Free Webinars
"Maximizing Your WhatsConnected Evaluation"
Duration: 1 hour
"Best Practices: Mapping and Discovering Network Devices"
Duration: 1 hour
"Best Practices: Mapping and Discovering Servers and Workstations"
Duration: 1 hour
If you are manually documenting connectivity between devices or systems you know how tedious, time consuming, resource intensive and prone to errors this process is. After all, you have to plow through router configurations, device logs, Access Points, etc, and conduct a tedious visual port-by-port connectivity verification and documentation process in your server room to try to map topology information. And how do you keep an update view of your topology information if your network grows, moves to a new location, gets virtualized or simply evolves? Your life is about to get easier!
Automatically discover, map, and inventory your network assets and port-to-port connectivity
With WhatsConnected you can easily discover, map, inventory and document your entire infrastructure – network devices, servers, deployed software, VMware virtual machines, VLANs and port to port connectivity – quickly and efficiently, in a matter of minutes. Using its powerful auto-discovery and dynamic mapping capabilities and a simple one-click integration with Microsoft® Visio™, your entire team will know exactly what resources are on your network, where they are and how they are connected at all times, even when your network grows, your office moves, or your datacenter resources get consolidated. It just works with no efforts from your part!
Discover
Using a number of innovative discovery technologies, WhatsConnected finds all the connected resources on your network and provides detailed physical connectivity, device type, and asset/inventory and configuration information. WhatsConnected leverages layer 2 and layer 3 network technologies, including ARP, SNMP, IP addressing, ICMP, SSH, Virtual Infrastructure Management and LLDP in combination with vendor proprietary mechanisms and SNMP, SSH, WMI, and Telnet to build a complete and accurate picture of your network devices, systems and their interconnections. WhatsConnected supports both on-demand and scheduled discovery tasks. Each execution of discovery dynamically updates your maps without any effort on your part.
Map
Gaining insight into and understanding how your network is put together has never been easier. WhatsConnected simplifies this tedious task with auto-generated topology maps with full visibility into both physical and IP connectivity, including VMware and VLAN-specific information. Maps are dynamic and fully customizable and allow for any number of different views to be specified. Layer 2 connectivity maps generated by the WhatsConnected network mapping tool can be saved, printed, shared or directly imported into WhatsUp Gold (so you can monitor performance) with automated carry-over of device dependency information with a single click.
Search
Quickly search and find out how devices are connected to the network with WhatsConnected network topology tool. With detailed device views, you can quickly zero in to find out what's connected to what. Additionally with built-in tools such as Layer 2 Trace and IP/MAC Finder, WhatsConnected offers a much quicker approach to finding the location and validating connectivity of devices on the network than any other solution.
Troubleshoot
WhatsConnected now provides a number of entry-level real-time configuration and performance monitoring tools available right from the map view. Use new Ping, Telnet, SSH, CPU, Memory, Interface and Capture Configuration tool to test, monitor, troubleshoot, analyze connectivity right from the WhatsConnected Map View and save time.
For high performance predictive monitoring of networks, systems, applications, and services, including wireless networks see WhatsUp Gold.
For more advanced change and configuration management see WhatsUp Gold WhatsConfigured.
Document
Highly detailed topology maps are available through WhatsConnected, and you also have the option to publish any of these maps through Microsoft® Visio™ with a couple of mouse clicks. Any number of automatically generated maps or custom map views can be exported to provide you with the ability to understand how device additions and design changes have impacted your network over time. Inventory information gathered during the discovery process can be exported in either CSV or Excel formats to external applications.
Understand What's Connected
Not only do you now know what's connected to what, but also what type of hardware assets they are (Routers, Switches, Wireless Access Points, Printers, Windows, Unix, Linux, Macintosh, Firewalls, Hubs, IP Phones, and more).
WhatsConnected's inventory capability provides platform identification and classification for devices from all the most widely deployed network equipment manufacturers including:
- Cisco/Linksys
- Foundry
- HP Procurve
- Nortel/Bay Networks
- 3COM
- Extreme
- Netgear
- Dell PowerConnect
- DLink
- SMC
- VMware
- Alcatel
- Allied Telesyn
- and many more...
Report
For organizations of all sizes accurate inventory and configuration information is required for compliance regulations or network auditing purposes. For example, PCI requires a high-level network diagram which includes: connections into and out of the network and critical components within the cardholder data environment. WhatsConnected automatically gathers comprehensive and up-to-date hardware and software inventory, port-to-port connectivity and configuration information, and offers the comprehensive reports that you need – Asset/Inventory, Device Connectivity, Bridge Port Utilization, Windows Inventory and VLAN and Subnet Report – to document your network evolution.
The Power of Layer 2 Topology Integrated with WhatsUp Gold Monitoring
WhatsConnected can be deployed anywhere in your infrastructure
- Together with WhatsUp Gold
- On a system with a Microsoft® Visio™ license
- On a laptop — for flexible discovery, mapping and documentation on the go
- On a central location
- On any server or workstation running in your network
WhatsUp Gold and WhatsConnected can work independently or together to combine the power of layer 2/3 discovery and intuitive topology maps with WhatsUp Gold's powerful management and monitoring capabilities. A simple right-click on any WhatsConnected topology map will export device and dependency information to WhatsUp Gold, so you can start monitoring performance right away. It's that simple!
Network Discovery
Using a number of innovative discovery technologies, WhatsConnected finds all the connected resources on your network (devices, virtual resources. servers and workstations) and provides detailed physical connectivity, and asset/inventory and configuration information. WhatsConnected leverages layer 2 and layer 3 network technologies, including ARP, SNMP, IP addressing, ICMP, SSH, Virtual Infrastructure Management and LLDP in combination with vendor proprietary mechanisms and SNMP, SSH, WMI and Telnet to build a complete and accurate picture of all your network assets (hardware and software) and their interconnections, including those without IP addresses. WhatsConnected supports both on-demand and scheduled discovery tasks. Each execution of discovery dynamically updates your maps and layer 2 connectivity without any effort on your part.
You can now fully understand which routers are attached to which switches and how switches are connected to one another and any other device in your network. This saves precious time and resources versus conducting a tedious visual port-by-port connectivity verification and documentation process.
Dynamic Network Mapping
Based upon discovery, WhatsConnected network mapping software automatically generates integrated network topology maps showing both layer 3 addressing and layer 2 connectivity. And with new auto-discovery and dynamic mapping capabilities, you can be assured that the connectivity and topology information that is generated is complete and accurate, at all times.
Additionally you have complete flexibility to display topology information in radial and hierarchical formats. Maps can be customized to show any aspect of the topology and individual links can be hidden or shown. Custom topology maps can also be generated using manual mapping mode. Any map generated or customized can be saved, printed and shared.
Inventory and Configuration
As part of the discovery process, WhatsConnected automatically collects comprehensive inventory and configuration information across devices, servers and workstations:
Networking devices - Asset Information
- Manufacturer / Model
- Serial Number
- Hardware / Software / Firmware Versions
- Chassis / Module Inventory
- Power Supplies / Fans
Configuration Information
- Interfaces
- Bridge Ports
- Switch Ports
- VLANs
Systems Inventory
- All available system component details (CPU, RAM, disks, etc.)
- Operating system version & patch information
- Any installed software packages
- Support for automatic update of warranty information (Dell and HP) based on integration with their support websites.
Inventory and configuration information is essential for understanding the actual OS and firmware versions that are currently running on discovered devices. This is particularly important as some issues might be resolved by simply updating to a more recent OS or firmware version. With WhatsConnected, asset inventories can be printed to provide inventory and configuration reporting.
WhatsConnected Console
The versatile WhatsConnected console is the main interface to manage network discovery, create and administer maps and access detailed device inventory and configuration information. Several views of the network are presented including:
- Device Categories View – explorer type view of devices (Routers, Switches, Wireless Access Points, Printers, Windows, Unix, Linux, Macintosh, Firewalls, Hubs, IP Phones, and more)
- Device View – spreadsheet type view of all devices
- Topology Maps View – layer 2 physical topology view
- Subnets View – spreadsheet type view of devices grouped by their respective subnets
- Links View – spreadsheet type view of all known connectivity
All discovered devices are sorted automatically by type and presented in Device Categories. Simply clicking on a specific device from within the explorer type view provides you with a wealth of additional information about the device.
- System information – IP/MAC address, MIB II
- IP Address information – IP address configuration data
- Interface information – IF entries with status
- Bridge Port information – Bridge Port information and VLAN configuration data
- VLAN information – VLAN configuration data
- Asset information – inventory data for chassis and modules
- IP Routing information – IP routing configuration data
- Spanning Tree information – Spanning-Tree configuration and status data
- ARP Cache information – ARP table data
- Forwarding information – Layer 2 forwarding data
- Protocol Profile information – configured protocols on the device
- Virtual Host information – configuration of physical hardware hosting for VMware
- Forwarding information – Layer 2 forwarding data
- Virtual Machines information – VMware virtual machines running on physical hardware
- Virtual Machine information – specific details on each virtual machine
All device data can be searched using wild cards to sort and drill down to obtain the specific device details required. Fields that can be searched on include: Hostname, IP Address, MAC Address, NetBios Domain, NetBios Name, System Name, System Description, System OID, Vendor and Model.
From within the WhatsConnected console, you have the power to access all relevant information about the network and view and sort network information to best suit your needs. Any information on any device or group of devices can be accessed and printed for reporting or archiving purposes.
Document and Archive
To support the reporting/documentation requirements of your internal business process (e.g. ITIL) and compliance regulations like SOX, FISMA, PCI DSS and HIPAA, WhatsConnected provides comprehensive network inventory and configuration information that can be easily exported in either CSV or Excel formats. That way you can track and document the evolution of your network and share it with the entire team. WhatsConnected also includes three out-of-the box reports for comprehensive insight into network assets and their interdependencies —
- The Asset/Inventory report provides a view of the assets (Routers, Switches, Wireless Access Points, Printers, Windows, Unix, Linux, Macintosh, Firewalls, Hubs, IP Phones, etc) discovered by WhatsConnected as well as tools to sort and filter the assets that appear in the view.
- The Device Connectivity report provides a list of the devices connected to a network device as well as tools to sort and filter the assets that appear in the view.
- The Bridge Port Utilization report provides a view of port usage (total available and used) on networking equipment.
- Windows inventory reports provides a view of Windows hardware and software inventory details (such as installed software, BIOS, warranty status, and Windows service inventory, etc.).
- VLAN and Subnet Views and Reports provide visibility into how infrastructure elements participate into different logical networks
Any map generated by WhatsConnected can be exported to Visio 2003, 2007 and 2010 in a couple of mouse clicks. When importing maps into Visio you have the flexibility to represent devices in Visio, Cisco or WhatsUp template shapes. The Visio export feature is invaluable, as it allows you to establish a baseline so that you can understand how your network evolves over time, as well as capture and track changes to your physical topology and devices.
Troubleshooting Tools
NEW Network and System Map-Level Tools (Ping, Telnet, SSH, CPU, Memory, Interface, Configuration Capture) will let you test and troubleshoot device and system configuration and performance right from the map view.
- Ping Status/Latency: Polls and graphs the latency and availability of devices on the map in real time.
- Interface Status/Utilization: Polls and graphs SNMP interface from devices on the map in real time.
- CPU Utilization: Polls and graphs CPU statistics from devices on the map in real time.
- Memory Utilization: Polls and graphs memory utilization statistics from devices on the map in real time.
- Capture Config Tool: Captures the running and startup configurations for network devices, providing a tool to analyze and compare device configurations
Connectivity Tools (Layer 2 Trace and IP/MAC Finder) will help you identify and eliminate physical layer connectivity issues on your network
- Layer 2 Trace - quickly validates that the end-to-end connectivity through designated devices over a defined path is working for both LANs and WANs.
- IP/MAC Finder - Is a fast and simple way to locate an IP or MAC address on a network using discovery information. The information the IP/MAC Finder tool displays includes the device or system associated with the IP or MAC address and to which network interface either the IP or MAC address is directly connected.
Are you still manually mapping and documenting your network and port-to-port connectivity and spending too much time in your wiring closet? Use instead WhatsConnected to automatically discover everything connected to your network -- devices, servers, VMware virtual machines, VLANs and port to port connectivity — quickly, easily and with just one mouse click.
With WhatsConnected you will:
Save Time:
Spend time effectively managing the network instead of wasting it on tedious, time consuming manual documentation tasks of network topology and port to port connectivity.
Lower Cost of Operations:
WhatsConnected best value combined with its ability to free up valuable IT personnel time and lower mean time to repair directly helps lower cost of operations.
Manage Assets and Inventory:
Gather, filter, and export a wide variety of inventory and configuration information across networking devices and systems as required for compliance and network audit process.
Optimize your Hardware Investment
WhatsConnected's Layer 2/3 discovery let's you find "forgotten" hardware or hardware without an IP address. These can then be decommissioned or reassigned to new tasks, or moved to an internal cloud.
Stay in Control:
Know exactly what inventory is deployed on your network, even hard to track associations between physical servers & virtual resources. Understand device interdependencies and how they are affected by changes and failures.
Track Changes:
With scheduled discoveries, and up-to-date dynamic maps, diagrams and topology views you can accurately understand, track and document the evolution of your network, with no effort - it just works.
Simplify Troubleshooting tasks:
Rapidly pinpoint the root cause of connectivity issues to minimize downtime and gain insight into how your network topology and infrastructure can be configured to minimize potential conflicts and optimize performance.
Compliance Support:
Ensure an accurate discovery, audit, documentation and archiving of network assets, topology maps and configurations over time to support regulatory requirements like SOX, FISMA, PCI DSS and HIPAA.
What is WhatsConnected?
WhatsConnected is a layer 2/3 discovery tool that lets you easily discover, map, inventory and document your entire infrastructure — network devices, servers, VMware virtual machines, VLANs and port to port connectivity — quickly and efficiently, in a matter of minutes. Using its powerful auto-discovery and dynamic mapping capabilities and a simple one-click integration with Microsoft® Visio™, your entire team will know exactly what resources are on your network, where they are and how they are connected at all times, even when your network grows, your office moves, or your datacenter resources get consolidated.
What is the difference between a layer 2 and a layer 3 discovery?
A layer 3 discovery identifies systems or network devices deployed in your infrastructure using higher layer protocols such as ICMP (ping), SNMP, or IP addressing. The major limitation of layer 3 discovery is that the physical connectivity between devices in the network is not automatically established. A layer 2 discovery accesses the physical infrastructure information embedded in servers or devices to provide detailed topology information, including inter-component dependencies and port-to-port connectivity. In addition, WhatsConnected automatically collects comprehensive hardware and software inventory and configuration information for network devices, servers and workstations using SNMP, SSH and Telnet. This includes:
Networking Devices
Asset Information
- Manufacturer / Model
- Serial Number
- Hardware / Software / Firmware Versions
- Chassis / Module Inventory
- Power Supplies / Fans
Configuration Information
- Interfaces
- Bridge Ports
- Switch Ports
- VLANs
Systems Inventory
- All available system component details (CPU, RAM, disks, etc.)
- Operating system version & patch information
- Any installed software packages
- Support for automatic update of warranty information (Dell and HP) based on integration with their support websites.
Why do I need an automated layer 2/3 discovery tool?
If you are manually documenting connectivity between devices and independencies (a layer 2 discovery) you know how tedious, time consuming, resource intensive and prone to errors this process is. After all, you have to manually plow through router configurations, device logs, Access Points, etc, and conduct a tedious visual port-by-port connectivity verification and documentation process in the server room to try to understand how everything is connected. And it gets more complicated if technologies such as virtualization or WLAN are used in your environment.
Automating your network discovery, map and documentation tasks with WhatsConnected will save precious time and resources, and with auto-discovery and dynamic mapping capabilities you can be assured that your topology maps, port-to-port connectivity and network diagrams are always up-to-date, even if your network changes, your office moves, or new resources are deployed. And this greatly aids in faster troubleshooting (easier to deduce network paths); ensure compliance with audits (accurate and up-to-date inventory or topology maps are required by most regulatory frameworks such as PCI) and helps you optimize monitoring workloads (for e.g. stop monitoring ports without connected end points).
What protocols does WhatsConnected uses?
WhatsConnected uses a number of innovative layer 2 and layer 3 discovery technologies, including ARP, SNMP,SSH, Virtual Infrastructure Management, IP addressing, ICMP and LLDP in combination with vendor proprietary mechanisms, and WMI and Telnet to build a complete and accurate picture your infrastructure assets and their interconnections.
Is it a stand-alone solution or a plug-in for WhatsUp Gold?
Both - you can use it as a stand-alone solution or together with WhatsUp Gold, for complete deployment flexibility. That way you can install it wherever you need it:
- Together with WhatsUp Gold
- On a system with a Microsoft® Visio™ license
- On a laptop - for flexible discovery, mapping and documentation on the go
- On a central location
- On any server or workstation running in your network
And since you can seamless export your WhatsConnected information to WhatsUp Gold with one mouse click, it is a perfect combination. You gain complete WhatsConnected deployment flexibility combined with powerful out-of-the box monitoring from WhatsUp Gold.
What types of reports are available?
WhatsConnected offers rich out-of-the box reports for comprehensive insight into network assets and their dependencies
- The Asset/Inventory report provides a view of the assets (Routers, Switches, Wireless Access Points, Printers, Windows, Unix, Linux, Macintosh, Firewalls, Hubs, IP Phones, etc) discovered by WhatsConnected as well as tools to sort and filter the assets that appear in the view.
- The Device Connectivity report provides a list of the devices connected to a network device as well as tools to sort and filter the assets that appear in the view.
- The Bridge Port Utilization report provides a view of port usage (total available and used) on networking equipment
- Windows inventory reports provides a view of Windows hardware and software inventory details (such as installed software, BIOS, warranty status, Windows service inventory, etc.).
- VLAN and Subnet Views and Reports provide visibility into how infrastructure elements participate into different logical networks
How is it licensed?
WhatsConnected licenses can be purchased for a tiered number of devices (network devices, servers and workstations). Currently available tiers are as follows – 25, 100, 300, 500, 1000, 2500, unrestricted devices.
Now that WhatsConnected discovers Windows server and system inventory details using WMI you should take into consideration your servers and workstations as you define the tier level that is right for you. You can select a quick "basic" discovery, which includes a small number of standard data points, or a "complete" discovery. Basic inventory information collected will include system type, CPU/memory/disk information, and OS version information. Complete inventory information collected will include all available system component details (CPU, RAM, disks, etc.), operating system version & patch information, and any installed software packages. In addition, WhatsConnected now includes support for automatic update of warranty information on the discovered servers (Dell and HP only) based on integration with their support websites.
When used in combination with WhatsUp Gold, your WhatsUp Gold and WhatsConnected device counts do not have to match. Your WhatsConnected device count must be equal to or greater than your WhatsUp Gold device license for example; you can purchase a WhatsConnected-300 device license and a WhatsUp Gold-100 device license. In this scenario you can discover, map and document up to 300 devices with WhatsConnected, but you can only export and monitor 100 of those 300 devices in WhatsUp Gold. With the addition of software inventory for Windows devices, this will be common as now you can track software installed on your Windows workstations, but you don't need to monitor those devices in WhatsUp Gold.
When used as a stand-alone solution, WhatsConnected has the following system requirements:
When used together with WhatsUp Gold, WhatsConnected has the following system requirements:
- WhatsUp Gold v15 Premium Edition, Distributed Edition, Standard Edition or MSP
- WhatsConnected supports exporting to Microsoft Visio 2003 or 2007 English version only.
Webinars & Videos: Learn more about WhatsConnected
WhatsConnected: Overview
Joins the WhatsUp Guru as he walks you through all of the new features available in WhatsConnected version 3.
WhatsConnected: Device Filters
Join the WhatsUp Guru as he walks you through setting up device filters in WhatsConnected version 3 for use with the reports.
WhatsConnected: Dynamic Maps
Join the WhatsUp Guru as he shows you how the new dynamic maps in WhatsConnected version 3 work.
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