How to Discover Network Devices

Discover SNMP-enabled network devices, such as routers, switches, and printers, within your network. First configure where to look for network devices, then run discovery.

Configure Network Device Discovery

To configure network device discovery:

  1. From within CAM Administrator, select Tools > Discover > Network Devices.
  2. In the Discover Network Devices dialog box, select Configure.
  3. In the Configure Network Devices dialog box, select Add, then, depending on where you want to look, select the appropriate option.
    • To query a range of IP addresses, select IP Address Range. In the Add Network Device Discovery IP Address Range dialog box, enter the start and end IP addresses for the range you want to search, and specify the SNMP version.
    • To query a specific subnet of your network, select Subnet. In the Add Network Device Discovery Subnet dialog box, enter the subnet address and mask to query, and specify the SNMP version.
    • To discover IPv6 devices, or if you know the host name or IP address of a device(s) you want to discover, select Device. In the Add Network Device Discovery Device(s) dialog box, enter the IP address or name of the device(s) to discover. You can enter multiple names or IP addresses by separating them with commas. Also, specify the SNMP version for the device(s).  
  4. Enter SNMP credentials.
  5. Optional but recommended: Select Test to open the Test Device Discovery dialog box, where you can check whether a connection can be established before proceeding.
  6. Select OK to save your configuration and return to the Configure Network Device Discovery dialog box.
    If you are configuring an IP address range or subnet, a dialog box opens to tell you how many IP addresses this configuration will attempt to query. You have the option to save your configuration by selecting Yes or, if the number of devices is not what you expect, select No to return to the dialog box and make changes. Although querying a large number of devices can take some time, it does not affect machine performance or the ability to run other tasks.
  7. Repeat steps 3 – 6 for any additional discovery configurations you want to add.
  8. Select the check boxes next to configurations on which you want to run discovery.
    • To run discovery on all of your configurations, select Check All.

      - or -

    • Clear all configurations by selecting Uncheck All, then select the check boxes next to the individual configurations on which you want to run discovery.
  9. Select OK.

You can further configure network device discovery to collect additional network device properties. See Related Content for more information.

Once you have finished your configuration, you can run network device discovery, as described next.

Run Network Device Discovery

You can run network device discovery immediately after configuration, or later:

  • To immediately run network device discovery, select Discover.
  • To run it later, select Close. You can return to this dialog box any time you want to run network device discovery by selecting Tools > Discover > Network Devices > Discover.

The options you specified during configuration remain in effect until you change them, and all selected (checked) processes listed in the Configure Network Device Discovery dialog box are run when you select Discover.

Tips:

  • Once network device discovery is complete, select F5 or Refresh from the View menu to see the discovered devices.
  • Once configured, the network device discovery process automatically runs at 3:00 AM each Sunday by default.
    • To turn off this scheduled task, select the Options dialog box, then the Schedule tab.
  • Change how frequently discovery runs through the Windows Task Scheduler. Select Network Device Discovery Task, then select the Cherwell Asset Management node.