How To: Intro to the WhatsUp Gold Failover Module

Take a moment to review this orientation document to get acquainted with setting up and working with the Failover strategy in WhatsUp.

The following instructions are for installing the WhatsUp Failover Module on a workstation or server that already has WhatsUp 8.01 installed and configured.

It’s critical that your network be monitored at all times, however it can be a burden on the network to run parallel monitoring systems to ensure that you are always covered. The WhatsUp Failover System is a module to WhatsUp that allows you to enhance the WhatsUp installations with one acting as Failover system, not actively monitoring but ready to take over for the primary if it goes down for any reason. A couple of examples are:

• Crash! - There is always a possibility that the machine on which WhatsUp is installed could have a hardware failure. What if the hard drive crashes? In a case like this, you have potentially lost the ability to monitor your network.
• Maintenance - There are times you need to perform maintenance to the machine on which WhatsUp is installed. You hope this maintenance is completed in a timely fashion, but when it comes to monitoring critical devices, what is fast enough?

When problems occur, the WhatsUp Failover system allows network monitoring to continue. The solution requires a complete WhatsUp installation that is dedicated to the Failover task; this is referred to as the “Secondary” station. The “Primary” station is of course whichever WhatsUp installation(s) are doing your monitoring. The system works by setting up the secondary station to monitor the primary. If the primary goes down for any reason, the secondary station immediately reacts by loading its copies of the primary station’s maps and taking over monitoring. The secondary station will continue acting in this capacity until it sees the primary station come back on-line; at which time the secondary relinquishes control and resets to a passive role of just monitoring the primary station.

Setting up the environment
The following section describes how to set up the WhatsUp Failover System on your network. When properly implemented, the system will provide you with the assurance that your network is protected - even if your primary WhatsUp system meets with disaster.

Step 1-- Getting Started
The primary station can be monitored using the HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) service. This requires that you have the WhatsUp web server enabled on the primary station.

• On the primary WhatsUp station, go to Configure->Web Server and click the General icon. Make sure that Enable Web Server is selected.
   

The web server on the secondary station also needs to be enabled because the Failover Notification uses the HTTP service to tell WhatsUp what to do in the event of Failover. The Failover Notification uses the admin web user account on the secondary station to accomplish the task. You may change the password but do not entirely remove this account.

• On the secondary WhatsUp station, go to Configure->Web Server and click the General icon. Make sure that Enable Web Server is selected.

Step 2-- Copy the Maps into the Secondary Station
To have this secondary station monitor all the same things as your primary station during a failure, copy all of the maps from your primary station to your secondary station. Note that maps are not automatically mirrored and if you change, add or delete maps on the primary station; you must manually propagate those changes to this secondary system.

Maps must reside on this Secondary station in the Map directory. You can check this setting within the General settings of the web server properties.

1. On this station, go to Configure->Web Server and click the General icon.

The Map Directory shows the path where you need to put the copies of the maps.

2. Mirror the installations by copying maps and other setup files from the primary station to this secondary Station, e.g. from a command prompt:

xcopy *.wup \\WUFAILOVER\Program Files\WhatsUp
xcopy hosttype.ini \\WUFAILOVER\Program Files\WhatsUp
xcopy services.ini \\WUFAILOVER\Program Files\WhatsUp
xcopy gallery.ini \\WUFAILOVER\Program Files\WhatsUp
xcopy mib.txt \\WUFAILOVER\Program Files\WhatsUp
xcopy traps.txt \\WUFAILOVER\Program Files\WhatsUp
xcopy notifications\*.* \\WUFAILOVER\Program Files\WhatsUp\notifications
xcopy events\*.* \\WUFAILOVER\Program Files\WhatsUp\events

Step 3-- Configure the Failover Notification
On the secondary station, configure this module by doing the following:

1. Go to Configure->Notifications Library, and select Failover.
    
2. Click New and enter a unique Display name to identify the Failover notification, for example, "Critical Systems."
    
3. Click Add, and browse to the map(s) you want loaded in the event that this notification is triggered.

Step 4-- Configure the Secondary Station
The secondary machine needs a map with just one device on it, and that device will represent the primary station. Follow these steps to set up the map:

1. Create a new map.
   1. Click File->New Map Wizard.
   2. Select Create Blank Map.
   3. Click Finish.
    
2. Add the “primary” device. To do this, click and drag a Host onto the drawing surface.
    
3. Double-click this device to go into device properties, then click the General icon.
   1. Enter an appropriate Display name in the Display Name box.
   2. Set the Polling Method to Services only.
   3. Enter the appropriate IP address of the Primary machine in the IP Address box.
    
4. Click the Services icon and click Add.
   
   In the Monitor list box, select HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) and click Ok. NOTE: By default, this monitor is using Port 80.
    
5. Click the Alerts icon and select Enable Alerts.
    
   Select the Failover notification you created earlier (for example Failover\Critical Systems).
    
   In the Actions section, be sure to select Auto send UP alert after sending DOWN alert. (This will allow the Failover notification to unload the maps and cease monitoring, after an UP alert has been sent. Once the primary machine is back up, the secondary is reset and waiting to take over again the next time the primary fails.)
    
6. Click Ok; then, click Ok again to get out of device properties.
    
7. Click File->Save As and enter an appropriate name for your map file (such as “Primary.wup”).
    
8. Set your map to open on startup.
   Click Configure->Program Options.
   Click the Startup icon and select Open maps on startup.
   Click Add and select the map file you just saved (“Primary.wup”).
   Click Ok.

Start it up!
Once the secondary machine is configured you only need to click on the “Map” tab and turn on active polling by selecting Monitor->Active Polling. Upon doing so the system is active and ready to take over for the primary. You should test your system several times by shutting off the primary and ensuring that the secondary system takes over appropriately. If it does not, go back over the configuration instructions step by step until it works properly – you may find the Configuration Error Log and Debug Log useful tools to get additional information in this case.