Migration prerequisites and considerations when upgrading to WhatsUp Gold

To successfully migrate WhatsUp Gold database files from one server to another, the following requirements must be met:

• Microsoft SQL Server must be installed on the host computer if WhatsUp Gold will use a locale database or on the computer that will house the remote database. If Microsoft SQL Server is installed on a remote computer, remote connections must be allowed.
• If you are planning to upgrade to WhatsUp Gold, but have not yet done so, migrate your database files before upgrading the WhatsUp Gold application.
• The SQL instance, or at the very least, the user account, must have a default language of English.
• The server level collation for the destination SQL Server must match the current collation of the source SQL Server installation. The collation of Microsoft SQL Server being used to host WhatsUp Gold databases should be set to SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS. Please note, while Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS collation is also allowed, it is not recommended as it could cause errors in operation.
• If WhatsUp Gold and the SQL Server are not located on the same physical machine (server), the system clocks must be synchronized to the same time zone. Unsynchronized clocks may result in inaccurate report data.
• Microsoft SQL Server must be configured for mixed-mode authentication. Migration requires use of the "sa" account.
• Use a Microsoft SQL Server user account with the sysadmin server role to connect to the database.
• If you have previously migrated your database from one server to another, you must run the RemoteDBConfig utility, then the MigrationUtility to ensure compatibility with WhatsUp Gold. Running MigrationUtility is not applicable to new WhatsUp Gold installation.
• If you are using iDrones (EUM Pollers) with WhatsUp Gold to monitor applications, in addition to migrating your WhatsUp Gold database, you also need to migrate the iDroneService database after migrating the other WhatsUp Gold database files.
• If you have upgraded from a previous version, following database migration, you must create a limited rights SQL login for use by WhatsUp Gold. We recommend the following:
  • This account should be granted dbo access to all three WhatsUp Gold databases (most commonly named WhatsUp, NetFlow, and NFArchive) as well as the iDrone database, if applicable.
  • The name of the new limited rights account created should match the limited rights account name used on the previous server. If the names vary, you must change the app pool for the new user as well as any other point of database connectivity established on the previous server.
  • This account should be granted the CREATE ANY DATABASE and VIEW SERVER STATE server permissions in order for WhatsUp Gold to monitor the performance of general SQL statistics for use in diagnostic troubleshooting.

To successfully migrate the WhatsUp Gold application from one server to another, the following requirements must be met.

• You must first upgrade to the latest version of WhatsUp Gold and the versions of the application on both servers must match exactly.
• If you are migrating a WhatsUp Gold installation using a local database, you must back up the WhatsUp Gold databases prior to completing the migration procedures. Please note, any data collected from the time you back up the databases to when you restore them on the new server will be lost. We recommend executing these procedures during non-peak times when minimal downtime can best be tolerated.
• Some settings WhatsUp Gold stores in the Windows Registry may need to be reset manually following application migration from one server to another.

See Also Before you begin