Begin installing WhatsUp Gold
- Last Updated: April 22, 2026
- 3 minute read
- WhatsUp Gold
- Version 2026
The procedure steps presented in this topic describe the most common (Standard and Advanced) installation workflows you can follow to successfully install WhatsUp Gold. However, if your license includes Log Management, Failover, and/or Distributed functionality, you will also be presented with additional feature-specific installation steps at the appropriate point(s) during the installation process.
Prior to installing WhatsUp Gold with Log Management, please review Configure your Elasticsearch instance for use with Log Management and Upgrading an existing WhatsUp Gold installation to include Log Management in addition to the information below.
Prior to installing WhatsUp Gold with Failover, please review Additional steps to configure Failover during installation and Finalize Failover configuration following installation in addition to the information below.
Prior to installing WhatsUp Gold with Distributed, please review Additional steps to configure Distributed (Central Site) during installation and Additional steps to configure Distributed (Remote Site) during installation in addition to the information below.
To install WhatsUp Gold:
- Launch the WhatsUp Gold installation program.
- When prompted, select the language in which you want the WhatsUp Gold installer
to run, then click OK.
- Read the Welcome screen and indicate if you want to configure WhatsUp Gold using
either Standard installation or Advanced
installation mode.
- If you select Standard installation, WhatsUp Gold will be installed with a dedicated instance of SQL Server Express.
- If you select Advanced installation you can
install WhatsUp Gold using more user-defined settings including
specifying a dedicated Windows account for IIS and, depending on your
license, enabling Failover and/or Distributed features, and pointing to
an existing instance of SQL Server and/or Elasticsearch. Click
Next to proceed.
- Review the End User License Agreement, select I accept the terms of the
license agreement, then click Next to proceed.

- If you are presented with results of a system configuration check, please review
the results prior to continuing the installation process. If any prerequisite
checks did not pass, please resolve them, then click Revalidate
to perform the system configuration check again. Click
Next to proceed.
- Enter your WhatsUp Gold Activation Key, then click Next
to proceed.Note: This dialog also presents you with options for requesting an evaluation license, activating WhatsUp Gold using a license file, or using offline activation mode. For additional information on these options, please contact product support.
If you selected the Standard installation option on the Welcome screen, please continue using the procedure steps found in Standard installation workflow.
If you selected the Advanced installation option on the Welcome screen, please continue using the procedure steps found in Advanced installation: Install WhatsUp Gold using the included local SQL Server Express instance.