# Metricbeat setup: one-time? **URL:** \ **Category:** Beats\ **Tags:** metricbeat\ **Created:** [March 17, 2023, 5:45pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/metricbeat-setup-one-time/327959 "2023-03-17T17:45:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 2
**Author:** ![stephenb](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/stephenb/32/40856_2.png) [@stephenb](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/stephenb)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2023, 5:02am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/metricbeat-setup-one-time/327959/2 "2023-03-18T05:02:50Z")
@NominaSumpta Great Question `setup` loads templates, mappings, ingest pipelines, dashboards etc... `metricbeat setup -e` Needs to be run once each time you change the version or change the configuration, like add module, add inputs.etc Say you install metricbeat on a host and enable the system module... You run `metricbeat setup -e` ... You can then install metricbeat on as many servers as you like **without** running `setup` because all the config is already loaded. Then you decide to add the MySQL module you need to run setup again once, and then update the configurations / modules or install on your 10 MySQL hosts. Then you upgrade a version you need to run `setup` once again. Basically once per configuration change independent of how many hosts it is installed on. Hope that helps. --- _[View the full topic](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/metricbeat-setup-one-time/327959)._