WhatsUp Gold 2017 Quick Tip Evaluation Guide

WhatsUp Gold 2017 Quick Tip Evaluation Guide

Evaluation Guide - Table of Contents This Evaluation Guide touches on configuring the most important features in WhatsUp Gold. Please refer to the WhatsUp Gold Online Help for more details. Section Step 1: Getting Started Step 2: Discovery Step 3: Mapping Step 4: Monitoring Step 5: Reporting Description Review installation requirements and helpful resources to configure WhatsUp Gold Review best practices for the network discovery and working with the discovered network map Review mapping capabilities and customizing network diagrams Review basic and advanced monitoring capabilities and configuring monitors Review built-in reports and dashboard reporting 2

Getting Started Prior to Installation Prior to installing WhatsUp Gold, consult the release notes to ensure your system meets the minimum requirements. If you plan on discovering over 500 devices consider moving to a stand alone version of SQL. Have Credentials Ready WhatsUp Gold requires credentials to get the most information out of the devices on the network. Be sure your devices are configured correctly and you have proper access prior to running a discovery. See the credentials section for more details. Review Additional Resources Online Help Guide - This is a comprehensive guide that provides more detail setting up and configuring WhatsUp Gold. Community Site This is the WhatsUp Gold community site where users share scripts and ask other WUG users questions about the software 3

WhatsUp Gold 2017 Discovery Discovery New Scan Settings The discovery section provides best practices discovering and adding devices to the discovered network map. Click on the links on the left to jump to a specific topic. New Scan Credentials New Scan Schedule Discovered Network Map Filter Devices Hide Devices Device Roles 4

Discovery New Scan Settings Quick Tip Video: Discovery Launch a New Discovery From the main page, select Discover->New Scan Determine Discovery Scope You can discover Individual IPs, ranges, or subnets with the IP range scan. The Seed discovery relies on SNMP to find connected devices. You can select a discovery depth with this method (to discover neighbors of neighboring devices) Provide Discovery Limits Be sure to limit the discovery. Consider limiting it to private networks, or set a maximum number of discovered devices. Review Advanced Settings Set your data collection settings accordingly. If you are discovering wireless or virtualization environments, be sure those are selected. To have the discovery complete faster, you can increase the maximum thread count. 5

Discovery New Scan Credentials Add Credentials for Discovery From the credentials tab, select the plus mark to add a given credential type. Helpful Tip: Be sure to select the credentials you want WUG to try against the devices during this discovery. All credentials entered will be saved to the credential library for later use. Add Variety of Credentials SNMP Majority of default monitors will require SNMP RO access. Windows Windows domain administrator credentials used to create WMI monitors, and gather data from Hyper-V virtualization environments ADO - Database Connection string information to create DB query monitors for SQL or Oracle DB servers. Telnet/SSH Used to create command line monitors to look for expected results, and to backup network devices configurations VMware Uses VMware authentication for vcenter or VMware hosts. Required for VMware mapping and virtual performance statistics JMX Required to create JMX monitors SMIS Required for NetApp Storage devices 6

Discovery New Scan Schedule Determine Discovery Schedule WhatsUp Gold allows users to schedule discoveries to occur on a regular basis to refresh monitors or find new devices on the network. If you select this option, be sure to review your scan settings prior to scheduling a discovery. You can also run a discovery without scheduling it to run regularly. Helpful Tip: You can have multiple discovery scans and run them at different times. For example, you may want to scan a subnet every weekend, but refresh another subnet every other night. You can manage saved scans under Discover->Saved Scan Settings. Setup Discovery Schedule Check off schedule to reveal discovery schedule options. If you choose to schedule the discovery, consider running it during non-peak business hours. You can also setup notifications when the discovery finds new devices. Review Discovery Settings The summary tab provides details about the discovery you are about to run. When you are ready, select run to kick it off. 7

Discovery Discovered Network Map Ensure Credentials Work with Devices The discovery checks all selected credentials against the devices specified. If the Role appears as device no credentials worked against it. Is it an access issue? Is there a typo in the credentials? Is the device configured correctly? Rediscover the device with working credentials to classify it correctly. Helpful Tip: WhatsUp Gold has built-in device roles that applies monitors to devices based on device type. The device role will only apply a ping monitor out-of-the-box. Be sure that your devices are classified correctly before monitoring them Add Monitoring to a Device Choose an unmonitored device and select start monitoring (top right). Confirm Start/Update monitoring by selecting Start Add Monitoring to Multiple Devices Use the Selector tool located at the bottom right of the screen to select multiple devices at once. Selector Tool 8

Discovery Filter Devices Use Filters to Group Devices Filters provide an easy way to group devices. You can apply a filter to only show devices to fit the selected criteria. The devices that do not fit the criteria will be greyed out and are unable to be selected. Add Filtered Devices Helpful Tip: Use the Roles filter to add devices of the same type. For example, if you are a network admin, apply a filter of Roles: Switch to add the switches. If you only want to add devices you have SNMP access to add a Credential Types filter. If you have already ran multiple discoveries, take advantage of the Scan Time filter to find the devices you have recently discovered. Choose a filter and use the selector tool to begin monitoring devices that fit the criteria. 9

Discovery Hide Devices Determine a Strategy for Hiding Devices Hidden devices will be removed from the discovered network map, and will not be added back after subsequent discoveries. Devices should be hidden to remove clutter from the discovered network map. Consider hiding devices that do not need to be monitored. For example, some organizations may hide workstations or printers. Helpful Tip: Take advantage of the selector tool and Filters to hide devices in bulk. Many users will hide Role: Device or Credentials Types: None. Be sure to double check you are not hiding a device that you want to monitor. You can always unhide devices to re-add them to the discovered network map. Hide Devices in Discovered Map Click on a device in the discovered network map, and select Hide Device from device card on top right of the screen. Confirm Hidden Devices Select Hidden Devices from icon on top left of screen. Confirm that no devices that should be monitored are hidden from view. 10

Discovery Device Roles Quick Tip Video: Device Roles About Device Roles Devices are assigned roles and sub roles automatically after the discovery which determines which monitors get assigned to the devices. Users can customize the existing device roles or create new ones. Customizing Device Roles Navigate to the WhatsUp Gold Admin Console located on your WhatsUp Gold server and go to Tools -> Device Role Settings. From here, you can customize existing device roles (add monitors or action policies) or create new device roles. The Role identification determines how this role will be applied to discovered devices. Helpful Tip: If you take advantage of customizing device roles, be sure to make changes prior to the discovery. Changing a device role will not edit the monitors applied to a device if it has already been discovered. 11

WhatsUp Gold 2017 Mapping Mapping Monitored Network Map Device Groups Customizing Maps Device Dependencies The Mapping section provides best practices to make the most out of the mapping features in WUG2017. Click on the links on the left to jump to a specific topic. 12

Mapping Monitored Network Map Quick Tip Video: Topology About My Network Map After adding monitoring to devices from the discovered map they appear on the My Network tab. Network Map Navigation Select a device on the map to reveal the device card. From this card, you can 1) assign credentials or monitors from your library, 2) navigate to device properties, 3) review device status and 4) navigate to the monitor setup page. Helpful Tip: The majority of commonly used tasks in WhatsUp Gold can be done with a few clicks from the map itself. If list view is preferred, you can click the list view button on the bottom right of the map. Map Overlays Map overlays add additional information the network map. The overlays can add connectivity information, device dependencies and link status to the map. The wireless connectivity shows the virtual connections between controllers and access points, and shows users connected to APs. Virtual overlay maps relationships between virtual machines and hosts. 13

Mapping Device Groups Quick Tip Video: Device Groups Helpful Tip: Did you know you About Device Groups All monitored devices will appear under the My Network map. Users should break up the network maps into smaller meaningful groups. Many dynamic and layer two groups are populated automatically, but users can create their own device groups, layer two groups, or WUG dynamic groups by selecting New Group from the device group menu. Types of Device Groups Regular Device Groups Users can manually add devices to a group. Custom maps are available for regular device groups. The devices must be added to the group manually. After the group has been created, you can select devices, and Copy Device To to new group. Dynamic Device Group Dynamic Groups group devices by attributes like hostname, device type, or IP address. Layer Two Device Group Creates a group based on a number of different properties, and provides the ability to include connected devices. can limit user access to device groups? WUG provides user access rights to limit access to given device groups to ensure users view only the devices they manage. 14

Mapping Customizing Maps About Custom Maps Custom maps allows users to arrange devices on the map with their own design. Users can also upload image files and arrange the devices on the image in a meaningful way. Creating Custom Maps Select a WhatsUp Gold device group, and select Custom Layout from the top left of the screen. Once in the custom layout, select the pencil icon to edit the custom map (bottom right of screen). Once in editing mode, you can arrange devices on the map and add text and images to add value to the diagram. Select the image icon to upload an image, and drag and drop it on the custom map. 15

Mapping Device Dependencies About Device Dependencies The dependency feature can reduce polling overhead by polling devices whose state can be assumed based on the status of another device. An up dependency defines a condition where a device is polled only if the selected active monitors on another device are up. A down dependency defines a condition that a device is polled only if the selected active monitors on another device are down. Configuring device dependencies can help reduce alert storms with minimal configuration. Device Dependencies Workflow Discover devices Be sure to apply monitoring to devices before attempting to set dependencies Apply up/down dependencies On the discovered network map, select devices and navigate to set up/down dependencies from the navigation menu. Configure dependencies accordingly. Review using device dependencies dashboard report Create a custom dashboard with the dependencies report (Device->Dependencies). On the report, select an individual device to view the dependencies. 16

WhatsUp Gold 2017 Monitoring Basic Monitoring Active Monitors Passive Monitors Performance Monitors Applying Monitors Action Policies Alert Center Maintenance Mode Advanced Monitoring Configuration Management Network Traffic Analysis Virtual Monitoring Application Monitoring The Basic Monitoring section provides best practices setting up monitors and notifications within WhatsUp Gold. The Advanced Monitoring section covers more advanced features included in the TotalView Plus licensing package. Click on the links on the left to jump to a specific topic. 17

Monitoring Active Monitors About Active Monitors Active Monitors poll devices for an up/down or yes/no response. WhatsUp Gold contains an active monitor library with many built-in monitors to configure including ping monitors, port checks, file and folder monitoring, HTTP content monitors and SSL certificate Monitors Helpful Tip: Active monitors poll devices every 60 seconds by default. The polling interval can be customized. Configuration Example: Service Monitor From the main page, navigate to Settings->Libraries->Monitors. Click on the plus mark, select active monitor and add NT Service Monitor. Select a protocol to use, and select to enter WMI/SNMP credentials to browse the services on a device. Once the service is selected, provide a name and description for this service monitor. Save the monitor to have it added to the monitor library. After the service monitor is created, you can apply the monitor to devices. 18

Monitoring Passive Monitors About Passive Monitors WhatsUp Gold passive monitors include support for SNMP Traps, Syslog, and Windows Event Logs. Users can configure devices to send traps or syslog messages to the WhatsUp Gold server and alert when a specific message is received. Windows Event logs monitoring looks for windows events to occur on target machines. To create passive monitors, from the main page navigate to Settings->Libraries->Monitors. Click on the plus mark, select passive monitor and add a passive monitor type. Passive Monitor Use Cases Configure a switch to send SNMP traps to the WUG server when the device configuration changes. Use an action to backup the device configuration when that trap is received. Use the Alert Center to get notified when a configurable number of traps are received in specified timeframe Get notified whenever a critical or emergency syslog message is received. Get notified on failed logins with windows event log monitoring 19

Monitoring Performance Monitors About Performance Monitors Performance monitors track integers over time in WhatsUp Gold. By default, performance monitors will poll the device every ten minutes. This can be customized. Most commonly used performance monitors are to track CPU, memory, disk, or interface utilization. Customizing Performance Monitors Navigate to Settings->Libraries->Monitors. Click on the plus mark, select performance monitor. You can create performance monitors using a number of different protocols including SSH, SNMP, or WMI. You can use the Alert center to create threshold based alerts for performance monitors. 20

Monitoring Applying Monitors Apply Monitors From the Map After a monitor has been added to the library, select a device on your monitored network map, and select Monitors (Top right of Map). Pick the monitor to be added and select Apply to selected Devices Apply Monitors to Groups of Devices Select a device group from the group selector menu. Navigate to Edit Devices->Assign Monitors to add monitors to all devices in a group Apply Monitors to Multiple Devices Use the selector tool to highlight multiple devices on a map and navigate to Edit Devices->Assign Monitors 21

Monitoring Action Policies Quick Tip Video: Action Policies About Action Policies Action policies determine actions to take when a state change occurs. Action policies can be assigned to individual monitors or on the device level when any active monitor goes down. Actions include: email alerts, SMS alerts, service restarts, and web alarms. Creating Action Policies From the main page, navigate to Settings->Actions & Alerts->Actions and Policies. Begin by creating actions in the action library. After the actions are created, create an action policy with the actions from the library. Applying an Action Policies After the action policy is in the library, you can assign it to a device from the monitor setup page. You can assign it to an individual monitor by clicking on a specific monitor, or assign it on the device level under the actions and action policies section in the monitor setup page (to get alerted if any active monitor goes down) Helpful Tip: Did you know you can change the state change times for when an action is kicked off? This can be customized by going to the WhatsUp Gold admin console->configure- >Program Options->Device States 22

Monitoring Alert Center Quick Tip Video: Alert Center About Alert Center The alert center provides a centralized view of device thresholds and policies applied. You can create threshold based alerts inside of WhatsUp Gold to be notified when a threshold has been breached. Creating Alert Center Thresholds From the main page, navigate to Settings->Actions & Alerts->Alert Center Libraries. To add a threshold, click the plus icon under threshold library. You can customize multiple thresholds and select which devices the threshold applies to. The alert center also contains a notification policy library to setup email notifications when a threshold has been breached. View Alert Center Thresholds From the main page navigate to Analyze->Dashboards->Alert Center to view all the configured thresholds. Note the options at the top of the alert center to filter the threshold alerts. Helpful Tip: Did you know you can use blackout policies to suspend notifications during specific times? For example, you may want to configure a blackout policy for management not to get notified off hours or on weekends. 23

Monitoring Maintenance Mode About Maintenance Mode When a device is in maintenance mode, active monitors will not be polled and actions are not triggered. To avoid alerts when a device is known to be out of service, place the device in maintenance mode. You can place devices in maintenance mode on demand, or define a schedule to automatically add/remove from maintenance mode. Maintenance Mode Workflow Place Device into Maintenance Mode From the discovered network map, select a device and select start maintenance mode from the device navigation menu. Define Maintenance Mode Schedule From the discovered network map, select a device and click monitor setup on the device card. Navigate to the polling and maintenance section and select the plus mark to define a maintenance schedule. Schedules can be copied to devices by selecting multiple devices and selecting Edit Devices->Set Maintenance Schedule from the device navigation menu Review Devices in Maintenance Mode There is a built-in dynamic device group devices in maintenance mode that will show all devices in that state. You can also review the device uptime report to see maintenance mode information. 24

Monitoring Configuration Management Quick Tip Video: Configuration Manager About Configuration Manager The Configuration Manager will automate the process of backing up network device configurations. This solution can be used with any device that supports telnet or SSH. WhatsUp Gold comes with built in scripts for well known network vendors to change SNMP strings, add or remove usernames, and backup running and starting configurations. These scripts can also be customized. Running A Configuration Task From the main page, navigate to Settings->Configuration Management- > Task Library. Create a new schedule task. Select the script to use, which devices to run against, threshold settings, and define a schedule for the task to run. You can also setup email notifications for changes to the configuration or audit the configuration against defined policies. Viewing Configuration Backups After the configuration tasks have ran, you can view and compare device configurations inside of WhatsUp Gold from the device properties page. Helpful Tip: Be sure that SNMP and Telnet/SSH credentials are assigned to the device running the configuration task. The credentials should be assigned to the device automatically if it was discovered with proper credentials. 25

Monitoring Network Traffic Analysis Quick Tip Video: Network Traffic Analysis About Network Traffic Analysis WhatsUp Gold can provide granular detail into who or what is consuming the bandwidth in your environment by analyzing flow records. First, configure your network devices to send flow data to the WUG server on port 9999. WUG supports a wide variety of flow protocols including Netflow, NSEL, S-Flow, J-Flow and IPFIX. Viewing NTA Reports From the main page, navigate to Analyze->Dashboards->Network Traffic Analysis. You can apply filters to look at specific interfaces, ports, applications, or protocols. Create NTA Traffic Thresholds Alert center thresholds are available to create notifications based on the flow records received. Navigate to Settings->Actions & Alerts->Alert Center Libraries to create a Network Traffic Analysis Threshold. 26

Monitoring Virtual Monitoring Quick Tip Video: Virtual Monitoring About Virtual Monitoring WhatsUp Gold supports VMware and Hyper-V virtualization environments. Virtual Monitoring gathers performance statistics, maps out the virtual environment, and can allows users to be notified on information in the Hyper-V/VMware event logs. View Virtual Performance Data From the main menu, navigate to Analyze->Dashboards->Virtual Monitoring. Select a virtual device to view virtual machine statistics. Alerting on Event Logs Helpful Tip: VMware virtual monitoring requires devices to be discovered with VMware credentials. Hyper-V monitoring uses windows credentials. Navigate to Settings->Actions & Alerts->Alert Center Libraries to setup either VMware or Hyper-V event log notification policies. 27

Monitoring Application Monitoring Quick Tip Video: Application Monitoring About Application Monitoring WhatsUp Gold provides built-in profiles to monitor commonly used applications like Microsoft Exchange, SQL, SharePoint, and Active Directory. After applying the application profile to devices running the application, application monitoring dashboards are available to get details on the health of the monitored components of the application. Configuring Application Profiles From the main page, navigate to Settings->Application Monitoring- >Application and Profile Setup. To apply a built-in profile, select a profile from the menu, and select add application instance. Fill out information about the application, and assign the device running the application to the profile. Test all the components in the profile by selecting the test all button. Save and close the profile when complete. Customizing Application Profiles Users can create their own application profile for custom applications running in their environment. Users can edit existing profiles, or create new profiles by adding components to be monitored. Helpful Tip: You can use action policies to be notified of the state of your applications. From the main menu, navigate to Settings->Application Monitoring->Application Monitoring Actions and Policies 28

WhatsUp Gold 2017 Reporting Reporting Built-in Reports Dashboards Application Reporting The reporting section reviews built-in reports and dashboard reporting. Click on the links on the left to jump to a specific topic. 29

Reporting Built-in Reports About Built-in Reports WhatsUp Gold comes with a variety of built-in reports covering network performance, inventory information and device availability. From the main page, navigate to the Analyze Tab to review the built-in reports. Filtering Reports Once in a report you can sort the data and add or remove report columns. There are filters available to change what the report examines. The available filters will vary from report to report. Some may include device groups to examine, timeframes, or business hour filters. Helpful Tip: Be sure to define your device groups in advance so you can run reports on your defined groups. Scheduled Export Select the export button (top right of report) to export the report in a variety of formats. Reports can also be automatically emailed to users on a regular basis. Select Export->Schedule Export to define a report schedule. 30

Reporting Dashboards Quick Tip Video: Dashboards Helpful Tip: Users can share About Dashboards Dashboard reports provide administrators the ability to customize how to view data gathered by WhatsUp Gold. Users can customize their unique views to see data that is relevant to them. To access dashboards, navigate to Analyze->Dashboards->Home Dashboards Customizing Dashboards From the home dashboard screen, select Add view -> Empty view. Provide a dashboard name and select the amount of columns to be included. Select Add Reports on the right to add reports to the dashboard. Dashboard Settings You can change the report settings on each individual report by selecting the settings button. Select the thumbtack icon to pin the filter to the entire dashboard. This filter will be applied to all reports on the dashboard. dashboard views with other users. From the main page, navigate to Analyze- >Dashboards->Home Dashboard. Click on the drop down menu on the top left to copy or share a dashboard view with other users. 31

Reporting Application Reporting About Application Dashboards Application dashboard reporting allows users to drill down into an application profile to determine faults with an application on the component level. After Application profiles have been configured, navigate to Analyze->Dashboards->Application Monitoring to view application monitoring dashboards. Drill into Performance The default state summary report will show you the health of all the applications. You can apply a filter from the top of the report to look at an individual application. Note that the state summary report now shows the health of each monitored component. You can apply a filter on the component level to see the how it performed over time. Helpful Tip: Data available in the application reporting section can be included in custom dashboards. 32

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