Getting Started with Discovery

User Roles

Only administrators can perform Discovery installation tasks. After the installation, only Discovery Managers can perform inventory auditing tasks. See About Inventory Management.

Administrators can access the Integration Queue and Message Queue Journal workspaces to view and track messages.

Prerequisites

Ensure that the prerequisites are met for the machine on which a gateway is installed. Gateways can only be installed on Windows machines. For Unix, Linux, or Mac environments, there is limited usage of LanProbe for discovery.

See Standard Gateway System Prerequisites and Enabling or Disabling LanProbe.

Installation and Setup

The following provides an overview of the procedures to install and configure gateways and other components:

1.Download and install the gateway on a computer. You can install more than one gateway.

Ensure that at least one gateway is configured as a central gateway since it is used for all tasks such as remote scan and deploying agents.

See Working with Gateways and Installer Downloads for information about the following:

Gateways and basic installation.

When to install multiple gateways and a central gateway.

When to install a Data Center Edition gateway.

If you need to use NetScan or audit ESX servers to discover virtual machines, you must install the Data Center Edition gateway. See Installing a Gateway from the Command Line.

2.After you install a gateway, you can run an Active Directory scan to scan computers on the same domain as the gateway. The scan lists all computers on the network that are not being audited.

Before you start an Active Directory scan, ensure that the gateway is listed in the Active Directory, is logged in with an Active Directory account, and has the appropriate permissions to run the Active Directory query.

3.After you configure and start a gateway, you can do one of the following:

Deploy agents to the computers that are not being audited. This allows you to create configuration item records for each device or machine and to manage them.

Install clients on computers that are remote or not in the intranet. If you cannot install a client agent on a computer, you can run an agentless audit on some computers. See Running an Agentless Audit.

You must enroll all mobile devices before they can be audited. Each device must have the MDI client application installed. See About MDI Client.

4.Perform audits. When you deploy an agent, it runs an audit. You can run additional audits by using the Audit Inventory quick action or by scheduling an audit. The audit returns additional information about the computer such as the software installed on the machine and any attached devices. See Working with Audits.

Run LanProbe.

Run Netscan to identify devices such as printers, routers, and switches. See Using Netscan.

Consolidation Rules

For asset information that is imported or discovered by other methods, the following rules identify whether an item is new or an update.

Machines are identified using the following criteria in the order listed:

a. Fully-qualified domain name (FQDN)
b. List of MAC addresses
c. SMBios Guid

If no match is found for any of the criteria, the application treats the item being imported or discovered as a new device or asset.

Message Queue Services

Discovery began using the Neurons for ITSM message queue service in the 2015.2 release, to handle discovery-related message-processing tasks. The service provides administrators maximum visibility into the process and the ability to replay messages. Messages are sent to the queue and then dispatched to the designated handler.

Previously, a Discovery client agent sent messages to the server, which were processed and later discarded. With the message queue service, messages are sent to the queue, dispatched to the handler for processing, and on completion of the task, moved to the journal queue.

Administrators can access the Integration Queue and Message Queue Journal workspaces to view and track messages.