Here in part 3 of our review, we use the WhatsUp Gold web interface to review device status, generate historical reports, and eyeball real-time performance graphs.

by Lisa Phifer President Core Competence [December 29, 2008]

Unlike the WhatsUp Gold console described in Part 1 and Part 2 of this review, this product's customizable web GUI can be reached from any Internet Explorer or Firefox browser with access to the WhatsUp Gold web server.

The web GUI can display Home, Top 10, or Device workspaces that limit Report scope to all, some, or one monitored device. Default Home workspaces are further broken down into a General view and a pair of Problem views that focus on outages, errors, incoming events, and recently-fired actions (Figure 1). To create and customize your own workspace views, simply drag existing content around these pages or add/delete content from a list of available Reports.

Figure 1. WhatsUp Gold Web GUI Home Workspace

Unique web logins can be configured with different access rights and views that reflect differences in job function and responsibility. To stop users from seeing or doing more than then should, per-user access can be granted to selected program features or Device Groups. For example, the default Admin account has access to everything, while the default Guest account can only view status. Larger organizations will appreciate the ability to use LDAP accounts and (in Distributed/MSP Editions) to permit per-site access.

The web GUI isn't actually limited to Reports—it can be used to perform most console functions after initial discovery and program configuration. For example, the "GO" button leads to a menu that configures Active, Passive, and Performance Monitors, Actions, Action Policies, and Recurring Actions. Another "GO" menu launches tools to test device reachability, perform DNS lookups, walk SNMP MIBs, and import new MIB files (Figure 2). The web GUI can also display Device and Map Views that are virtually identical to those found in the console. As a result, we believe that most network operators will find everything they need on the web GUI—only the WhatsUp Gold administrator really needs to run the console program.