WhatsUp Gold - Network Monitoring Utility Version 5.0 Release Notes Ipswitch, Inc. http://www.ipswitch.com Description =========== WhatsUp Gold monitors vital network elements and system services and generates an alarm when there is a problem. It also facilitates remote support and diagnosis by providing beeper, pager, e-mail, and voice notifications and allowing users to view the status of a network map from a Web browser. Designed for PCs operating with Windows Nt 4.0 or later, Windows 2000, 98, 95 or Windows, WhatsUp Gold can be installed wherever needed and does not require expensive, dedicated hardware. It will run in the background on your PC. WhatsUp Gold will work with any 32-bit TCP/IP stack, such as those bundled with Windows NT and Windows and you can configure WhatsUp Gold and start monitoring your network without any special training. New Features ============ - Smart Scan Using SNMP discovers and maps devices by reading SNMP data on your network’s default router. Creates maps that reflect your network’s hierarchy, with separate maps for various levels of sub-networks. - You can create Performance Graphs (from the Reports menu) that plot the accumulated polling statistics for selected maps and devices. The Performance Graphs can show aggregate data, such as the devices with the best and worst availability, or the devices with the highest and lowest average response time, and the best and worst days of the week for network performance. - You can now jump to the parent map from a subnet map (in the subnet map, right-click and select View parent map from the pop-up menu). You can also set or change the parent map in the Map properties for the subnet map (right-click in the subnet map and select Map properties from the pop-up menu). - Ability to display maps with icons in the web interface. - SmartScan and Scan can identify devices that are SNMP manageable and record SNMP information in the SNMP tab in device properties. This information can be useful when querying a device with the SNMP tool. - The Change SNMP Communities tool (on the Tools menu) lets you do a global change of Read and Write community names in your map. - You can edit or replace the standard icons used to display devices on a map. - You can set the Map Display properties to apply to all new maps and the Map Properties (on the File menu) have been reorganized. - Additional changes + Fixed UDP queries through firewalls + Added SNMP tab to device properties + Added graphical status to "statistic window" + Added consistant right click menus to windows + Improved SCAN-IP settings to pay attention to netmasks + Added default map properties that are applied to all newly created maps (button in Map properties) - Modified double click behavior on subnet items to view/load subnet. - Added "Autorun Cmd" to custom hosttype to allow a command to be run automatically if an auto-scan adds this host type to a map. Uses same args as dblclk action. - Added Scan-IP and SmartScan to new map wizard and reworked wording on Finish page. - added SNMP traps to web logs per device - Modified icons - Modified menus - Added user defined Web menu items to hosttypes CUSTOM HOST TYPES ================= Custom host types have some functionality that is not defined in the documentation. You can add GUI menu items to a device and you can add WEB menu items to a device. GUI Menu Items -------------- [hosttype] MCOUNT=count_of_menu_items MNAMEn=display_name MCMDn=command_line (n is a number from 0 to MCOUNT-1) WEB Menu Items -------------- [hosttype] WCOUNT=count_of_menu_items WNAMEn=display_name WCMDn=URL (n is a number from 0 to WCOUNT-1) Arguments that are valid in MCMD or WCMD lines: ----------------------------------------------- %a=address %R=read community (also 'c') %W=write community %n=hostname %l=object name (l=lower case L) %1=info 1 %2=info 2 %T=hosttype %O=host SNMP object id MIB EXTRACTOR ============= WhatsUp Gold uses two ASCII files, MIB.TXT and TRAPS.TXT, to convert SNMP object and trap identifiers into object and trap names, and vice versa. (In previous releases, WhatsUp Gold stored similar entries in the Windows registry.) The MIB.TXT and TRAPS.TXT files that are shipped with WhatsUp Gold contain the SNMP objects defined in the MIB-II standard, including the six standard traps. If you want to update the MIB.TXT and TRAPS.TXT files to include the MIB and trap information from vendor- provided RFC-compliant MIB files, you use the WhatsUp Gold "MIB Extractor" -- this is a command line program named MIBEXTRA.EXE. We recommended you use the MIB Extractor by first collecting your vendor-provided MIB files into a single directory and then executing "mibextra directoryname\filename". The MIB Extractor reads the current contents of MIB.TXT and TRAPS.TXT, processes the vendor-provided MIB files, and rewrites MIB.TXT and TRAPS.TXT. MIB.TXT format # any line starting with # is a comment displayname,SNMP_object_id[,alias[,alias[,...]]] #-Def name,file|loaded <- used by MIBEXTRA.EXE TRAPS.TXT format # any line starting with # is a comment displayname,SNMP_object_id,major_trap,minor_trap # 6 common names should always exist here: coldStart,snmp,0,0 warmStart,snmp,1,0 linkDown,snmp,2,0 linkUp,snmp,3,0 authenticationFailure,snmp,4,0 egpNeighborLoss,snmp,5,0 enterprise,snmp,6,0 # note that names SHOULD be used for SNMP_object_id in # this file and the name MUST exist in the MIB.TXT file Upgrading ========= If you are upgrading from a previous version of WhatsUp Gold or WhatsUp, you should note the following: -- Back up any network maps (.db for WhatsUp and .wup for WhatsUp Gold). (When you open a .db file in WhatsUp Gold, the file is automatically converted to the .wup format and saved with a .wup extension.) -- Back up your SERVICES.INI and HOSTTYPES.INI files. During installation, WhatsUp Gold will ask if you want to overwrite your old SERVICES.INI and HOSTTYPES.INI files; answer No. -- Be sure that WhatsUp Gold has completely shut down before doing an upgrade installation. If you exit WhatsUp Gold during a poll, it may take up to 30 seconds for WhatsUp Gold to remove itself from memory. Until it is removed from memory, WhatsUp Gold will appear in the Windows task list if you press Ctrl+Alt+Del. -- Defined notifications are stored in a file named ipnotify.ini in your Windows or NT directory. This file is shared by other Ipswitch products and is therefore not deleted or replaced when you upgrade. Moving WhatsUp Gold to Another System ===================================== In order to keep any defined notifications when you move WhatsUp Gold, you need to manually copy the ipnotify.ini file from the Windows or NT directory of the old system to the Windows or NT directory of the new system. Installation ============ NOTE: To view performance graphs with WhatsUp Gold, you must have the ODBC32.dll installed. (If you have Office 97/98/00 or Windows 2000 it is already installed.) To install or upgrade WhatsUp Gold: - If you purchased a WhatsUp Gold CD-ROM, insert the CD-ROM. If it does not run automatically, click Start, select Run, and then enter the CD path followed by Autorun.exe. For example, d:Autorun.exe - If you downloaded WhatsUp Gold from our web site, run the downloaded application, wugold.exe. Uninstalling ============ The uninstall function removes all files associated with WhatsUp Gold from your PC, except for your defined notifications. These are stored in a file named ipnotify.ini in your Windows or NT directory. This file is shared by other Ipswitch products and is therefore not deleted when you uninstall WhatsUp Gold. To uninstall WhatsUp Gold, you can use the Uninstall application that is installed when you install the product. To do so, click the Start button, select WhatsUp, and then select Uninstall WhatsUp Gold. Known Issues ============ -- If you close WhatsUp Gold while a poll is in progress, it may take up to 30 seconds to be removed from memory. If a reboot takes place while a poll is in progress, a GPF may occur. -- If you have 'Stack supports raw sockets' enabled, the traceroute tool may not work properly. -- Net tools Time Module will GPF when querying server running date past 2036. -- Closing WhatsUp Gold while a Nettool is active may cause the application to GPF. -- Custom services (TCP/IP) will crash if the send string exceeds 500 characters. -- Changing the protocol of a device that has existed for a period of time shows incorrect statistics on Web page. -- ODBC (Office 97/98/00) must be installed on the PC before using Performance Graphs (Crystal Reports). -- 'Install custom components' lists size incorrectly. -- NSLookup crash for specific SOA query (not reproducable.) The problem is probably a corruption in registry: HKEY\CURRENT_USER\Software\IPswitch\Whatsup\Lookup\Name0 Deleting the query history in the registry will fix the problem. -- Custom Services: Returned data (Expect on connect and Expect command response fields) is truncated at the first %00 character. If you write an expression that looks for %00 it will never evaluate to TRUE. WhatsUp Gold Custom Service API =============================== WhatsUp Gold now has the ability to include customized service checks through an external API. The basis of this API is COM (Component Object Model). NOTE: All pertinent information regarding the implementation of the COM interface is provided in the WUGAPI.H file that is automatically installed in the WUG program directory. The information in this file is for experienced COM program developers to use to extend the monitoring capabilities of WhatsUp Gold. It is beyond the scope of this document and Ipswitch technical support to provide any guidance on writing COM applications. To develop a custom service checks, the COM program developer needs to: - Write a COM server implementing the IWUGSvcObj interface as defined in WUGAPI.H. - Register the control in the Windows registry like any other standard COM object. - Register the object's GUID and ProgID in the WhatsUp Gold plug-ins key. EXAMPLE: Under the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Ipswitch\WhatsUp\plugins create the following two entries: name = WUGSamp.1 data = {87B0F902-CF8A-11D2-9CC8-0040053DDA73} For more information... ======================= - Download the WhatsUp Gold User's Guide (.pdf file) from the Ipswitch Web site: http://www.ipswitch.com/downloads/manuals.html - Note: You will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the .pdf file. You can also download the Acrobat Reader from the same location on our Web site.