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This review first appeared in issue 354 of PC Pro.
Progress Software has been busy developing its flagship network-monitoring software, and WhatsUp Gold (WUG) 2023.1 introduces a raft of new features with ease of use given a high priority. Previously, you had to manually enable monitoring for every device, but you can now set a network discovery scan job to do this for you.
What’s more, the discovery process automatically collects SNMP and WMI device attributes and updates them in real-time, while WUG’s dynamic SNMP table monitor populates every instance, making it easier to monitor specific devices. The device properties page clearly shows which credentials are being used, access security has been tightened up with TLS 1.3 support, and SQL Server Express 2022 is now the default database.
Licensing is even more flexible. Along with the standard versions, perpetual licenses and points-based options, Progress has added three yearly subscription plans. The Business edition starts at around £715 per year for 50 devices and, unlike sensor- or element-based products, WUG doesn’t care how many CPUs are in a host or the number of ports a switch has.
This edition supports 1,000 devices and includes core functions such as network discovery, topology mapping, alerting and reporting, as well as cloud, wireless network and storage monitoring. The Enterprise edition has unlimited device support and enables virtualization host and application monitoring plus log management, while Enterprise Plus adds network traffic analysis and configuration management for switches, routers and firewalls.
Installation on a Windows Server 2019 host took around 30 minutes, and discovery is swift. A wizard helped conjure up the first scan and, after we’d added all our device credentials, it took ten minutes to deliver a complete list of all our network devices.
The WUG console is easy to use. It presents four menu options in its upper ribbon bar, and you can add frequently used views to the Favorites tab by clicking on the star icon at the top right of the console. It’s simple to create custom network discoveries, and you can pull up network topology views and maps.
Analysis dashboards are a great feature that allow you to design multiple custom views, add columns and choose the metrics you want to see. Anything WUG is capable of monitoring can be included, so you can create very detailed dashboards, and each device is assigned a colored icon for instant status views.
The new network operations center (NOC) feature manages collections of views that rotate to a schedule for presenting support teams with a big heads-up live status display. To create them, you click the same star icon, choose the NOC option, add items to a slide deck, enter a display duration in seconds and pass the URL to support staff so they can access it directly.
Alert policies link device state changes with an extensive range of actions including running a program, restarting a service, sending emails and posting alert messages to Microsoft Teams users. The Alert Center presents even more information about disk utilization, and the device properties page has been updated so you can see which actions have been applied to it.
WUG is a great choice for businesses running the Progress Flowmon appliances as it can monitor them and include their traffic analysis in its dashboards. General reporting tools are in abundance, too, and they can now be emailed in HTML format so nontechnical users can appreciate them.
WhatsUp Gold 2023.1 is simple to deploy and offers an impressive range of network-monitoring tools. The choice of licensing plans makes it an affordable option for SMBs, and support teams will love its smart dashboard and NOC views.
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