role
of devices, they can be immediately added to a device
group and monitored without waiting for the entire discovery
process to be complete. Running discovery processes
can also be halted at any time and the information already
gathered is saved. Any halted discovery can be restarted
and resumes from the point where it was stopped. Discovered
devices can be easily found from the database through
a search capability that supports full or partial matches
across multiple attributes. These capabilities make
WhatsUp Gold Discovery an easy to use and powerful tool
for network management.
WhatsUp Gold Discovery accelerates
the identification and monitoring of new network devices
and related services. It provides continuous visibility
into the discovery process enabling the management of
infrastructure changes as they happen.
Fast and Automated Discovery
WhatsUp Gold Discovery is engineered to get up and
running immediately after installation with only minimal
configuration. It takes advantage of multi-CPU environments
to process multiple discovery tasks in parallel thereby
reducing the time it takes to run a complete scan of
the infrastructure. WhatsUp Gold Discovery automatically
assigns roles and monitors and sorts infrastructure
into subnet and device groups making monitoring simple
and hassle free. It can also automate gateway discovery
eliminating the need for specifying an IP address range.
The level of automation and embedded intelligence saves
considerable time and effort otherwise required in a
manual discovery process. With the repeated need for
discovery to keep in tune with infrastructure changes,
this amounts to substantial cost savings over time.
Accurate Identification of Devices and Relationship
Mapping
WhatsUp Gold Discovery offers an extensive database
of pre-defined templates that cover the most commonly
occurring types of infrastructure. Intelligent matching
of discovered profiles based on degree of similarity
and relative weights of attributes in the role templates
enables the accurate identification of devices and running
services. For example, a device such as an American
Power Conversion (APC) Uninterruptible Power Supply
(UPS) may have several discoverable attributes beyond
its core function, including a web server for configuration
and management as well as UPS specific OIDs. The primary
role assigned to the device by discovery process would
be as a UPS. This capability for accurate and automated
identification and Layer 3 topology based relationship
mapping eliminates the need for costly modifications
for each device and service.
Multiple Discovery Scan Options to Fit Any Network
WhatsUp Gold Discovery provides multiple scan options
to fit any network or need. It interrogates discovered
devices with multiple protocols – starting with ICMP
(Ping) or TCP port scans followed by deeper probing
using SNMP. SmartScan options are highly automated
and need nearly no information to start with. They are
most useful to find out all network connected infrastructure
and create a verified list of monitored IT assets. IP
range based scans can help limit the discovery to only
a portion of the network if desired. The capability
for host file imports can provide even more targeted
scans especially when monitored infrastructure is scattered
across many subnets.
Powerful Flexibility and Ease of Use at All Levels
With all the automated capabilities, WhatsUp Gold
Discovery and mapping is extremely easy to customize
or extend to fit any kind of monitored infrastructure
or environment. For example, if an application environment
uses a non-standard port for HTTP communication (say
port 8080, instead of the standard port 80) individual
role templates can be extended with this specific attribute
to easily identify web servers using that port. Once
discovered each system or device can be added to multiple
groups or even assigned multiple roles. Moreover, the
ability to make changes, add or drop devices and attributes
directly from the topology map further makes WhatsUp
Gold Discovery highly flexible and easy to use at all
levels.
WhatsUp
Gold Technology
