Zoomed Image
USA
800 691 9120
UK
01225 704844

Running Discovery

xAssets IT Asset Management User Guide
Discovering a Network

Running Discovery

This page explains how to launch a discovery scan, monitor its progress, and review the results. Discovery can target a specific location, a single computer, or an entire IP range.

Prerequisites

  • Locations and IP ranges must be configured (see Preparing for Discovery)
  • The xAssets Discovery Service must be running on the Collection Server
  • You need an account with administrative access to the target machines, either through the service account or a Credential Pack

Discovering by Location

  1. From the Standard Menu, select Discover > Discover a Location
  2. In the location tree, select one or more locations and click OK

TODO Screenshot: ClickMenu "Discovery Dashboard" | PrintScreen "itam-discovering-a-network-running-discovery"

Tip: You can also discover and schedule locations directly from the Data Mapping -- IP Range to Location Mapping screen.

TODO Screenshot: ClickMenu "Discovery Dashboard" | PrintScreen "itam-discovering-a-network-running-discovery-2"

  1. A confirmation dialog appears before scanning begins. Click OK to proceed
  2. The screen refreshes to show recently running jobs

TODO Screenshot: ClickMenu "Discovery Dashboard" | PrintScreen "itam-discovering-a-network-running-discovery-3"

Discovering a Computer or IP Range

  1. From the Standard Menu, select Discover > Discover This Computer or Another Computer
  2. Enter the IP address of a single computer, or use wildcards and ranges:
    • 10.55.238.* -- scans the entire subnet
    • 10.55.238.33-10.55.238.63 -- scans a portion of a subnet

TODO Screenshot: ClickMenu "Discovery Dashboard" | PrintScreen "itam-discovering-a-network-running-discovery-4"

  1. Select the applicable Credential Pack from the Credentials drop-down, or leave at default to use the Discovery Service account
  2. Click OK to start the scan

Warning: Discovery requires that the xAssets Discovery Service is running and that the service account (or the credentials you select) has administrative access to the target machines. If discovery returns no results, check the service status and credential permissions first.

Monitoring Discovery Progress

From the Web Interface

To view progress while discovery is running, navigate to Settings > Recent and Running Batch Jobs:

TODO Screenshot: ClickMenu "Discovery Dashboard" | PrintScreen "itam-discovering-a-network-running-discovery-5"

From the Discovery Dashboard

For summary information with drill-down capability, navigate to Discover > Discovery Dashboard > Discovered Assets and review the Discovery Run Date Statistics query:

TODO Screenshot: ClickMenu "Discovery Dashboard" | PrintScreen "itam-discovering-a-network-running-discovery-6"

TODO Screenshot: ClickMenu "Discovery Dashboard" | PrintScreen "itam-discovering-a-network-running-discovery-7"

Discovery Reports

Navigate to Discover > Discovery Dashboard > Discovery Reports to see a dashboard displaying recently discovered assets, discovery trends, and any errors encountered during the scan.

What Happens After Discovery

Once a discovery script finishes scanning, the collected data is written to files on the Collection Server (PCA, PCZ, PCV, and PCS files). This data is then loaded into the xAssets database either:

  • Automatically -- the data loader runs after each discovery by default
  • Manually -- using Discover > Load Now (see Loading Discovery Data)

Tips

  • Start with a small scope (a single subnet) to verify that discovery is working before expanding
  • If you have many subnets, schedule them to run at staggered times to reduce network load
  • Check the Discovery Dashboard after each run to confirm assets were discovered and loaded