Configuring the web interface to use IIS

Follow these steps to run the WhatsUp Gold web interface through an IIS (Internet Information Services) Web server.

  1. Stop the following services and applications:
    • Ipswitch WhatsUp Engine service
    • Ipswitch Web$WhatsUp service
    • Ipswitch Network Monitor Task Tray application (right-click the system tray icon and select Close Task Tray Application)
    • Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold console
  2. Allow MSDE to use SQL Server Authentication:
    1. On the WhatsUp Gold computer, go to Start > Run. Enter regedit.exe, then click OK.
    2. Navigate to the following key and set the LoginMode value to 0 (zero):

      HKEY LOCAL MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\WHATSUP\MSSQLServer\LoginMode=0

  3. From the Services control panel, restart the MSSQL$WHATSUP service.
  4. Specify a username and password for WhatsUp Gold to use when connecting to MSDE:
    1. Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools and open the Data Sources (ODBC) Control Panel.
    2. Select the System DSN tab.
    3. Select the WhatsUp DSN, then click Configure. The Configuration wizard opens.
    4. Verify that the fields in the first dialog are correct and click Next.
    5. On the second dialog, verify that the With SQL Server authenitication using login ID and password entered by the user option is selected. In the Login field, enter the SQL username. In the Password field, enter the SQL user's password. The default username for the WhatsUp MSDE instance is "sa" and the password is "wug_sa." Click Next.
    6. On the third dialog, ensure that the first option is selected and that the WhatsUp database appears in the drop-down menu. Click Next.
    7. Continue to click Next until you come to the final dialog, then click Finish.
  5. Specify the SQL username and password for the WhatsUp database connection:
    1. In the WhatsUp Gold installation directory (by default, C:\Program Files\Ipswitch\WhatsUp\), open NmConfig.exe.
    2. Enter the SQL username and password entered in Step 4e in the appropriate fields, then click OK.
  6. From the Services control panel, stop the IIS Admin service.
  7. Create a virtual directory in IIS named NmConsole which points to <WhatsUp Gold install path>\HTML\NmConsole\.
    1. Go to Windows Control Panel > Administrative Tools and open the Internet Information Services control panel. This is the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager in Windows 2003.
    2. Expand the Web Sites folder, right-click on Default Web Site and choose New > Virtual Directory. Click Next.
    3. In the Alias field, specify a name for the virtual directory. We strongly recommend that you name this new directory NmConsole.
    4. Enable Read and Run scripts (such as ASP) on the next page. Click Next then Finish.
  8. Enable the parent paths feature for the NmConsole virtual directory (to support use of the relative paths used to navigate in the WhatsUp Gold web interface):
    1. Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools and open the Internet Information Services control panel. This is the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager in Windows 2003.
    2. Expand the Web sites folder, then expand the Default Web Site item. Right-click on the newly created NmConsole virtual directory and choose Properties.
    3. On the Virtual Directory tab, click Configuration.
    4. On the Options tab, select Enable parent paths. Click OK.
  9. Set authentication for the virtual directory:
    1. Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools and open the Internet Information Services control panel. This is the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager in Windows 2003.
    2. Expand the Web Sites folder, expand the Default Web Site item. Right-click on the newly created virtual directory and select Properties, then select the Directory Security tab.
    3. In Anonymous access and authentication control, click Edit. In Windows 2003, this section is named Authentication and access control. Verify that anonymous access is enabled. By default, IIS uses a restricted account named IUSR_<machine_name> for anonymous access. Change the user listed in the User name field to a local administrator. In Windows XP, if you wish to use a domain user with local administrator rights, you must disable the Allow IIS to control password option and enter the password for the domain user. Click OK, then OK.
  10. For Windows 2003 (IIS 6):
    1. Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools and open the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager control panel.
    2. Select the Web Services Extensions folder, then select the Active Server Pages extension. Click Allow.
  11. From the Services control panel, start the World Wide Web Publishing service.
  12. To prevent a port conflict, the internal web server must be set to use another port, such as 8080, or must be disabled. This can be done at on the WhatsUp Gold console at Configure > Program Options > Web Server.

    If you disable the WhatsUp web interface, ensure that reports still load correctly by right-clicking a device in the WhatsUp Gold console and select Device Reports from the right-menu. If not, double-check the settings on the Program Options > Web Server panel and verify the Web server port in the Web report access from Windows console section contains the port number used by IIS.

  13. Restart the services and applications you stopped in Step 1.
  14. Connect to the WhatsUp web interface by opening a browser and entering the following address in the Address box:
    http://<ip_address - or - hostname>:port/NmConsole/

Important: A known issue with IIS: when adding a device through IIS, you will receive an "error scanning device" error. There are two ways to address this problem. Please refer to the KB article, WhatsUp Gold - "Error scanning device XXXXX. Probable cause is it does not exist when using IIS as the Web Server."