Hands on: I tested Progress WhatsUp Gold network monitoring software – read what I thought of it
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This comment first appeared in issue 354 PC Pro.
Progress software has been busy developing its flagship Network monitoring softwareWhatsup Gold (Wug) 2023.1 introduces many new features in the case of high priority. Previously, you had to manually monitor each device, but now you can set up a network discovery scan job to do this for you.
More importantly, the discovery process automatically collects SNMP and WMI device properties and updates them in real time, while Wug’s Dynamic SNMP Table Monitor populates each instance, making it easier to monitor specific devices. The device properties page clearly shows which credentials are used, access Safety With TLS 1.3 support, it has been tightened, SQL Server Express 2022 is now the default database.
More flexible licenses. In addition to the standard version, perpetual licensing and points-based options, progress has added three annual subscription plans. The business version is about £715 per year for 50 devices each year, unlike sensors or element-based products, Wug doesn’t care much CPU is the number of ports that a host or switch has.
This release supports 1,000 devices and includes core features such as network discovery, topology mapping, alerts and reporting, as well as cloudwireless network and Storage Monitor. Enterprise Edition has unlimited device support and enables virtualized host and application monitoring and log management, while Enterprise Plus adds network traffic analysis and switch configuration management, router and firewall.
It takes about 30 minutes to install on a Windows Server 2019 host, and it is found to be very fast. A wizard helped consider the first scan, after we added everyone equipment Credentials, it took ten minutes to provide a complete list of all our network devices.
The Wug console is easy to use. It displays four menu options in the bar on it, and you can add common views to the Favorites tab by clicking on the star map at the top right of the console. Creating a custom network discovery is very simple, you can extract network topology views and maps.
The Analytics Dashboard is a great feature that allows you to design multiple custom views, add columns, and select metrics to view. Wugs can all include anything that can be monitored, so you can create very detailed dashboards and assign a colored icon to each device for instant status view.
The new Network Operations Center (NOC) feature manages view sets that rotate to a schedule to show support teams showing in larger live status. To create them, click the same star icon, select the NOC option, add the project to the slide deck, enter the display duration in seconds, and then go through the URL to support the staff so they can access it directly.
Alert Policy Links Device status changes with a wide range of operations, including running programs, restarting services, sending emails, and posting alert messages to Microsoft Team user. The Alert Center provides more information on disk utilization and the Device Properties page has been updated so you can see which actions have been applied.
Wug is a great choice for businesses running Progress Flowmon devices, as it monitors them and includes their traffic analysis in the dashboard. General reporting tools are also abundant and emails can now be sent in HTML format so that non-technical users can appreciate them.
Whatsup Gold 2023.1 is easy to deploy and provides impressive network monitoring tools. The choice of licensing plans makes it an affordable option Small and medium-sized enterprisessupport teams will like their smart dashboard and NOC perspectives.
