Release Notes GreatNMS v1.04 March 1,2010 New features and fixes. 0. TCP/IP and SNMP polling algorithm performance significantly improved. This allows to manage/monitor bigger networks and more simultaneous remote GreatNMS users. 1. Improved fill and look of most dialogs in local server mode. Nicer font is used. It looks better in latest Windows (Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008) 2. "Top 10" screen is improved. A new sorting criteria is added: real bits per second passing through the interface as a percent of bandwidth (maximum nominal speed) 3. "Web Site Monitoring" feature added. This feature can be used, for example, for the the following purposes: 3.1 Monitor the weather in the required area via internet (like: http://www.weather.com) 3.2 Monitor critical web service which is accessible via some predefined URL. See: "Web Monitor" tab in the lower part of the GreatNMS main server window or choose "Main Server window menu"->"Monitor"->"Web Site Monitor" menu item. 4. "Host Information" screens ( which are based on standard HOST-RESOURCES-MIB) are now presented in more convenient "TABs" view. The TABs are: CPU Usage,Hardware,Storage, Software. 5. Added support for Dataprobe COE-8O unit to provide dry contact alarms processing. The Dataprobe COE-8 is a device for transporting real world status and switch closure information over IP network. Some of our customers are using COE-8 to set contact alarms. So this version of GreatNMS integrates the management/monitoring of COE-8 in GreatNMS. The idea is to set contacts on COE-8 automatically in response to some events/alarms triggered/received by GreatNMS. 5.1 After enabling SNMP support in the device via Web Browser, COE-8O can be auto discovered by GreatNMS or put on the map manually. Setting relays contacts is supported both manually (via GreatNMS GUI) and as a reaction to any GreatNMS trap/alarm. The COE-8O device also sends SNMP traps when the relay status changes, you just need to set GreatNMS server IP address as trap receiver via Web Browser GUI support of COE-8O. 5.2 The traps/alarms can come from any device. Select (on GreatNMS map) ANY device which sends Traps/Alarms. Right-mouse click on the device's icon and choose "Alarms Actions/Sounds Config", double-click on the desired alarm. Use Browse button to set the location of GreatNMS script which implements proprietary DATACOM protocol for COE-8O. Make sure you select NMS-scripts extension *.dsc in "Browse File" windows dialog. The example script is in in the c:\greatnms\apps directory, file coi8scr.dsc (assuming c:\greatnms is GreatNMS root). 6. Fixed some flickering when showing images in Web Client mode. 7. Added 'Traceroute' to device-specific pop-up menu (both in local and Web mode) 8. "Web Server configuration" Dialog now accepts wildcard symbols '*' and '?' as a part of "whitelist" IP Addresses which are allowed to be "Web Clients". This helps to define multiple "allowed" IP Addresses via one "regular expression" string. Example of a wildcard string: 192.168.1.* - allow any IP Address on 192.168.1.0 subnet. See MainWindowMenu->Internet Options->"Web Server Configuration". 9. Added ability to start TFTP Server when GreatNMS starts. See a new TFTP "TAB" in the lower part ot the Main Window. There is a check-box option: "Start TFTP Server when GreatNMS starts" 10. Added "sorting" capability to "Devices List/Network Inventory" window. To sort by any column, click on the corresponding "title-cell". In "local server" mode, see "Network Inventory" tab in the lower part of the Main GreatNMS Window. In "web client" mode, click on "Network Wide Operations" hyperlink->"Devices List/Network Inventory". =================================================================================== Release Notes GreatNMS v1.03 October 29,2009 New features and fixes. 0. Fixed some important bug which existed in v1.02 only (it did not exist in v1.01). The bug was affecting the automatic discovery of device interfaces and showing them in the interfaces tree which is located in the left side of the Main GreatNMS Window. It looked like some interfaces were disapearing and appearing again and again. This also affected SLA calculations for the interfaces and "Top 10" screen. 1. The following SQL engines can now be used in GreatNMS as alternatives to Microsoft SQL Server/MSDE. 1.1 PostgreSQL. 1.2 MySQL (requires downloading some files from www.mysql.com, see details in GreatNMS read.me). 1.3 SQLite. All the above SQL engines are installed by GreatNMS installation. The only exception is MySQL. To use MySQL, you will have to download some files from www.mysql.com and put them in the special location under GreatNMS installation directory. Please see details in GreatNMS read.me. User can choose the desired SQL Engine via Main GreatNMS Server Window Menu: Options->"Misc Options" menu item. 2. GreatNMS installation process now allows to skip installation of Microsoft SQL Server 2005/MSDE. You may want to skip it, if SQL Server Express 2005/MSDE was installed by the previous versions of GreatNMS and the 'History Alarms Log' Window (which is based on SQL) was working OK in the previous version. You may also skip this step, if you plan to use some other SQL engine, see 1. 3. Some bugs in alarms corelation were fixed. The general idea is that the device icon on GreatNMS map should get the color of the highest severity alarm reflected for this device in the Current Alarms Log. This was not allways the case. Additionaly there were some bugs which did not allow to propagate proper severity colors in the maps hierarchy. 4. When Alarms Correlation is used, added capability NOT to remove "cleared" alarms from the Current Alarms Log. By default the "clearing" "good" alarms are deleted from the Current Alarms Log together with their "bad" counterparts alarms. (Of course all the alarms are still kept in the History Alarms Log in chronological order.) The corresponding 'Remove Cleared Alarms' check-box has been added to the "Current Alarms Log" window. When the check-box is unchecked the "bad" alarm which was just cleared is not removed from the Current Alarms Log, however it becomes green. 5. Improved the feature connected to periodical uploading History Alarms Log into a text file after a certain number of alarms has been reached (see "History Alarms Log" dialog). The backups files are saved under \data\alrbck directory. The backup files are named with the date/time the backup happened. Per some customers request, the "year" has been added to these names. 6. Improved some Web Client pages. The "web menu" commands are better systemized and the pages look better. 7. Improved Northbound SNMP Interface for better interacting with 3rd party Northbound OSS. This affects NMS.MIB which is located in the \mibs directory. 7.1 The following objects are added to NMS.MIB, MvwNmsAlrEntry : mvwNmsAlrEntAlarmFileName,mvwNmsAlrEntAlarmIndexInFile,mvwNmsAlrEntAlarmDeviceMapName, mvwNmsAlrEntAlarmDeviceIPAddress,mvwNmsAlrEntTrapNumber 7.2 The same list of objects is added in the end of the mvwNmsMessageTrap trap's varbind. This trap is used for forwarding SNMP traps (and NMS alarms) which are received by GreatNMS from the managed devices or generated by GreatNMS. 7.3 In addition to the above list of variables (after the mvwNmsAlrEntTrapNumber), mvwNmsMessageTrap trap's varbind is extended by adding the variables from the original trap varbind. Though this info already passed (as formatted string) in mvwNmsAlrEntText, it assures that no trap information is lost. Note that all the changes are BACKWARD COMPATIBLE: they are done via adding new variables in the end of table entries or adding new variables in the end of trap's varbind. This assures that the existing customers inerfaces (which are based on the previous version of NMS.MIB) will continue to work. ========================================================================= Release Notes GreatNMS v1.02 August 16,2009 New features and fixes. 1. Added a screen which can show top 10 interfaces/ports for all the SNMP devices located on GreatNMS maps (which generally can be thousands of devices). The "Top 10" criteria can be selected from the following options: 1.1. "Top 10 mostly used ports" (in terms of 'bits per sec' which actually pass through the port) 1.2. "Top 10 mostly faulty ports"(in terms of 'error packets per sec' which See "Top 10..." menu item in the GNMS Server Main Window or "Top 10.." tab in the bottom part of the GNMPS Server Main Window. In GNMP Web Client, you can find this window after clicking on the "Network-Wide Operations" hyperlink. 2. The "Interface Details" window now shows additional historical background polling data for the particular port/interface. The new data is: 'Average Bits Per Second','Max Bits Per Seconds','Min Bits Per Seconds', 'Average Errors Per Second','Max Errors Per Second','Min Bits Errors Second'. 3. Fixed some minor bug in "ping" polling of TCP/IP devices. The bug could be felt only when more than 300 devices were "pinged" at the same time and some of the devices had "unreachable" (by the router) IP Addresses. 4. The dialog which allows to set a Device Alarm Actions/Sounds has been improved. It now optionally allows setting the Alarm Actions/Sounds for ALL (or all of certain type) devices located on GreatNMS maps. In addition this dialog also allows to use constructions like '$ipAddress' and '$DeviceName' inside the parameter string for the action's executable or batch file. See right mouse click on any device Icon-> "Alarms Actions/Sounds Config", double-click on any alarm. 5. Fixed a major bug which resulted in error message "Cannot copy file..." when using the procedure of defining custom user-specific device types. The feature is accessible via Main Window Menu "Options->Use Selected Device to Define a new device type". Before invoking this menu item, select "GENERIC" device which is to be used as a prototype for the new user-defined device type. GreatNMS will retrieve SNMP SysObjID from the prototype while creating the new device type. User also has a possibility to assign a specific icon file (*.ico) to the newly created device type. After the new device type is created, use "Alarms Config" dialog, "SPECIFIC" option and "Add alarms corresponding to SNMP Traps" button to compile the MIBs and add the corresponding traps to the "SPECIFIC" part of the newly created device type. 6. Fixed some bug which did not allow GreatNMS to discover more than one MIB-2 ifTable interface , when the number of managed devices on GreatNMS map was higher than 200. ======================================================================= Release Notes GreatNMS v1.01 June 12,2009 New features and fixes. 1. The GNMS local server Main Window improved: The 3rd pane with "Current Alarms Log", "History Alarms Log", "Network Inventory", "Links Inventory" and "Services Inventory" have been added in addition to already existing "Maps/Devices Tree" and "Map" panes. 2. In Web Console mode the "Current Alarms Log" pane was added to "Devices List" and "Map View" pages. 3. Performance of SNMP polling algorithm has been significantly improved This fix is important for monitoring large networks (thousands of SNMP Nodes) 4. Performance of Web Client significantly improved. This fix is important for the configurations when multiple users accessing GNMP server simultaneously. 5. Fixed bug in the "Services Inventory" dialog, which did not allo to add new service by click on "Add Service" button 6. Multiple cosmetic bug fixes. ======================================================================= Release Notes GreatNMS v1.00a Apr 27,2009 First release, so empty for now. ====================================================================== End of file.