WhatsUp Gold Release Notes v11.0.3

Description

Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold v11 is a powerful, yet easy to use network monitoring application. Within several minutes of installing the software, you can:

Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold v11 includes a web interface that parallels its console. This allows you to monitor your network from anywhere with Internet connectivity in much the same way that you can from the console. Beginning in the WhatsUp Gold 11 release, the web interface houses all of the WhatsUp Gold full and workspace reports.

Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold v11 Premium Edition

The Premium Edition is available for separate purchase. It provides all of the network monitoring capabilities of Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold v11 and extends the product to allow application monitoring, including:

Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold Central and Remote Site Editions

The WhatsUp Gold Central and Remote Site Editions are available for separate purchase as a distributed network monitoring solution. Both editions come packaged with all of the powerful features of WhatsUp Gold Premium v11.0.3.

New to this release

The following are new features in WhatsUp Gold Standard and Premium v11.0.3:

The following are new features in WhatsUp Gold Central and Remote Editions v11.0.3:

The following issues have been resolved within v11.0.3 Standard, Premium, and Central/Remote Editions:

The following issues have been resolved within v11.0.2:

The following issues have been resolved within v11.0.1:

Major features in WhatsUp Gold v11

Ipswitch's release of WhatsUp Gold v11 includes the following features and enhancements:

System requirements

Minimum software requirements

Minimum hardware requirements

MSDE 2000 requirements

To verify that file and print sharing are enabled:

  1. Select Start > Control Panel.
  2. On the Control Panel, select Network Connections.
  3. From the menu bar, select Advanced > Advanced Settings.
  4. On the Adaptors and Bindings tab, make sure the File and Print Sharing for Microsoft Networks option is selected.

Installing or upgrading

Important: This WhatsUp Gold 11.0.2 patch update can only be applied to a WhatsUp Gold 11.0.1 installation. It cannot be installed on a system without WhatsUp Gold installed on it, nor will it update any version prior to 11.0.1 (including 11.0.0).
The WhatsUp Gold 11.0.3 installs will patch existing 11.0.x installations or upgrade from WhatsUp Professional 2006.

The installation program is similar whether you are installing WhatsUp Gold Standard Edition (or WhatsUp Gold Premium Edition) for the first time or upgrading a previous installation. Steps that apply only to a first-time installation, or only to an upgrade, are identified as such. For more information about installing the WhatsUp Gold Central and Remote Sites, see Installing Central and Remote Sites in the application Help.

To install or upgrade WhatsUp Gold:

  1. Log in to an Administrator account.
  2. Start the installation program:
    • If you purchased a WhatsUp CD-ROM, insert the CD-ROM into the appropriate drive. If it does not run automatically, click Start, select Run, then enter the CD path followed by AutoRun.exe For example: D:\AutoRun.exe
    • If you downloaded WhatsUp Gold Standard Edition or WhatsUp Gold Premium Edition from our Web site, run the downloaded installation application.
  3. Read the Welcome screen.

    The Welcome screen recommends that you disable any running antivirus software, estimates how long it takes to install the application, and displays a button that, when clicked, displays the release notes.

    Click Next to continue.

  4. Read the license agreement. Select the appropriate option, then click Next.
  5. Select the default install directories for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express, then click Next (For first-time installation only).

    Note: If you want to customize your database setup, you need to first complete the installation, then manually configure your database as described in Alternative database setups in the application Help.

    The application and data files will be installed in default directories. If you want to change the locations, click the browse buttons to find and select a different directory.

    Important: Make sure that you have a large capacity drive selected for data storage. Data files can grow up to the 3 GB MSDE limit.

  6. Select the installation directory for the WhatsUp application files. (For new install only.)

    The default path is C:\Program Files\Ipswitch\WhatsUp. We recommend that you use the default path. Some users prefer to put application files on a partition separate from the operating system, which is usually installed on the C: drive, to isolate the application from an operating system crash.

  7. Choose whether to backup your current WhatsUp database (for upgrade installation only). We strongly suggest that you do this!
  8. Choose how to handle existing Web and Report files. (For upgrade installation only.)

    If you have previously installed WhatsUp Gold, you may already have Web and Report files stored in your installation directory. You can choose to either delete them or back them up during the install. Backup is recommended.

  9. If a sound card is installed and it has SAPI-compatible drivers, the install program asks whether you want to install Text to Speech capabilities. If you select No, you can always return and install Text to Speech at a later date.
  10. Choose whether to enable the web server during install and enter a port for this installation.

    Note: This dialog will not be displayed during an upgrade if you have already enabled the WhatsUp web server in an older version of WhatsUp.

  11. Click Install to install the WhatsUp Gold application files. WhatsUp Gold gives you the option to go back and change options or cancel prior to completing the installation.

    Important: When you use an alternative database setup, you will need to run the database upgrade scripts when installing a new release of WhatsUp Gold. The installation program will warn you if it detects a non-default database. For information on running the upgrade scripts, see Upgrading the database schema in the application Help.

  12. Make your selections, then click Finish.

    If you choose to launch now, the next screen asks you to activate the application. For more information, see Activating the WhatsUp Application in the application Help.

After the activation screen, you are introduced to the Discover Devices wizard, which lets you set options on how to discover your network. If you choose to postpone these steps, click Cancel.

MSDE information

An MSDE 2000 Release A installation will fail if the following security policy is set to Do not allow installation:

The Unsigned non-driver installation behavior local security policy for Windows 2000:

If you use the Do not allow installation setting, you must change it to Silently succeed before installing MSDE 2000 Release A. If necessary, you can return the policy to its previous setting after the installation is complete.

Note: Do not allow installation is not the default setting for these security policies.

To enable the MSDE 2000 'Do not allow installation' policy:

  1. Select Start > Control Panel.
  2. Select Administrative Tools.
  3. Select Local Security Policy.
  4. Expand the Local Policies folder and select Security Options.
  5. Ensure that the following option is set to Silently Succeed:
    • For Windows XP and Windows 2003: Devices: Unsigned driver installation behavior
    • For Windows 2000: Unsigned driver installation behavior

Microsoft Data Access Components

MSDE 2000 Release A includes updates to Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC). When you install MSDE Release A, MDAC 2.7 SP1a is also installed, unless the installation wizard Setup detects the same version or a newer version of MDAC.

For more configuration information

Refer to the KB article or the readme.txt file in the DB Scripts folder in WhatsUp Gold for more information on how to configure Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold v11 and later to work with Microsoft SQL Server or other instances of MSDE 2000.

To access the DB Scripts folder:

  1. From the drive where Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold v11.x is installed on your computer, navigate to your Program Files folder.
  2. From the Program Files folder, select \Ipswitch\WhatsUp.

For more information on manually upgrading the database from WhatsUp Professional 2006 to Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold v11, see the DB_Upgrade.txt file in the \DB Scripts\Upgrade Scripts folder.

Uninstalling Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold v11.x

To uninstall Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold v11.x:

  1. Select Start > Settings > Control Panel, then select Add or Remove Programs.
  2. Select Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold v11.x.
  3. Select Remove.

You can also run the Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold v11.x installation program, then select Remove.

Select one of the following dialog options:

Migrating configuration information

The WhatsUp Gold Data Migration utility, included in the WhatsUp console, migrates data from WhatsUp Gold 7 or 8 into Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold v11.x. The following list of items is migrated with this utility:

Before you use the migration utility, we recommend that you back up your WhatsUp Gold database, using Back Up SQL Database (located in the WhatsUp console Tools > Database Utilities)

To start migration, from the WhatsUp console, select Tools > WhatsUp Gold Migration Utility and follow the directions provided by the migration utility wizard.

You can run this utility at any time during the operation of WhatsUp Gold, and it can be run multiple times. When you run the utility, imported maps and devices will be duplicated each time, but duplicate definitions are not imported or updated. If XYZ exists in the database, XYZ is ignored, even if the definition was updated in WhatsUp Gold.

Note: The migration results may not map directly to the terminology and dialogs you've seen in WhatsUp Gold 7 or 8, as Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold v11 uses different terminology and work flow.
When the migration utility is run, items added to the database begin polling, even if the migration wizard has not been completed.

Application notes

WhatsUp Gold uses Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to monitor and restart NT Services. For each device that is assigned an NT Service Active Monitor, you must supply the Windows credentials. Also, when creating a Service Restart Action, you must supply Windows credentials for each Action. Credentials must have administrative permissions on the remote server. Local accounts with credentials that match remote accounts are no longer required to monitor remote servers.

Credentials are configured in the WhatsUp Gold Credentials Library and used in several places throughout WhatsUp Gold. They can also be associated to devices in Device Properties > Credentials, or through Bulk Field Change for Credentials.

The use of WMI could have some implications if target devices are behind a firewall. To successfully monitor and/or restart NT Services, you need to modify firewall settings so that:

  1. The RPC port (135) is open for connections.
  2. The DCOM port range is defined and open for connections.

In some cases, WMI monitors are known to report false negatives, in that a service is shown as down when it is in fact up. It may help if you increase the length of your RPCPingTimeout registry value.

To edit the RPCPingTimout registry value:

  1. Go to Start > Run > Regedit.exe
  2. From the Registry Editor go to:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Ipswitch\Network Monitor\WhatsUp Engine\2007\Settings
  3. Within the Settings folder, select RPCPingTimeout and right-click. From the right-click (context) menu, select Modify.
  4. In the Edit DWORD Value dialog, enter in a new value for the timeout (in milliseconds) and click OK.

Important: The default timeout is 5 seconds. We strongly recommend that you do not exceed a timeout of 30 seconds.

Note: The default value of 0xffffffff (hexadecimal) is equivalent to 5000 milliseconds, or 0x00001388 (hexadecimal).

After making any changes to the registry, you need to restart the WhatsUp Engine.

To restart the WhatsUp Engine:

  1. Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services.
  2. Select Ipswitch WhatsUp Engine from the list of services, then click Restart on the left side of the Services dialog.

Known issues

To re-enable the Telnet protocol:

  1. Click Start > Run. The Run dialog box opens.
  2. In the Open box, enter: Regedit, then click OK. The Registry Editor opens.
  3. Go to the following key:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl

  4. Under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl, create a new key named FEATURE_DISABLE_TELNET_PROTOCOL.
  5. Add a DWORD value named iexplore.exe and set the value to 0 (decimal).
  6. Close the Registry Editor and restart Microsoft Internet Explorer 7. The Telnet protocol is enabled.

Passive Monitor payload limitation

It is important to note that Passive Monitors have a payload limitation of 3 KB for both WMI, SNMP, and Syslog Passive Monitors.

This could cause a couple of things to take place:

  1. A payload to not show up in a trap or event log when expected.
  2. An assigned action to fire with no payload that sends a blank email if you are trying to grab data from the payload.

Stopping services before installing MSDE 2000 Release A

You can install MSDE 2000 Release A without shutting down services. If you do not shut down services, the WhatsUp Gold setup will attempt to shut down the following services prior to MSDE installation. The setup will attempt to restart the services following installation. You should confirm that all services restarted following MSDE 2000 installation. You may be prompted to reboot the computer when Setup is complete. Without rebooting, the following services will fail to start:

You can reduce the possibility of having to restart your computer after installing MSDE 2000 Release A by stopping these services and applications before running Setup.

You can also try manually installing MSDE and then install Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold v11. For more information see the Knowledge Base article, How to manually install MSDE.

Note: Only default instances will be upgraded by the install.

Potential installation errors

For more information

Following are information resources for WhatsUp Gold. This information may be periodically updated and available on the WhatsUp Gold support page.