Discovery Process

Discovery and the creation of configuration item records is accomplished by:

•Performing an Active Directory scan from the Neurons for ITSM gateway.

•Doing a ping discovery on the IP address ranges using a module called Netscan, (included in the data center gateway installation). Netscan IP ranges are set on the gateway.

•Running a client agent process called Netscan, that listens for network traffic and then queries devices on the network using SNMP. SNMP queries are set on the gateway.

•Gathering data via SCCM and other external sources that communicate directly with the asset processor and other adapters.

•Importing data from Discovery Release 9.3.x or later, using the utility.

•Importing from an external file using the business object uploader.

•Manually entering the data.

The following table displays various discovery methods available with Discovery methods:

Method	Deployed From	Discovers	OS Support	CI Types Discovered
Client Agent	Audits the machine on which it is installed. Set polling interval from inventory settings.	device name MAC/IP address operating system software hardware	Windows Mac UNIX: HP UX, AIX, Solaris Linux: Ubuntu, Red Hat, SUSE	Servers Workstation VirtualServer VirtualWorkstation
Agentless Audit or Remote Scan	From a gateway, audits other machines on the network. This only works for the Windows operating system using a WMI query.	device name MAC/IP address operating system software hardware	Windows OS only	Servers Workstation VirtualServer VirtualWorkstation
LanProbe	Client agent installed on machines. Collects information to update CI records. LanProbe settings (including polling frequency) are configured from the Details tab.	device name MAC/IP address	Scans for any device within a client's subnet or configured subnets that have SNMP-enabled devices. It also discovers the MAC address and host name from DNS and ARP	Collects deltas and updates previously created CI records. Computers Servers Workstations (physical and virtual) Routers Switches VOIP Printers Scanner Access Point UPS Firewall SAN Hub
Netscan	Scans for Window-based or SNMP-enabled devices connected to the network. Is scheduled and runs only from a Gateway Data Center Edition workspace. Set ranges from the Netscan IP-Ranges tab in the Gateway Data Center Edition workspace. See Using Netscan.	device name MAC/IP address operating system	Only used for Windows or SNMP enabled devices	Computers Servers Workstations (physical and virtual) Routers Switches VOIP Printers Scanner Access Point UPS Firewall SAN Hub
Active Directory Scan	Gateway and Gateway Data Center Edition works only with Windows Server or workstations on Active Directory	device name MAC/IP address operating system		Windows machines listed on Active Directory Servers Workstations VirtualServer VirtualWorkstation

After initial discovery, the system audits assets to collect additional data. Auditing of the discovered assets is accomplished by:

•Installing the Discovery client agent on the computer to be audited.

•Remotely auditing via a WMI scanner that runs on the Neurons for ITSM gateway.

•Performing an SCCM import.

•Performing an import from Discovery Release 9.3.x or later.

•Uploading a file.

Active discovery involves installing the Neurons for ITSM gateway on a computer or doing a ping sweep to establish a range of IP addresses that map to live hosts, and then doing an Active Directory scan.

Passive discovery uses LanProbe (an installed client agent) to listen to your network activity and identify new devices when they are added or connected to the network.

Other Discovery Methods

Apart from the Active Directory scan, the other discovery methods are SCCM, LanProbe, Netscan, remote, user created, self registered (for gateway and client installations), and terminal sessions.

From time to time, computers might be added to the network. If LanProbe is enabled, new computers are discovered automatically. If LanProbe is not enabled, you must run another Active Directory scan in order to discover them. Or, if LanProbe is not enabled on the inventory setting, you can use the Turn off lanprobe and Turn on lanprobe quick actions to enable LanProbe for certain machines and disable it later. For more information, see Enabling or Disabling LanProbe.

After you generate a list of computers that are not audited, you can manage these computers by deploying an agent to them (see Deploying Agents to Other Computers) or by auditing them remotely (see Running an Agentless Audit).