Performing Discovery

Introduction

the discovery feature allows you to find live devices on a computer network and to utilize the information returned. It can be used to consult general information on the devices (IP address, type, name, accessible services etc.), or bring them under monitoring.

this document shows you how to use all the features offered by this feature.

 

Accessing Discovery

To access the discovery interface, navigate to Configuration  > Hosts > Discovery.

Figure 1 - Discovery layout

As shown in Figure 1, discovery consists of the following components:

• A search filter area
• A discovery execution area
• A filter bar
• A control bar for the results table
• A table of results

 

Launch a discovery

A discovery is executed from the button Discover.

Figure 2 - Discovery configuration form

Several pieces of information can be provided when configuring a discovery:

• Tab Network discovery parameters

1. BoxSelect the ServiceNav box that will perform the discovery.
2. IP addresses IP addresses against which the network discovery is to be performed. You can specify either a range or a comma-separated list of addresses.
3. PurgePurge If this box is checked, all data from previous discoveries will be deleted before starting the new one.

 

• Tab Accounts

1. SNMP and SNMP v3 : community to be used to retrieve information via SNMP protocol. This entry is not mandatory but the information returned will be more complete if it is correctly filled in. It is possible to enter several communities by separating them with commas. In this case, the box will use the community that returns the most information.
2. Windows Login - Admin WMI: Enter the account to be used to test the WMI connection. This must be a host or domain administrator account. The format for a domain account is: domain/account. Note These two fields are case sensitive.
3. VMware Connection Account: enter the account to be used to test the VMware connection. This account must be a member of the "user" group and must have Read Only rights on the ESX server.
4. Hyper-V connection Hyper-V: Enter the account to be used to test the connection to a Hyper-V hypervisor.
5. Citrix XEN Connection Account: enter the account to be used to test the connection to a XEN hypervisor.

Note Duplicate IP addresses: There can be no duplication of IP addresses in the discovery results. For example, if a previous discovery returned information for an IP address and a new discovery is to return information for that same IP address, the old information will be deleted and replaced.

Click on Click Apply button to begin the discovery. From then on, a progress bar is visible. This is automatically refreshed every 15 seconds. This allows you to see the progress of the discovery.

Figure 3 - Progress Bar

 

Unlike the progress bar, the discovery data is not automatically refreshed in the results table. However, you can explicitly invoke this using the "play" button.

 

Search within results

You can search the results using the search area:

Figure 4 - Search area

This area allows you to search for hosts subject to several criteria:

• Name / addressOnly devices whose name or IP address contains the entered string will be displayed.

• Protocols without response : the boxes allow you to display the devices that have not responded to Ping, SNMP or WMI. Note WMI connection is only appropriate to Windows type hosts (Microsoft technology). Checking this box has no affect on other types of host.

• Monitoring status Allows you to view monitored hosts/ un-monitored hosts or both. If neither box is checked, all are displayed.

Note all these fields are cumulative. So if we are looking for the IP address 192.168.0.14 by checking the status Not monitoredThe IP address will only be searched for un-monitored hosts.

 

Filter by host type

Filtering according to the type of host can be done using the filter bar. This can be seen as complementary to the search area.

Figure 5 - Filter bar

Hosts can be selected according to the following types:

• All no filtering is performed, all hosts are displayed
• Windows Server : servers hosting a Windows operating system
• Linux server : servers hosting a Linux operating system
• Server (other): servers hosting another operating system
• Hypervisor
• Storage
• Box
• Router
• Switch
• Workstation
• Printer : printers accessible from the network
• Telephone IP phones, connected to the network
• UPS
• Camera IP cameras, connected to the network
• Other devices whose type could not be detected

Note As with the search area options, host filtering is performed cumulatively: if a search has been run and you click on Routersthe search will only be performed against routers.

 

Results control bar

These bars are used to control the results table.

Figure 6 - Results control bar

 

Data refresh

Figure 7 - Data Refresh Buttons

These three buttons control the refreshing of the table data:

• The first performs a one-time data refresh.
• The second one starts an automatic refresh; every 30 seconds the data is automatically refreshed.
• The last one is complementary to the automatic refresh in that it stops the automatic refresh.

 

Pagination

Figure 8 - Pagination

When too many lines are available, the data is paginated. The currently displayed page is highlighted in green. The numbers that are not highlighted show the other available pages and allow access to them. The double arrow allows you to go to the last page of entries.

 

Perform actions on selected hosts

Figure 9 - Action on selection

The buttons Add to monitoring and Delete from IT discovery allow you to put a host under monitoring or to delete a host from discovery.

Note The action is launched as soon as the button is pressed. It is therefore necessary to have previously selected the host on which the action is to be performed.

 

 

Number of rows per page

Figure 10 - Selecting the number of rows per page

The last item on the control bar allows you to choose the number of rows to display per page.

 

 

Using the collected data

The results table is the central element of the discovery screen. It allows visibility of the data retrieved by the network discovery.

Figure 11 - Results table

Each row in the table corresponds to a host present on the network. The main information about the host is displayed directly in this table:

• Actions If the host is not yet monitored, this column allows you to select the host in order to apply an action to it. Next to the check box, a button in the form of an image gives access to a more detailed monitoring configuration form. Alternatively, if the host is already monitored, a specific icon shows that to be the case.

• IP address IP address of the host against which the discovery was performed.
  Note If a machine has several IP addresses, it may appear several times in the table.

• Host name Displays the name retrieved from NMAP. If no name was retrieved, its IP address is displayed.

• Description : description of the host. If it is a server, its operating system is displayed.

• Services List of services running on the machine.

Note Some services may be running although their port is closed. This level of granularity is displayed in the detailed information window.

• Protocols : shows if the host has responded to ping, SNMP or WMI protocols.

1. A green box indicates that the monitoring box has:

•  ping : received a response to the ping
•  snmp : successfully established an SNMP connection
•  wmi: successfully established a WMI connection

2. Red : the protocol in question did not permit successful communication with the host concerned.

3. Grey and crossed through protocol not available for the device in question

Detailed information window

A window displaying the detailed information of the host appears when its IP address is clicked on.

Figure 12 - Detailed information window

This information is grouped into four categories:

• General Information about the identity, hardware, operating system and discovery.

• Network Displays information about the devices network interfaces.

Note : available only if SNMP has responded succesfully.

• Services The following information is available: services in operation when discovery was performed. It also shows the port number associated with the service, its status (closed, open, filtered) and the service protocol (udp, tcp).

Note : available only if NMAP responds succesfully.

Note This tab can be directly displayed by clicking on the list of services in the results table.

• Storage Displays the partitions mounted on the device with their total space.

Note : available only if SNMP has responded succesfully.