ISPPlanet NMS Series - Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold 5.0

Network Discovery

To create a new map of our network, we let WhatsUp Gold discover devices and services using several methods. Like many inexpensive managers, WhatsUp Gold can use ICMP to discover devices and place them on a map (right). But WhatsUp Gold discovery is faster and more flexible than we've seen elsewhere. During ICMP discovery, WhatsUp Gold can scan for selected services (ports) and SNMP agents.

WhatsUp Gold can import addresses from a hosts file or Windows registry (name servers, gateways). In Windows networks, WhatsUp Gold can discover PCs by browsing the Network Neighborhood. This can avoid setting off firewall or intrusion detection system alarms with a port scan.

Another alternative is to create a blank map, launch NetTools, and invoke Traceroute with "map results" checked (left). Traceroute uses ICMP to follow a packet's path through the network, from source to destination. WhatsUp Gold plots this route on a map and configures "dependencies" between devices along the route. As we shall see, dependencies make it possible to avoid polling devices that lie downstream from a failed device.

WhatsUp Gold 5.0 adds a new method called SmartScan (right). With this method, WhatsUp Gold provides router-based network discovery—the kind found in $5000+ enterprise network manager systems. SmartScan uses SNMP to query the routing table in a "root device" (e.g., the default gateway used by WhatsUp Gold). Discovered data is used to create maps representing network hierarchy, cascading from a top-level map containing the seed router.

Topo maps created by WhatsUp Gold discovery can be used to monitor status via ICMP, TCP, NetBIOS, or IPX (see Network Monitoring). Grouping services into devices, and devices into subnets, enables "bubble up" monitoring. After maps are generated, "Edit Mode" allows cosmetic changes (e.g., backgrounds, text labels, additional devices, connections between devices, custom colors). Map sets and window layout can be saved as a "context", to be reopened as a group or by default (left).