Release Notes for Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold v16.2

In this File

Release Notes for Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold v16.2

Release information

Product name

WhatsUp Gold

 

Version

v16.2

 

Release dates

v16.2 Service Pack 9 (v16.2.9) March 17, 2015
v16.2 Service Pack 8 (v16.2.8) December 18, 2014
v16.2 Service Pack 7 (v16.2.7) October 7, 2014
v16.2 Service Pack 6 (v16.2.6) August 7, 2014
v16.2 Service Pack 5 (v16.2.5) June 26, 2014
v16.2 Service Pack 4 (v16.2.4) May 8, 2014
v16.2 Service Pack 3 (v16.2.3) March 25, 2014
v16.2 Service Pack 2 (v16.2.2) January 23, 2014
v16.2 Service Pack 1 (v16.2.1) December 03, 2013
v16.2 October 30, 2013

 

New in WhatsUp Gold v16.2

Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold v16.2 Premium and Distributed editions

APM plug-in

Flow Monitor plug-in

WhatsConfigured plug-in

Defects resolved in WhatsUp Gold 16.2

WhatsUp Gold 16.2 includes defect resolutions from WhatsUp Gold 16.1 Service Pack 1 - Service Pack 5.

Defect ID

Category

Issues

21402

Active Monitor - SSH

Updated an SSH library implementation to correct SSH Active Monitors from yielding unexpected or unknown results.

20171

Active Monitor - SSH

SSH Monitors now work successfully with IPv6 devices.

20172

Active Monitor - FTP

FTP Monitors now work successfully with IPv6 devices.

24056

Performance - Interface

Corrected an issue that caused performance monitor reports to show spikes in interface utilization reports that was inaccurate.

24355

Users

Users no longer experience SQL errors when attempting to delete WhatsUp Gold user accounts after restoring the WhatsUp, Flow Monitor, and Flow Monitor Archive databases.

24453

RemoteDBConfig

RemoteDBConfig.exe now support Microsoft SQL Server 2012.

New in WhatsUp Gold 16.2 Service Pack 1 (v16.2.1)

For more information about the WhatsUp Gold 16.2 Service Pack 1 (v16.2.1) release, see Service Pack 1 Release Notes.

New in WhatsUp Gold 16.2 Service Pack 2 (v16.2.2)

For more information about the WhatsUp Gold 16.2 Service Pack 2 (v16.2.2) release, see Service Pack 2 Release Notes.

New in WhatsUp Gold 16.2 Service Pack 3 (v16.2.3)

For more information about the WhatsUp Gold 16.2 Service Pack 3 (v16.2.3) release, see Service Pack 3 Release Notes.

New in WhatsUp Gold 16.2 Service Pack 4 (v16.2.4)

For more information about the WhatsUp Gold 16.2 Service Pack 4 (v16.2.4) release, see Service Pack 4 Release Notes.

New in WhatsUp Gold 16.2 Service Pack 5 (v16.2.5)

For more information about the WhatsUp Gold 16.2 Service Pack 5 (v16.2.5) release, see Service Pack 5 Release Notes.

New in WhatsUp Gold 16.2 Service Pack 6 (v16.2.6)

For more information about the WhatsUp Gold 16.2 Service Pack 6 (v16.2.6) release, see Service Pack 6 Release Notes.

New in WhatsUp Gold 16.2 Service Pack 7 (v16.2.7)

For more information about the WhatsUp Gold 16.2 Service Pack 7 (v16.2.7) release, see Service Pack 7 Release Notes.

New in WhatsUp Gold 16.2 Service Pack 8 (v16.2.8)

For more information about the WhatsUp Gold 16.2 Service Pack 8 (v16.2.8) release, see Service Pack 8 Release Notes.

New in WhatsUp Gold 16.2 Service Pack 9 (v16.2.9)

For more information about the WhatsUp Gold 16.2 Service Pack 9 (v16.2.9) release, see Service Pack 9 Release Notes.

System Requirements

Operating system and virtual environment requirements

Following are OS environment recommendations:

WhatsUp Gold supports the following Windows Server platforms:

Note: For WhatsUp Gold planning purposes, future versions of WhatsUp Gold releases will not support Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 or Microsoft Windows Server 2003.

WhatsUp Gold supports the following Windows operating systems, BUT recommends that it be installed on a server class OS:

Database requirements

Important: If you use a remote SQL database, instead of the default Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express Edition install that occurs as part of the default WhatsUp Gold installation, refer to the WhatsUp Gold Database Migration and Management Guide for information about other WhatsUp Gold database configurations.

Note: For WhatsUp Gold planning purposes, future versions of WhatsUp Gold releases will not support Microsoft SQL Server 2005.

WhatsUp Gold requires a database to maintain data about monitored devices, store system configurations, and save user specified customizations. The database may be co-located with the WhatsUp Gold installation, or may be hosted on a remote machine. Data services for WhatsUp Gold can be provided by the following database servers:

If you install WhatsUp Gold on:

You have these database options:

 

 

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express Edition 32-bit or 64-bit Local

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Standard
or Enterprise
32-bit or 64-bit
Local/Remote

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or 2008 R2 Standard or Enterprise
32-bit or 64-bit
Local/Remote

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Standard or Enterprise
32-bit or 64-bit
Local/Remote

Microsoft SQL Server Cluster 2005, 2008, 2008 R2, or 2012
Enterprise or Datacenter
32-bit or 64-bit
Remote only

Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate

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Windows Server 2003 SP2

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Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2

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Windows Server 2008 SP2

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Windows Server 2008 R2

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Windows Server 2012

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Windows Server 2012 R2

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*Windows Enterprise or Datacenter

Web server requirements

Web services are required for the web-enabled functionality and reporting provided by WhatsUp Gold:

If you install WhatsUp Gold on:

IIS version 6

IIS version 7.x

IIS version 8.x

Windows 7 Professional / Enterprise / Ultimate

 

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Windows Server 2003 SP2

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Windows Server 2003 SP2 R2

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Windows Server 2008 SP2

 

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Windows Server 2008 R2

 

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Windows Server 2012

 

 

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IMPORTANT web server requirements for IIS 7.x or 8

The WhatsUp Gold installer automatically installs/enables IIS 7.x or 8 on platforms where it is supported. If needed, you can verify which IIS 7.x or 8 OS features are installed/enabled and properly configured from the Turn Windows features on or off dialog. Verify that the Web Server (IIS) Roles Services listed below have been installed and are enabled.

WhatsUp Gold requires the following Web Server Role Services for IIS 7.x or 8 at a minimum:

IMPORTANT web server requirements for IIS 6

If using IIS 6 and it is not installed on the WhatsUp Gold server; install IIS 6 prior to installing WhatsUp Gold. The WhatsUp Gold installer then enables IIS 6 features automatically. For additional information about IIS 6 setup, refer to instructions from Microsoft or see using the Installing and Configuring WhatsUp Gold guide.

WhatsUp Gold requires the following web server extension for IIS 6 at a minimum:

Framework and accessibility requirements

WhatsUp Gold requires the Microsoft .NET Framework and other Microsoft packages for scripting and software accessibility. The following are required software framework and support packages:

Requirements for Windows 7 / Windows Server 2008 / and Windows Server 2012

The Microsoft .NET Framework option is required; however, the following feature/component options must NOT be enabled in the Microsoft .NET Framework options:

Important: The Microsoft .NET Framework feature/component options listed above may have been enabled automatically at the time the OS was installed. To confirm the features/components are NOT enabled, expand and review the Microsoft .NET Framework options.

To change the features/components if required, access the Microsoft .NET Framework options as follows:

Web and mobile interface requirements

The following web browsers and mobile device interfaces are supported for use with WhatsUp Gold:

WhatsVirtual supported virtual environments

The WhatsVirtual plug-in supports virtual hosts and virtual machines running on the following virtual environments:

Wireless supported devices

Important: Because of the volume of data collected and stored for WhatsUp Gold Wireless, we recommended that you use Microsoft SQL Server 2005, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or 2008 R2, Microsoft SQL Server 2012 or Microsoft SQL Server Cluster 2005, 2008, 2008 R2, or 2012 to store the data collected by WhatsUp Gold. See the Installing and Configuring WhatsUp Gold guide advanced options section for more information.

The Wireless plug-in supports the following wireless devices:

Important: If you are monitoring Cisco Aironet Autonomous access points we recommend that you run IOS 12.3 or newer. Inaccurate data may be report with older IOS versions.

Flow Monitor software requirements

WhatsUp Gold Flow Monitor has the same base system requirements as WhatsUp Gold. In addition, WhatsUp Gold Flow Monitor requires:

Hardware requirement guidelines

The following hardware requirements provide minimum suggested guidelines for WhatsUp Gold installations.

Note: Because of enhanced features and capabilities, WhatsUp Gold v15 and prior users may experience increased CPU and Memory utilization with WhatsUp Gold v16 and later.

Note: Hardware requirements vary depending on the WhatsUp Gold configuration. Increasing the number of devices monitored, number of monitors, types of monitors, polling intervals, or other configuration options can result in additional load on the server and database. Hardware configuration adjustments may be required to optimize performance for your network.

 

100 Devices /
500 Monitors*
minimum required

2,500 Devices /
12,500 Monitors*
minimum required

20,000 Devices /
100,000 Monitors*
minimum required

Processor(s)

WhatsUp Gold: Dual-core
(Physical computer recommended)

WhatsUp Gold: Quad-core
(Physical computer recommended)

WhatsUp Gold Server: Eight-core
Remote SQL Server: Eight-core
(Physical computer recommended)

Processor speed

2.4 GHz or more

2.4 GHz or more

2.4 GHz or more

RAM

4 GB

8 GB

WhatsUp Gold Server: 8 GB
Dedicated SQL Server:
32 GB (64 GB recommended)

Database type

SQL Server 2008 R2 Express Edition

Dedicated Microsoft SQL Server 2005 / Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or 2008 R2 / Microsoft SQL Server 2012

Dedicated Microsoft SQL Server 2005 /
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or 2008 R2 / Microsoft SQL Server 2012

Hard drive

15 GB or more

OS/Application - 15 GB or more in RAID 1

Database files - 4 x 100 GB in RAID 10

OS/Application - 15 GB or more in RAID 1

Database files - 8 x 250 GB in RAID 10

Log files - 2 x 100 GB in RAID 0

Temp database files - 2 x 250 GB in RAID 0

For more information about moving SQL Server database and log files, see the WhatsUp Gold Database Migration and Management Guide

Network interface card

100 Mbps (1 Gbps preferred)

100 Mbps (1 Gbps preferred)

1 Gbps

CD-ROM or DVD-ROM

Required if installing from CD-ROM. Not required for download installations.

Required if installing from CD-ROM. Not required for download installations.

Required if installing from CD-ROM. Not required for download installations.

Video display resolution

1280 x 1024 or higher

1280 x 1024 or higher

1280 x 1024 or higher

Sound card

SAPI-capable sound card required for Text-to-Speech actions

SAPI-capable sound card required for Text-to-Speech actions

SAPI-capable sound card required for Text-to-Speech actions

Modem and phone line

Required for pager, SMS, and beeper actions; modem pooling is not supported

Required for pager, SMS, and beeper actions; modem pooling is not supported

Required for pager, SMS, and beeper actions; modem pooling is not supported

GSM modem

Required for SMS Direct actions

Required for SMS Direct actions

Required for SMS Direct actions

*The performance for the number of devices and monitors supported is dependent upon several system variables such as server processor and memory size, polling frequency, round-trip time (RTT) for polling distance, the amount of time for which data is archived in the database, types of monitors polled (for example, SNMP-type monitors are significantly more efficient than WMI monitors), and other factors.

Poller Requirements

Depending on the network environment and product deployment, WhatsUp Gold can poll up to a maximum of 20,000 devices and up to 100,000 monitors with one WhatsUp Gold server and additional pollers (additional pollers required depend on the amount of SNMP and WMI monitors). Additional pollers installed on your WhatsUp Gold system transmit active monitor and performance monitor data to the WhatsUp Gold server. Extending polling activity across multiple pollers increases the number of devices for which WhatsUp Gold can poll and collect data to send back to the WhatsUp Gold system. Using additional pollers, WhatsUp Gold can efficiently scale polling operations to a larger number of network devices, ultimately providing the capacity to monitor and manage larger networks. Additional pollers may be installed on any Windows system on the network, other than the WhatsUp Gold server. For more information, see Using additional Pollers with WhatsUp Gold.

 

Minimum required
for each additional
clustered poller

 

Processor(s)

Dual-core

 

Processor speed

2 GHz

 

RAM

4 GB

 

Hard drive space for application

2 GB

 

Network interface card

100 Mbps

 

OS support

See Operating system and virtual environment requirements section above

 

Installing WhatsUp Gold

Important: Customers with pure IPv6 environments must use offline activation. For more information, access the WhatsUp Gold Customer Portal.

Note: WhatsUp Gold v16.x supports direct upgrade installations from WhatsUp Gold v14.x or v15.x.

Refer to the Installing and Configuring WhatsUp Gold guide for details about installation, upgrade, repair, and uninstall.

Configuring WhatsUp Event Log Management Reports for WhatsUp Gold

WhatsUp Gold version 15.0 and later provides integration with the WhatsUp Event Log Management central database. For access to the reports and data, you must also have WhatsUp Event Log Management products, specifically WhatsUp Event Archiver and/or WhatsUp Event Alarm, configured to send collected log data to a MS SQL Server. WhatsUp Gold accesses report data through stored procedures in the ELM database. For more information, see Using Event Log Management Reports in WhatsUp Gold.

Troubleshooting

Potential SQL Server Express installation errors

Configuring the firewall to allow WMI traffic

WhatsUp Gold uses Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to monitor and restart Windows Services. For each device that is assigned an NT Service Active Monitor, you must supply the Windows credentials. Also, when creating a Service Restart Action, you must supply Windows credentials for each Action. Credentials must have administrative permissions on the remote server. Local accounts with credentials that match remote accounts are no longer required to monitor remote servers.

Credentials are configured in the WhatsUp Gold Credentials Library and used in several places throughout WhatsUp Gold. They can also be associated to devices in Device Properties > Credentials, or through Bulk Field Change for Credentials.

The use of WMI could have some implications if target devices are behind a firewall. To successfully monitor and/or restart NT Services, you need to modify firewall settings so that:

  1. The RPC port (135) is open for connections.
  2. The DCOM port range is defined and open for connections.

For more Troubleshooting information, see the Troubleshooting section in the application Help or refer to the WhatsUp Gold Support Site.

Known issues in WhatsUp Gold v16.2

Defect ID

Category

Issues

N/A

Wireless

The Meru SNMP agent collects and updates device statistics every few minutes as opposed to collecting data in real-time as with most devices. This results in Meru wireless device reports cycling and appearing as if there is no activity for a period of time, then updating every few minutes. This is a result of the Meru SNMP agent and outside of WhatsUp Gold configuration options.

24567

Web UI

Users cannot login to AlertFox from WhatsUp Gold v16.2 on Internet Explorer v10.

24600

Install

If you choose the option to uninstall the WHATSUP instance of SQL Server Express 2008 R2 when uninstalling WhatsUp Gold running on Windows Server 2012, the uninstallation of SQL Server Express will fail and display an error about .NET 3.5 Feature being disabled. To prevent the error and successfully uninstall the WHATSUP instance of SQL Server Express 2008 R2, make sure that .NET 3.5 Feature is enabled prior to uninstalling WhatsUp Gold.

24834

Reports

The Top 10 Getting Started workspace reports display duplicate devices after web interface discovery scans complete.

24836

Actions

The Active Script Action fails to compile when the %ActiveMonitor.Payload percent variable is used.

For more information

Following are information resources for WhatsUp Gold. This information may be periodically updated and available on the WhatsUp Gold web site.


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