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Answer/Solution: WhatsUp Gold -
Version 8.03 Release Notes
- Description
- New Features
- Installation/Upgrading
- Uninstalling
- Known Issues
- Issues Fixed in 8.03
- Issues Fixed in 8.02
- Issues Fixed in 8.01 HF1
- Issues Fixed in 8.01
- For More Information
Description
WhatsUp Gold is an award-winning software product used by thousands
of customers to watch over their mission critical network
infrastructures and services. You will be up and running within
minutes with WhatsUp Gold's easy installation and intuitive
interface. In a few simple steps, you will be able to:
- Auto-discover and map your network.
- Set up notifications to alert you the moment that WhatsUp Gold
detects a problem.
- Generate out-of-the box reports to help you analyze your network
uptime, and response time.
In addition, WhatsUp Gold allows users to view the status of a
network map from a web browser. With WhatsUp Gold, you have a robust
tool that offers the essential functionality to ensure that you stay
on top of your network resources.
WhatsUp Gold is designed for PCs operating with:
Supported operating systems are:
- Windows 2003 Server
- Windows XP SP1 or later
- Windows 2000 SP4 or later
- Windows NT 4.0 SP6a or later (Subsequent releases will not
support NT 4.0)
- Windows 98 (Subsequent releases will not support Windows 98.)
- Windows ME (Subsequent releases will not support Windows ME.)
WhatsUp Gold is a very robust tool that requires little hardware
resources to operate. Thus, it can be installed in just about
any hardware configuration. It can be set up to run as a service
on Windows NT.
New Features (WhatsUp Gold 8.00)
- An Events monitoring system has been added to WhatsUp Gold. This
provides the ability to trigger alert notifications of system
events recorded as new entries in NT Event logs (local or remote),
SNMP Traps, and new entries in Syslog. Events are immediate and
happen outside of the polling cycle.
- Note for prior WhatsUp Gold users:
Beginning with version 8.00, the term "events" means something
very specific. To remove any potential confusion regarding prior
meanings, we have changed the name of Event Report and Event Log.
Event Report is now named "Outage Report." Event Log is now named
"Activity Log."
- Ability to Save and Restore all map data and device data as
ASCII files. Ability to have an ASCII based format become
the default file format for the map. Intermediate device
statistics are now in ASCII form (last 30 polls, etc). Map
formats are now extensible via a plug-in system.
- Enhancement of the scripting of TCP/UDP Monitors. Addition of
flow control and error handlers to scripts for more customizable
service monitoring.
- Filtering by device types during discovery. Allows for skipping
device types you are not interested in discovering and monitoring,
both in Active Discovery and New Map Discovery (i.e. Auto-
Discovery).
- A new SMS Notification type that allows a 'provider' centric method
to send an SMS Message. This allows for a provider database to be
accumulated so that users can share connection settings and access
numbers. In addition there is a scripting mechanism to solve TAP
and UCP inconsistencies between provider companies.
- A new notification type that allows you to stop or start a
specific NT service (local or remote). This allows you to manage
NT services based on activity on your network.
- The restriction of 10 Alerts per device has been lifted. You can
now have an unlimited number of Alerts per device.
- With the new Events system comes many new 'percent variables' you
can use in Notifications. For example, this will allow you new
flexibility in reporting just the relevant data from SNMP traps.
See the online help topic titled 'Event Variable %(*)' for
more details.
- Maps loaded through the web interface now load subnet maps
automatically.
- SNMP Performance Reports: The WhatsUp Gold Performance Reports
capability has been extended to include reports based on data
retrieved from SNMP devices.
- Exporting Performance Graphs from the Command Line: Functionality
has been extended to allow you to enter multiple report jobs using
one call to CSTATRPT.
Upgrading
If you are upgrading from a previous version of WhatsUp Gold or
WhatsUp, you should note the following:
- Back up any network maps! These will have the file extensions .DB
for WhatsUp and .WUP for WhatsUp Gold. NOTE: 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.
- Back up your Notifications subdirectory (new in version 6).
- Back up your Events subdirectory (new in version 8).
- For versions earlier than version 5, 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.
- Back up your GALLERY.INI file (new in version 7).
- During installation, if WhatsUp Gold detects that a MIB.TXT or
TRAPS.TXT exists in the installation directory, it will install
the new files as MIB.NEW and TRAPS.NEW.
- 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.
If you press Ctrl+Alt+Del, WhatsUp Gold will remain in the Windows
task list until it is removed from memory.
- WhatsUp Gold comes with a 'Classic' set of web templates by
default, however you are free to create your own versions too.
'Live' template files are located in the 'Web' directory (as .asp
files).
A clean archive of the 'Classic' web interface pages can be found
in the 'WebTemplatesArchive\Classic' subdirectory of the install
directory. As you upgrade to newer versions of WhatsUp Gold, the
install checks to see if you have modified the working set of web
template files in the 'Web' directory. If you have modified or
customized these files, the upgrade install will recognize this.
You will then have the opportunity, during install, to either
backup and replace the existing live templates and accept the
updates provided with this release, or keep your existing live
templates as is. If you choose to keep your existing web templates
as the live set, you can always find the latest set in the
WebTemplateArchive\Classic directory. To realize bug fixes
in your web template files you should consider merging the new
set with your customized working set. If you choose to accept
the updated templates as the live set, your customized templates
will be backed up under the WebTemplateArchive directory.
- Note: The "SNMP Threshold" custom service plug-in has been
replaced.If you have been using the custom service plug-in: "SNMP
Threshold" (SNMPCHK.DLL) you are encouraged to migrate to the new
version of this plug-in: "SNMP Monitoring" (SNMPMON.DLL) introduced
with v7.00. By doing this, you can take advantage of all updated
SNMP monitoring features. "SNMP Threshold" will continue to work
with v8.00. However, all future enhancements will occur in the new
"SNMP Monitoring" plug-in. The new "SNMP Monitoring" plug-in is
automatically installed with v8.00. Details on how to migrate can
be found in the following Knowledge Base article:
WhatsUp Gold -
Convert SNMP Threshold checks to version 7 SNMP Monitoring plug-in
Installation
NOTE: To view performance graphs with WhatsUp Gold, you must have the
ODBC Driver Manager (version 3.520.4403.2 or later) 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, WUGOLDEC.EXE.
Uninstalling
The uninstall function removes all installed files associated with
WhatsUp Gold from your PC, except for those that can be modified,
such as:
- SERVICES.INI
- HOSTTYPE.INI
- GALLERY.INI
- MIB.TXT
- TRAPS.TXT
Both the Notification subdirectory and Web subdirectory are left
untouched.
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
- Microsoft SAPI5 is bundled inside the WhatsUp Gold Text to Speech
plug-in. If the installation of Microsoft SAPI5 fails then you will
get an error when you attempt to use the Text to Speech
Notification within WhatsUp Gold. Another cause of the same problem
is when SAPI5 somehow gets uninstalled from your system after the
Text to Speech plug-in is installed. We have found that SAPI5 will
not install if there are soundcard problems. Not having a soundcard
at all is the most obvious example.
- 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 General Protection Fault
(GPF) may occur.
- If you have 'Stack supports raw sockets' enabled, the
traceroute tool may not work properly.
- Net tools Time Module will cause a GPF when querying a
server running a date past 2036.
- Closing WhatsUp Gold while a Net tool is active may cause
the application to cause a GPF.
- Changing the protocol of a device may cause incorrect
statistics to be displayed on the Web page
- You can not run Performance Graphs export jobs from the
WhatsUp Gold Service, if the service is configured to log
on with the default System Account. You can configure the
WhatsUp Gold Service to log on as your domain account to
correct this error condition.
- With the new Windows 2003 operating system, Microsoft has tightened
application security for services using the default ‘Local System´
account. Therefore in order to operate WhatsUpG and its components
as a service using Windows 2003, you will need to start the
‘WhatsUp Gold Service´ and components running under a specific
account that has administrative privileges. To make this easier
under 2003 the WUGSVC command has been extended to prompt for the
account to run as.If you only run WhatsUp Gold as a console
application or use a operating system other than Windows 2003, this
step is not necessary.
Fixed in Version 8.03
There have been numerous fixes in the 8.03 maintenance release
including:
General
-------
- Fixes a memory leak that occurred during log file archiving.
- Correction to WhatsUp Gold startup code to cater for operation on
fast machines.
- Ping packet payload size reduced for polling pings. The payload
size can be specified further using the registry entry:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Ipswitch\WhatsUp\Settings\PingPayloadSize
The default is a payload size of 32 bytes (50 byte ping packet).
- Correction to memory leak during polling when large XML or INI map
sets are used.
- Fixed editing of groups so that link lines, services and events are
handled correctly.
SNMP Monitoring
- SNMP Monitor now supports negative rates of change.
- The polling of SNMP values has been made more error tolerant to
lower the chances of false downs. A retry count attribute is
available in the SERVICES.INI file for SNMP monitors.
- SNMPMon now writes more information to the Debug log, summarizing
what was done in the check all in one line. Specifically, the query
OID, the target IP, the target value, the actual value, the current
failure count, and whether the monitor returned UP or DOWN to WUG
as a result.
Alerts
- Stricter processing of modem busy signals in the Beeper
notification such that the notification retries.
- Options added to control the timing for problem modems that do not
disconnect in between multiple SMS notifications. Addition of
registry entries that allow the specification of how many times the
plugin issues a disconnect, and an option to wait a period after it
issues a disconnect message.
Implemented as registry entries:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Ipswitch\Whatsup\Notification\SMS\WaitAfterDisconnecting
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Ipswitch\Whatsup\Notification\SMS\IssueHangupCount
- Change to the number of packets used to send SMTP mail
notifications to allow mail to pass through PIX firewalls with the
"SMTP Fixup" applied.
SNMP Graph
- Communication errors are now shown in the last column of the item
table.
For example, where SNMP requests do not return valid data, or an
incorrect community string is being used.
- SNMP Graph now allows the charting of negative numbers via graph
properties. SNMP item properties include a check for 'allow
negative values' which will reinterpret SNMP samples as signed
instead of unsigned.
- Includes corrections posted as part of 8.01 HF1.
Import/Export
- Attributes such as ItemFlags and SpecialFlags in INI and XML files
are now expanded into well named attributes (such as EnableAlerts,
PollingMethod, etc).
- For INI map files the attributes Monitor time, StartTime and
EndTime have now become PollingWindow attribute.
Format is: StartTime<tab>EndTime<tab>DayCodes
Where DayCodes are 7 digits 0 or 1 denoting which day should be
considered.
For example monitoring just on week days is expressed as 0111110.
Similarly the Monitor time in the alert definition has been
updated.
The 6th parameter is no longer a numeric code, but a DayCode.
Note also that 24 hrs a day has been removed from the MonitorTime
numeric code and is reflected directly in the start and end times
- The version of INI and XML files has been increased to 102.
Versions 100 and 101 can still be read, however only version 102
files will be written.
Web Interface
- Correction to issue where the image of one map could appear on
another map page if many maps were reloaded at once.
Fixed in Version 8.02
Version 8.02 consisted only of an updated WhatsUpG.exe and was
bundled with the Failover Module.
- Addressed stability issues revealed by the Failover Module's very
rapid loading and unloading of maps.
- Fixed crash when a web user deletes a device while the console user
saves changes to the same device.
Fixed in Version 8.01 HF1
- Fixed Buffer overrun in SNMPGrph.exe
- Fixed a memory leak that occurred during polling (SNMPGrph.exe)
- Fixed a memory leak when monitoring Windows Events (WinEvnt.exe)
Fixed in Version 8.01
There have been numerous fixes in the 8.01 maintenance release
including:
General
- You can now reset device statistics counters from the device quick
status dialog.
- Corrected sorting by IP address in Statistics View.
- Added option to add monitors/services to multiple selected devices.
- Directory must now exist for map Save-As to function.
- A warning dialog has been added to the map and application close.
The purpose is to indicate polling does not occur on closed maps.
- SNMP Graph output to file corrected for repeating timestamps.
- SNMP Graph data file format updated. Date field format changed to
correct issue with reports that span a new year. Date and time
fields now use the following format: YYYYMMDD HHMMSS
CSTATRPT and the SNMP*. report files have been updated to work with
the new format. CSTATRPT will convert all old date formats on the
fly.
- Ipswitch contact address updated in version resources.
- Corrected Notifications View printing.
- Miscellaneous small UI corrections and improvements.
Discovery
- Corrected issue with discovery resulting in no devices if "match
all services" was selected in the discovery wizard.
Alerts
- "Send alert even if console response" now on by default for new alerts.
- Order of Alerts on devices preserved after an edit of the alert definition.
- Display of comment improved if scroll bar is needed in device table
of alerts.
- Added the ability to acknowledge all alerts on all maps via the console.
- Alert master switch added to the program configuration to allow the
suspension of new alerts. Added the ability to pause the
generation of notifications but still accumulate alerts for later
processing. Added the ability to clear all pending notifications.
- From the Web Interface the user can now select "24 hours a day,
between the hours of and not between the hours of" when defining an
alert.
Events
- Event triangle now shows up on Subnet and Container icon when
devices on the subnet or in the container receive an event (updated
on next poll).
Notifications
- Support has been added to the Beeper and Pager notifications to
support COM ports greater than COM4. The initial support is for
COM ports 1 through 8 and may be expanded via the registry setting:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Ipswitch\WhatsUp\Notification\Settings\
Settings_Comunication_Ports
- Cancellation of continuous sound notifications is now more
responsive in that the request to cancel the sound no longer waits
for other queued notifications to process.
- Sound notification expanded to allow the specification of different
sounds depending on the nature of the alert (device up/down,service
up/down,or event received).
- Program notification configuration now checks that the specified
program exists and the working Path is valid. Additional diagnostic
information now written to the debug log.
- Recurring notifications will now allow longer time periods to be
specified.
- Changed the %L parameter such that you no longer get the entire log
file. If %L is used without a number we default to 99 lines
maximum.
- Japanese encoding of SMTP subject lines corrected (extra # symbol
removed).
Web Interface
- Corrected crash due to the multiple concurrent use of the web
version of Net Tools to Scan a device.
For more information...
Download the WhatsUp Gold User's Guide (.PDF file) from the Ipswitch
Web site: 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.
The Ipswitch web site has the User's Guide available in HTML format.
It also contains a comprehensive Knowledge Base with hundreds of
searchable articles.
Both can be found at the following address:
http://www.ipswitch.com/support/whatsup/index.asp
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