I would like to use WhatsConnected (or WhatsUp) to build a network diagram / map based on the info I already have in WhatsUp, rather than having to interrogate the network again.

I read that RC1 has "Expanded support for NON-SNMP device visibility in the discovery results" and that may solve some of my problems, but it still requires another discovery.

  I have not yet installed RC1, so maybe I'm premature here, but I thought I'd share my thoughts and if I'm wrong, maybe someone can point me in the right direction.

Thanks for listening!

That being said, WC could pull discovered devices (IP addresses and credentials) from the WUG repository and perform a secondary discovery; however this seems to be a lot of extra work when a secondary discovery was still required.

I am curious from your question though.  Were you thinking of using WC to diagram (export to Visio) based on relationship data (attachments and links) that are already in WUG?  That might be possible; but I want to make sure I understand your thoughts there.

-Brian

WhatsConnected Product Team

To be honest, I haven't had much time to play with it, but all it seems to do is create the network maps that the Map function of WUG seems like it should do -- since WUG knows the IP Addresses of all the devices, it should be able to figure out how they're connected automagically ~ without hours of manual labor building the map links.

WUG already has SNMP discovery functionality, so I don't understand why WC would need to do that work again.  In addition, there are devices we've chosen to have WUG ignore, and devices we've re-classified when WUG guessed wrong.

I am also not seeing the benefit of WC having a separate database from WUG.  I guess I am completely misunderstanding the purpose of one or both products.

I admit ignorance here, and I seek enlightenment. 

PS:  Out of curiosity, what is WC expected to be priced at (MSRP) for "up to 500 devices"?

Layer 2 Topology - What physical ports/interfaces are connected to what. (Switch port to end-node, as well as switch-to-switch / switch-to-router)

Physical Asset Discovery - Hardware Models/Serial Numbers/Software Revisions of you network devices.

Configuration Discovery: IP Addresses/Interfaces/BridgePorts/VLANs/IpRoutes etc (these are seen thru the device viewer in WC and DeviceViewer added to WUG.

WhatsConnected also provides methods to use the topology data to organize different map views and export them to Visio documents.

To your questions:

*Topology as far as IP association can be figured out through IP addresses; but actual physical topology requires MUCH more discovery and proprietary device support to provide the physical connectivity that WC does.  (Layer 3/Layer 2 that is)

Yes WUG does determine if a devices supports SNMP, but it only uses SNMP OIDs to determine the category/type of the device.  WC uses OIDs plus configuration data to determine the type of device.  (NOTE: When WC exports to WUG it will do a lookup and if the device already exists in WUG it will use the device type that has already been assigned).

The benefit of having the seperate discovery file is not apparent in this initial release (since WC is only run from the WUG server); but the concept of keeping the discovery file seperate frees the administrator from ALWAYS being tied to the WUG server.  If you look through some of the other TPP posts; many users are asking for the WC application as a standalone application.  This would allow for remote discoveries to be performed without impacting the WUG server.  These discovery files could in turn be shared with a co-worker to review before importing into the WUG repository.

I hope that helps. 

-Brian

WhatsConnected Product Team

Still, if WUG even built the diagram based on IP Addresses and NetMasks, it could show your WAN topology pretty easily, if not the full LAN topology.

Thanks!

Once you have the build, you should install it on a non-production system. When you run the WhatsUp console, it will ask you to activate the license which, as you mentioned, can not be done since you are on a secured network. So instead, you can force offline activation by unchecking the "Use active internet connection" checkbox. This will produce a .ofa file which you can take to unsecured system with internet connectivity and submit it at https://www.myipswitch.com/licensing/Offline.aspx to get your actual license (.lic) file. Finally, you will have to take this .lic file back to the systen where you installed WhatsConnected TPP build to complete the activation.