About Device Roles

Each device discovered by WhatsUp Gold is assigned a single primary role and multiple sub roles based on data gathered from that device during the discovery scan. Roles assigned during discovery determine which monitors and attributes are assigned to the device automatically, and which actions are available for use. Additionally, role assignments affect what devices and associated icons the map views display when filters are applied as well as Layer 2 dynamic group membership and may affect certain overlay-specific behavior such as wireless or virtual.

While WhatsUp Gold determines the most appropriate roles based on information received from the device itself, you can modify the primary role assignment by clicking Change Role in Device Properties, then selecting from the list of available roles and descriptions that appears. The ability to change the primary role and/or sub roles can be beneficial if a device serves a different purpose or performs multiple functions within your network. That is, WhatsUp Gold may assign a primary role based on a device's assumed function when it is actually being used for a different reason within your network environment. For example, you can monitor a wireless infrastructure device that could be potentially be used as a wireless controller, a router, switch, or similar in which case, it may benefit you to change its role in WhatsUp Gold to more accurately reflect its actual function.

If you modify any roles assigned to a device, new monitors are not automatically applied based on the new roles. However, the monitors associated with the role determined by WhatsUp Gold during discovery will be reapplied if you:

Update the device by clicking Update Monitoring from the information card on the Discovered Network map.
Request updated information from the device by selecting Refresh Device Details from the actions menu. Please note, assigned credentials are used to refresh device details. If credentials or other configuration details for the device have changed since the previous refresh, the most appropriate primary role determined by WhatsUp Gold during discovery could be different depending on what modifications were made to the device configuration since the last time device details were refreshed. As a result, new monitors may also be applied to match the updated role.

If you have modified any monitors and/or attributes for the device, performing these functions neither removes, disables, or re-enables monitors, nor do they update attributes.

Tip: You can customize the default WhatsUp Gold configuration for device roles or create new roles based on your specific network monitoring needs using the Roles and Subroles Library.