Operating system and virtual environment requirements

• For evaluation purposes, WhatsUp Gold operates on Windows 10. However, production level support requires Windows Server versions only. See below for supported Windows Server platforms.
• Installing WhatsUp Gold on a domain controller is not recommended or supported.
• If WhatsUp Gold is hosted in virtual environments, to prevent licensing issues, make sure that you assign a static MAC address to the virtual machine on which WhatsUp Gold is operating. Refer to your virtual machine software help documentation for information about assigning a static MAC address for the virtual machine.
• WhatsUp Gold requires quad-core processors @ 2.6 GHz (min). If you are installing WhatsUp Gold on a virtual machine, make sure that your guest VM has at least four CPU cores allocated to it. Refer to additional Hardware requirements guidelines.

WhatsUp Gold supports the following Windows Server platforms:

• Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Standard
• Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Standard (WhatsUp Gold 2017 Service Pack 2 and later)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 (64-bit) with Desktop Experience
• Microsoft Windows Server 2012 (64-bit) with Desktop Experience

Database requirements

Important: As part of the upgrade to WhatsUp Gold the SQL Server Express database included with WhatsUp Gold will be updated to SQL Server 2017 Express.

Important: If you use a remote SQL database, instead of the default install that occurs as part of the default WhatsUp Gold installation, refer to the WhatsUp Gold Database Migration and Management Guide for information about other WhatsUp Gold database configurations.

Note: The collation of Microsoft SQL Server being used to host WhatsUp Gold databases should be set to SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS.

Latin1_General_CI_AS collation is allowed during upgrades, but is not recommended as it could cause errors in operation.

Additionally, the collation of each of the aforementioned WhatsUp Gold databases should also be set to SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS.

Latin1_General_CI_AS collation is allowed during upgrades, but is not recommended as it could cause errors in operation.

WhatsUp Gold requires a database to maintain data about monitored devices, store system configurations, and save user specified customizations. The database may be co-located with the WhatsUp Gold installation, or may be hosted on a remote machine. Data services for WhatsUp Gold can be provided by the following database servers. The following database versions are supported:

• Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Express SP2 Edition 32-bit or 64-bit Local
• Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Standard or Enterprise 32-bit or 64-bit Local/Remote
• Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Standard or Enterprise 32-bit or 64-bit Local/Remote
• Microsoft SQL Server Cluster 2012 or 2014 Enterprise or Datacenter 64-bit Remote only
• Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Standard or Enterprise
• Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Standard or Enterprise
• Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Standard or Enterprise

Please note, if you are running SQL Server 2012 on SP3, you need to install additional binaries from Microsoft to prevent potential database issues. This problem occurs because certain 32-bit binaries are missing from SQL Server 2012 SP3. Please refer to the applicable Microsoft support documentation for additional information.

*For evaluation purposes, WhatsUp Gold operates on Windows 10. However, production level support requires Windows Server versions only.

Web server requirements

Web services are required for the web-enabled functionality and reporting provided by WhatsUp Gold:

IIS version 7.x, 8.x, or 10.0.

Important: Web server requirements for IIS 7.x, 8.x, or 10.

The WhatsUp Gold installer automatically installs/enables IIS 7.x, 8.x, or 10 on platforms where it is supported. If needed, you can verify which IIS 7.x, 8.x, or 10 OS features are installed/enabled and properly configured from the Windows Control Panel. Verify that the Web Server (IIS) Roles Services listed below have been installed and are enabled.

WhatsUp Gold requires the following Web Server Role Services for IIS 7.x, 8.x, or 10 at a minimum:

• Web Server
• ASP .NET
• Static Content
• HTTP Redirection
• Default Document

Framework and accessibility requirements

WhatsUp Gold requires the Microsoft .NET Framework and other Microsoft packages for scripting and software accessibility. The following are required software framework and support packages:

• .NET 4.7.2, included in installation program.
• PowerShell 2.0 (Optionally required for PowerShell scripting. Not included in the WhatsUp Gold installer. Refer to the Microsoft MSDN web site for more information about installing PowerShell).
• Microsoft Windows Scripting Host v5.7 (or later).
• Microsoft SAPI 5.1 (required for Text-to-Speech actions).

Please note, the Microsoft .NET Framework option is required. However, the following feature/component options cannot be enabled in the Microsoft .NET Framework options:

• .NET Framework Windows Communication Foundation HTTP Activation.
• Windows Communication Foundation Non-HTTP Activation.

Web interface requirements

The following web browsers are currently supported for use with WhatsUp Gold:

• WhatsUp Gold Web interface:
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Current version of Chrome
  • Current version of Firefox

Note: Newer versions of these browsers will likely support WhatsUp Gold, but have not been extensively tested.

Important: WhatsUp Gold does not support any version of Internet Explorer in Compatibility or Quirks mode.

Log Management Requirements

The following table represents the minimum resources required to install and use WhatsUp Gold with Log Management features enabled and connected to either a local or remote Elasticsearch database instance.

Supported virtual environments

WhatsUp Gold supports virtual hosts and virtual machines running on the following virtual environments:

• VMware vCenter Server versions 4.0, 4.1, 5.0, 5.5, 6.0, 6.5, and 6.7
• VMware ESX versions 3.5, 4.0, and 4.1
• VMWare ESXi versions 3.5, 4.0, 5.0, 5.1, 5.5, 6.0, 6.5, and 6.7
• Hyper-V Server 2012
• Hyper-V Server 2012 R2
• Windows Server 2012 (Hyper-V Role enabled)
• Windows Server 2012 R2 (Hyper-V Role enabled)
• Hyper-V 2016 (effective for Service Pack 2)

Supported wireless devices

Important: Because of the volume of data collected and stored for wireless infrastructure devices, we recommend you use Microsoft SQL Server to store the data collected by WhatsUp Gold.

Important: Currently, WhatsUp Gold only supports Ping (as well as any other SNMP values that may be returned depending on the specific device) for Cloud Managed Wireless LAN Controllers and access points.

Important: If you are monitoring Cisco Aironet Autonomous access points we recommend that you run IOS 12.3 or newer. Inaccurate data may be reported with older IOS versions.

WhatsUp Gold supports the following devices:

• 16.2 - Cisco Small Business wireless devices (Cisco WAP321)
• 16.2.9 - Cisco 3650 Series Wireless LAN Controller with lightweight AP
• 16.2.8 - Cisco 5700 Series Wireless LAN controller
• 16.2.2 - Cisco WiSM2 (6500 Series) Wireless LAN controller
• 16.2.2 - Cisco Flex 7500 Series wireless LAN controller
• Cisco Aironet wireless LAN controllers and access points
• Cisco Airespace wireless LAN controllers and access points
• Aruba Mobility wireless LAN controllers and access points
• 16.2 - Meru Networks wireless devices
• 16.2 - Ruckus wireless devices
• 18.0 - Cisco 5520 wireless LAN controllers and access points
• 18.0 - Cisco 3504 wireless LAN controllers and access points
• 18.0 - Cisco 2520 wireless LAN controllers and access points
• 19.0 - Aruba Instant Access Point Wireless Devices (Tested with version 8.6.0.4)

Important: To successfully monitor wireless environments including the Ruckus ZoneDirector wireless controller, ensure you are running the correct version of WhatsUp Gold and firmware version of the wireless controller. The minimum versions are WhatsUp Gold 2017 - Service Pack 3 or later and any ZoneDirector firmware version containing the fix ER-2398. Note, this fix is included with firmware version 9.8.3 (MR3) and later.

For information on how to upgrade ZoneDirector Controller and information on the access points supported by each firmware version, refer to the applicable firmware release notes on the Ruckus Support Website.

Supported storage devices

WhatsUp Gold supports the following storage devices:

• NetApp FAS series
• Dell EMC Unity
• Dell Compellent

Please see the in-product or online help for special considerations applicable to properly discovering and monitoring storage devices.

Network traffic analysis software requirements

Network traffic analysis requires:

• At least one routing device that supports one or more of the following protocols to send flow data to WhatsUp Gold:
  • NetFlow versions 1, 5, 7, or 9
    • NetFlow-Lite
    • Flexible NetFlow
    • NetFlow v9 NSEL (NetFlow Secure Event Logging)
  • sFlow versions 2 or 5
  • J-Flow
  • IPFIX

Note: Network traffic analysis performs well in most WhatsUp Gold configurations that use the default SQL Server Express Edition database. However, some data collections over 10 GB or configurations where data is collected and archived over a long period of time will benefit from the additional performance capabilities of other SQL Server Editions. For more information about WhatsUp Gold supported SQL databases, see the release notes Database requirements section. Also, please consult applicable Microsoft guidelines for the SQL Server database edition that best fits your requirements.

Hardware requirement guidelines

Hardware requirements vary depending on the WhatsUp Gold configuration. Increasing the number of devices monitored, number of monitors, types of monitors, polling intervals, or other configuration options can result in additional load on the server and database. Hardware configuration adjustments may be required to optimize performance for your network.

Minimum server recommendations

¹Connection to modem is through a USB or serial port

*The performance for the number of devices and monitors supported is dependent upon several system variables such as server processor and memory size, polling frequency, round-trip time (RTT) for polling distance, the amount of time for which data is archived in the database, types of monitors polled (for example, SNMP-type monitors are significantly more efficient than WMI monitors), and other factors.

Please note, we successfully tested the USR3500 Courier M2M 3G GSM Intelligent Cellular Modem from USRobotics which supports a wider set of bands and cellular technology.

Recommendations for accessing WhatsUp Gold

We recommend accessing the WhatsUp Gold server using a browser installed on a remote machine. The following specifications are recommended for optimal performance when accessing the WhatsUp Gold server.

*The performance for the number of devices and monitors supported is dependent upon several system variables such as server processor and memory size, polling frequency, round-trip time (RTT) for polling distance, the amount of time for which data is archived in the database, types of monitors polled (for example, SNMP-type monitors are significantly more efficient than WMI monitors), and other factors.

Poller requirements

Depending on the network environment and product deployment, WhatsUp Gold can poll up to a maximum of 20,000 devices and up to 100,000 monitors with one WhatsUp Gold server and additional pollers (additional pollers required depend on the amount of SNMP and WMI monitors). Additional pollers installed on your WhatsUp Gold system transmit active monitor and performance monitor data to the WhatsUp Gold server. Extending polling activity across multiple pollers increases the number of devices for which WhatsUp Gold can poll and collect data to send back to the WhatsUp Gold system. Using additional pollers, WhatsUp Gold can efficiently scale polling operations to a larger number of network devices, ultimately providing the capacity to monitor and manage larger networks. Additional pollers may be installed on any Windows system on the network, other than the WhatsUp Gold server.

Installing WhatsUp Gold 2021

WhatsUp Gold 2021 supports direct upgrade installations from WhatsUp Gold v16.x, 17.x, 18.x, and 19.x. If you upgrade from a previous version of WhatsUp Gold, make sure to clear the browser cache so the user interface displays the new web application pages after the upgrade. Refer to the Installing WhatsUp Gold guide for details about installation, upgrade, repair, and uninstall. As always, before performing an upgrade be sure to back up your database, if using the SQL Express database included in WhatsUp Gold this can be done by the installer/updater before proceeding with the upgrade.

Important: Upgrades for WhatsUp Gold custom database modifications are not supported.

If the WhatsUp Gold installer detects database changes to your WhatsUp Gold database schema, it warns you of the issues and proceeds with the install. In future WhatsUp Gold releases, the installer will not proceed until the installer warnings are addressed.

Offline Installation and Activation

Important: If you are unable to connect to the Internet, you must use the offline installer package to install WhatsUp Gold. Download the package from your account using a connected machine, then run the installer on your designated server. When prompted to enter your activation number, select Use offline activation mode and proceed with the activation process. If you are an evaluator and do not have access to an account, please contact Customer Service for assistance.

Note: Customers with pure IPv6 environments must use offline activation.

Troubleshooting

Potential SQL Server installation errors

• DO NOT use Terminal Services or Remote Desktop for the installation. The installation or upgrade may fail.
• A Group Policy Object (GPO), applied on your domain, that has removed or altered the user rights of the WhatsUpGold_User account on the WhatsUp Gold server can cause a generic 503 Service Unavailable Error to be displayed after the WhatsUp Gold installation. To correct the error and verify/restore applicable settings, see Group Policy Object 503 Service Unavailable Error.
• There are known issues with installing WhatsUp Gold on a domain controller, therefore installing WhatsUp Gold on a domain controller is not a supported install scenario.
• If there was a previous, non-default installation of WhatsUp Gold, a "WhatsUp" Data Source (DSN) may still exist. Remove the WhatsUp DSN from the Data Sources (ODBC) Control Panel and restart the install.

Configuring the firewall to allow WMI traffic

WhatsUp Gold uses Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to monitor and restart Windows Services. For each device that is assigned an NT Service Active Monitor, you must supply the Windows credentials. Also, when creating a Service Restart Action, you must supply Windows credentials for each Action. Credentials must have administrative permissions on the remote server. Local accounts with credentials that match remote accounts are no longer required to monitor remote servers.

For more Troubleshooting information, see the Troubleshooting section in the application Help or refer to the WhatsUp Gold Support Site.

Group Policy Object 503 Service Unavailable error

A Group Policy Object (GPO) applied on your domain which has removed or altered the user rights of the WhatsUpGold_User account on the Network Performance Monitor server can cause a generic 503 Service Unavailable Error to be displayed following Network Performance Monitor installation. The account is created during Network Performance Monitor installation and is used for the identity of the Network Performance Monitor application pool in IIS as well as the account with rights to the NPM virtual directory. This user should be added to the Local Administrators group and should not be removed.

To correct the error, verify/restore applicable settings using the following procedures:

1. Ensure the WhatsUpGold_User account exists on the Network Performance Monitor server:
   1. From the WhatsUp Gold server desktop, click Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management.
   2. Expand Local Users and Groups in the Computer Management navigation tree.
   3. Click Users. If the WhatsUpGold_User account is not displayed, a GPO conflict exists and needs to be resolved at the Domain Controller.
2. Ensure the WhatsUp_Gold User is a member of the Local Administrators group on the Network Performance Monitor server:
   1. From the Network Performance Monitor server desktop, click Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management.
   2. Expand Local Users and Groups in the Computer Management navigation tree.
   3. Click Groups.
   4. Double-click Administrators. If the WhatsUpGold_User account is not displayed, a GPO conflict exists and needs to be resolved at the Domain Controller.
3. Ensure the Local Administrators group has the Logon as a batch job Local Security option enabled:
   1. From the Network Performance Monitor server desktop, click Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Local Security Policy.
   2. Expand Local Policies in the Security Settings navigation tree.
   3. Click User Rights Assignment.
   4. Double-click Logon as batch job. If the Administrators group is not displayed, a GPO conflict exists and needs to be resolved at the Domain Controller.

Important: If changes are made using these procedures, in IIS the Application pool Nmconsole is stopped. IIS needs to be restarted prior to continuing. Additionally, Event Viewer displays the following:

Application pool ASP.NET v4.0 has been disabled. Windows Process Activation Service (WAS) encountered a failure when it started a worker process to serve the application pool.

Application pool ASP.NET v4.0 has been disabled. Windows Process Activation Service (WAS) did not create a worker process to serve the application pool because the application pool identity is invalid.

For more information

Following are information resources for WhatsUp Gold. This information may be periodically updated and available on the WhatsUp Gold web site.

• Application Help. The WhatsUp Gold application contains dialog assistance, general configuration information, and how-to's that explain how to use the features. The Table of Contents is organized by functional area and can be accessed from the main menu or by clicking Help.
• Online Help and Documentation. For additional resources, see the Support site.
• Technical Support. Use the Support site for a variety of product help and resources. From here you can view product documentation, search Knowledge Base articles, access the community site for help from other users, and get other Technical Support information. The Support Site is available on the WhatsUp Gold web site.
• Licensing Information. Licensing and support information is available on your account. This site provides enhanced web-based capabilities to view and manage product licenses.

End of life information

To see the list of currently supported versions of WhatsUp Gold, the Product Lifecycle page.