Discovery

Ivanti Neurons for Discovery can accurately and quickly determine which devices are on your corporate network. Using the discovery features all devices that come online are detected, data captured, normalized and sent to the Ivanti Neurons Platform. The technology used ensures that discovery is always on and always listening, so that no devices go undetected and that there is no delay in receiving the data. It also ensures there are no scalability issues, no duplication and no failover concerns because it uses smart technology to self-organize and elect which device will listen and send the data back. If the elected device goes offline, the self-organizing process identifies a replacement self-elected device, so discovery is uninterrupted.

Benefits

• Rapid discovery of devices connected to your corporate network.
• Flexible policy control.
• Infinite scalability.
• Analyze and normalize to produce a single accurate record of each asset.

Getting started with Ivanti Neurons for Discovery

Follow these steps to get started with Discovery.

Workflow:

1. Target a device on your network, download and install the Ivanti Neurons for Discovery Agent (Download Discovery Agent)
2. Enable and configure the discovery settings to start discovery (Discovery Settings)
3. Data is gathered, normalized and reconciled providing a single unified view of device details (Discovered Devices)
4. Create, assign and deploy agent policy to devices (Policy Groups)

Discovery install methods

There are two install options for Neurons for Discovery:

• Discovery Agent
• Default Agent

Before installing the agent check you have everything you need, for further information see the prerequisites in Agent Management.
Agent capabilities are license dependent.

Discovery components:

• Ivanti Neurons Agent: An executable file (IvantiCloudAgent.exe) to install the Ivanti Neurons agent. Installation can be done manually, or automatically; deployed by Neurons for Discovery, or via a 3rd party deployment tool.

• Options file: A settings file (IvantiCloudAgent.exe.Options) used to configure the agent. This file differs depending on whether you are doing Discovery install or Default install and determines which engine capabilities the agent will have.

  Both the .exe and .options files must be saved to the same folder. If more than one executable or .options file is downloaded they are saved with a numerical suffix e.g. (1), (2).
  

• Deployment Representative: A device that has the Discovery Agent installed.

• Deployment Representative Policy: The default policy configuration applied to the agent.

Discovery Agent

Use case

You want to discover all devices on your corporate network and automatically deploy agents to devices using Ivanti Neurons.

When the discovery agent is installed on a device, that device becomes a Deployment Representative. The Deployment Representative is the only device that can be used for the capabilities that require credentials.

To install the Discovery Agent

1. In the Ivanti Neurons Platform navigate to Admin > Discovery.
2. On the Welcome page, select Download the Discovery Agent to open the Discovery Agent page.
3. In the Windows Operating System section select Download Ivanti Neurons for Discovery Agent. There is currently only a Windows Agent available.
4. The Generate Enrollment Key dialog displays. You must generate an enrollment key for the Discovery Agent to register with Ivanti Neurons.
   The enrollment key is based on the number of devices on which you want to install the Discovery agent and the date that installation must be completed by. A .options file is created containing the enrollment key details, this can be used either for manual installation or installation via a preferred deployment tool.
   Note: If the number of devices or the date is exceeded you will need to generate a new enrollment key to register further Discovery Agent installations with the Ivanti Neurons tenant.
5. Enter the total number of devices the agent will be deployed to, these will become your Deployment Representatives.
6. Enter a date by which the all Deployment Representatives must have enrolled with your Ivanti Neurons tenant. The expiry date defaults to 30 days, but can be set up to a maximum of 1 year. Select the date from the calendar.
7. Select Download Discovery Agent.
8. Once the files (IvantiCloudAgent.exe and IvantiCloudAgent.exe.options) have downloaded, run the executable file and follow the on-screen instructions. The device with the agent installed becomes a Deployment Representative.
   Note: An agent must be installed on a device in each of your subnets throughout your internal network.

Default Agent

Use Case

You already have a list of devices or imported them from a connector, and want to install the agent manually using a third-party deployment system such as Microsoft Configuration Manager.

To install the Default agent

1. In the Ivanti Neurons Platform navigate to Admin > Discovery.
2. On the Welcome page, select Download Default Agent this opens the Agent Management page.
3. You have the option to change from the default setting of Interactive to Silent install. Interactive provides you with an install wizard which steps you through the installation. Silent will install automatically, requiring no manual interaction. Select Copy to copy the code you need to run.
4. Go to the appropriate section for your operating system and select Download.
5. Once the files have downloaded, make sure they are on the device that you want to install the agent on and that the .exe and .options files are in the same folder. Run the executable file and follow the on-screen instructions. The .options file determines which functionality you can configure, see the capabilities section above. The device with the agent installed becomes the Deployment Representative.

Related topics

Discovery Scans

Discovery Settings

Deployment Representatives

Discovered Devices

Agent Policy

Credentials

Agent Management

Credentials