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Discovery view

On the Discovery page information on discovered computers and other devices are presented in views. These computers/devices do not have an Inventory agent installed. A number of views are delivered with the installation, and new can be created to support customer needs. Also, filters can be added to the views to refine them even more.

The discovered devices are identified using the following properties:

  • hostname

  • IP address

  • MAC address

The Discovery page can be used for deployment of the Inventory Agent (for Windows versions 6.8.2 and earlier only). For more information, see Deploy an agent.

A discovered device cannot be automatically deleted in Inventory. It will remain visible on the Discovery page until either an Inventory agent has been deployed to it, or it is manually deleted in the Admin Console.

Commands

The following commands are available on the Discovery page:

Command

Description

Export

Export the information as it is displayed on the Discovery page to file. Any grouping or sorting will apply.

Search

Show (or hide) the search box

Refresh

Refresh the content of the view

Add view

Create a new custom view

Edit view

Edit a selected custom view

Copy view

Create a new custom view by copying an existing view

Delete view

Delete a selected custom view

Create deployment

Deploy a package to a selected discovery (for Windows versions 6.8.2 and earlier only)

Delete

Delete a discovery entry

Discovery details

To see details of a specific discovery, click the discovery in the list. Information such as Source, Name, Network, and Active Directory is shown on the bar to the right of the main window.

Discovery methods

Computers and devices can be discovered using LDAP lookups in an Active Directory, or by using the following technologies for network discovery on specific IP address ranges:

  • SNMP (SNMPv1)

  • SSH

  • WinRPC/WMI

  • ICMP (“ping”)

  • TCP/IP fingerprinting

  • DNS lookup

  • NIC manufacturer lookup.

When TCP/IP fingerprinting is enabled, discovery will attempt to identify the type of OS installed on the device.

For details about the discovery criteria and the columns included in each discovery view, see the following tables.

Table 2. Discovery criteria

View

Description

AD and SIM computers

Lists all computers that have been found using Active Directory discovery, or that have been reported via the Snow Integration Manager (SIM). The view includes both reachable and unreachable computers.

Reachable network devices

Lists all devices that support SNMP but have not been identified as computers, for example printers, switches, and routers.

Reachable unknown devices

Lists all devices that are reachable but for which no additional information can be gathered.

Reachable computers

Lists all devices that have been identified as computers using one (or several) of the discovery methods WinRPC/WMI, TCP/IP fingerprinting, or Active Directory discovery.

Reachable computers with Snow Inventory Client 3.x for Windows

Lists all reachable Windows computers/devices that have not been upgraded yet, and that still have the old Inventory client installed.



Table 3. Columns included in each discovery view

AD and SIM computers

Reachable network devices

Reachable unknown devices

Reachable computers

Reachable computers with Snow Inventory Client 3.x for Windows

Hostname

X

-

-

X

-

Platform

Example: Windows

X

-

-

X

-

Site name

Example: SESTOSOL-05

X

X

X

X

X

Last logon (AD)

X

-

-

X

-

Is reachable

Example: Yes

X

-

-

-

-

Source

Example: Active Directory

X

-

-

-

-

Last updated

X

X

X

X

X

IP Address

-

X

X

X

X

MAC Address

-

X

X

X

X

Description

Example: HP ETHERNET MULTI-ENVIRONMENT

-

X

X

-

X

NIC manufacturer

Example: Hewlett Packard

-

X

X

-

-

Type

Example: Network

-

-

-

-

X



To change the columns included in a selected discovery view, create a custom view by copying it and then adding (or removing) columns to it. Also, filter criteria can be added to the custom view. For details, see Work with views.