Archived - How do I discover what is on my network via the UI? (Auto Discovery)

To navigate to the Auto Discovery page

To view an Auto Discovery profile

To add and run an Auto Discovery profile

To edit an Auto Discovery profile

To view the results of an Auto Discovery

To import a device file

To manage Auto Discovery in multi-server environments

Permissions

You can use Auto Discovery to discover devices on your network and add them to management. Auto Discovery is most useful when you have many devices, or a potentially unknown set of devices, to manage.

From ENA v17.0 P05 upwards, you can run Auto Discovery on a per-profile basis. This means that you can create individual profiles upon which Auto Discovery will be run, and the devices discovered in each profile will be saved to their own View.

Note, if you have upgraded from an earlier patch version of ENA, an individual Auto Discovery profile works in the same way as the original full version of Auto Discovery in the earlier patch version of ENA.

Auto Discovery profiles can be accessed via the Auto Discovery button at the bottom of the Device Inventory page.

To navigate to the Auto Discovery page:

1. In the Main Menu, click Administration.
2. Click Device Inventory.
3. Click Auto Discovery in the bottom left of the browser. This will open the Auto Discovery page, which contains a table listing the Auto Discovery profiles.
4. To return to the Device Inventory page, click Inventory at the bottom of the page.

To view an Auto Discovery profile:

If you install ENA v17.0 P05 as a new install, the Auto Discovery page will be populated with one profile: Default.

If you upgrade to ENA v17.0 P05 from an earlier patch version, the Auto Discovery page will be populated with two profiles: Default, and Pre-patch settings (<date of upgrade>). Pre-patch settings is a profile that has the overall Auto Discovery settings you had for your earlier patch version of ENA.

1. Navigate to the Auto Discovery page. This page displays a table listing details for each Auto Discovery profile. Please see below for further help and information on this table.
2. Click on a profile name in the Profile column to open the Edit window for that profile.
   
   The Auto Discovery page table details the following:
   
   

   Column Name	Description
   Profile	profile name. Click to open the Edit window for this profile.
   Status	profile status, e.g. Running, Queued. If blank, the profile is not running. In ENA v17.0 P07 upwards, this column can contain details of invalid settings found in the configuration file, e.g. Invalid type, Missing zone IDs. When profiles finish, they will have the status of Complete.
   Progress	bar displaying the progress of the profile. Hover over the bar to display a % progress. the bar is empty when the profile is not running and has no results. the bar is full when the profile is not running but does have results.
   Schedule	schedule of the profile, e.g. Mondays at 5:00; Every day at 12:00.
   Next Run	date and time of the profile's next run, according to the schedule.
   Add to Inventory	if 'Yes', discovered devices will be added to the inventory. if 'No',
   Add to View	View to which the device will be added. If Review Results is 'Yes', this column will be blank. Note, if the device already exists in the inventory, it will not be added to a View.
   Last Finished	time at which this auto discovery last ran and finished successfully.
   Results	contains a link to open the Inventory Candidates window, if this profile has results. If the auto discovery for this profile has started, the previous results will disappear.
   The below columns are hidden by default.
   Management Level	management level of the device, e.g. 'Full', 'Ping Only', etc.
   Name Using	method used , e.g. 'Polled Name', etc.
   Included Addresses	string representation of IP ranges, e.g. '[10.44.1.0 - 10.44.1.0, 10.44-1.80 - 10.44.1.255]'
   Excluded Addresses	string representation of IP ranges, e.g. '[10.44.1.0 - 10.44.1.0, 10.44-1.80 - 10.44.1.255]'
   SNMP Ports	list of SNMP ports on the device, separated by commas, e.g. '161, 52, 55'
   SNMP Authentication	SNMP authentication details required to manage the device.
   Ping Timeout	time (in seconds) that Auto Discovery waits for a response from a ping before it times out the ping.
   Poll Using Hostname	if the device will be polled using its hostname.
   Excluded SysOids	excluded SysOids devices strings, e.g. '1.3.6.1.4.1.311.1.1.3.1.2'.
   Start Time	time at which the Auto Discovery for this profile started.
   Zone	zone to which the device will be added.

    

To add and run an Auto Discovery profile:

1. Navigate to the Auto Discovery page.
2. Click Add Profile at the bottom of the screen. This will open the New Profile window.
3. Enter a profile name in the Name field and click Add, otherwise click Cancel.
4. If you click Add, the New Profile window will then open.
5. Specify the device, range of IP addresses and/or IP subnets for Auto Discovery to use when identifying devices for ENA to take under management in the Included Addresses field, and to use when excluding devices being taken under management in the Excluded Addresses field. You can include multiple rows of addresses, and on each row you can enter:
   • A range of IP addresses, specifying the From and To values.
   • An IP address or device name.
   • An IP subnet, specifying the Prefix and Netmask values.
6. Enter the authentication details ENA requires to manage the device in the Authentication Details field.
   • for SNMPv1 and SNMPv2, you should enter the device's SNMP community string, which by default is 'public'.
   • for SNMPv3, there are 3 levels of increasing security:
     • noauth - authenticates a packet by a string match of User Name.
     • auth - requires that you also complete Authentication Type and Authentication Password, i.e. MD5 or SHA respectively, and a password.
     • priv - requires that you also complete Encryption Tpe and Encryption Password, i.e. DES, 3 DES, AES, AES192 or AES256 respectively, and a password.
7. Specify the system object identifiers of devices that ENA should not manage in the Excluded SysOids field. This is a table that contains the list of excluded SysOids and their descriptions.
   
   
   For each of the Included Addresses, Excluded Addresses, Authentication Details and Excluded SysOids fields, you can use the Add, Remove, Edit and Defaults buttons. These changes are not saved until you click Save Settings at the bottom of the page. The Defaults button returns the values given in the autodisc.cfg file in the etc folder that is the same as a new profile.
   
   The default excluded SysOids are as follows:
   • 1.3.6.1.4.1.311.1.1.3.1.2 Windows Server
   • 1.3.6.1.4.1.2.3.1.2.1.1.3 IBM PowerPC Personal Computer
   • 1.3.6.1.4.1.8072.3.2.10 Net-SNMP Agent 5.1
   • 1.3.6.1.4.1.8072.3.2.3 Solaris NetSNMP
   • 1.3.6.1.4.1.311.1.1.3.1.1 Windows Workstation
   • 1.3.6.1.4.1.311.1.1.3.1.3 Windows Domain Controller
   • 1.3.6.1.4.1.42.2.1.1 Solaris Server
   
   Through discovery.HostNameFormat in entuity.cfg you can amend the device name format used by Entuity. By default Entuity attempts to poll a device using the qualified DNS device name, then an unqualified DNS device name and only then the device IP address.
8. Specify the default level of device management in the Default Management Level field, from the following:
   • Full - this is the default.
   • Full (Mgmt Port Only) - ENA v17.0 P08 upwards.
   • Full (No Ports).
   • Basic.
   • Ping Only.
   • None.
9. Specify the device name displayed within the product in the Display Name field, either 'Resolved Name (fully qualified)', 'System Name', 'Resolved Name', 'Polled Name' or 'IP Address'. The default is 'Resolved Name (fully qualified)'.
10. Specify the time in seconds auto discovery waits for a response from a ping before it times out the ping in the Ping Timeout field.
11. Specify on which port the device's SNMP agent receives its requests, in the SNMP ports field. By default, this is set to the default UDP port 161.
12. Configure the scheduling of auto discovery in the Auto run field, either 'Never' (so auto discovery is only run manually), 'Every day' or on a particular day.
13. Specify the zone in which to scan your specified IP address range in the Zone field.
14. Tick the Poll using hostname box if you want ENA to resolve device IP addresses to device hostnames.
15. Tick the Add Discovered SNMP Devices to Inventory box if you want to immediately add discovered devices to the inventory. If left unticked, ENA will present you with a list of discovered devices which you can then choose to take under management.
16. Applicable to ENA v17.0 P08 upwards: Tick the Allow Duplicate IP Addresses box if you want to add devices where some, but not all, configured IP address-to-port mappings were already seen on another device.  This test is done during discovery between devices currently being discovered and if mappings are identical, then the latter device will be ignored.  If not ticked, then the previous behaviour remains, where only a single configured IP address is used to make this decision that results in devices more readily being ignored.
17. Tick the Add to View box to select the View to which the discovered devices will be added. This dropdown list is populated by the Views available to the user. If left unticked, the devices will not be added to a View. Note, this option is disabled if the Add Discovered Devices to Inventory box is unticked.
18. Once you have specified the settings of your profile, click Start at the bottom of the window to start the discovery, or click Save Settings to save your settings.
    • If you click Start, the progress of the Auto Discovery can be seen on the Progress bar at the bottom of the window. Click Stop to stop the Auto Discovery. 
    • Click Show Progress Details to switch the window to a log of the progress made in the discovery so far, for example with notes on any errors encountered. Click Show Settings to return to the profile discovery settings display. In both cases, the Progress bar can be seen at the bottom of the window.
19. Once the process is completed, click View Results at the bottom of the window to view the discovered devices.

 To view the results of an Auto Discovery:

1. Navigate to the Auto Discovery page.
2. Click Results in the Results column on the Auto Discovery page, or click View Results from the New/Edit profile window.
   
   
   
   
3. This will open the Inventory Candidates window. This window displays a list of the devices discovered during the Auto Discovery, under their respective SNMP, Non-SNMP and Not Responding tabs. The devices are listed in a table, and details are provided for the following:
   
   
   
   
   • Device Name - resolved name of the device or IP address.
   • IP - IP address that ENA uses to manage the device.
   • Description - manufacturer's device description. This is only available with SNMP-discovered devices.
   • Location - physical location of the device, that is contained on the device, e.g. Development Cabinet. This is only available with SNMP-discovered devices.
   • Management Level - you can edit this to one of the management levels (Full, Full (Mgmt Port Only), Full (No Ports), Basic, Ping Only, None).
   • Info - reports warnings received when polling the device, e.g. DNS failure, device already in inventory etc.
4. Tick the boxes next to the devices that you want to add to the device inventory.
5. Tick the Add to View box to select the View to which these devices will be added. This is a dropdown list populated by the Views available to the user.
   
   
   
   
6. At the bottom of the page, you have four options:
   • Click Add to Inventory to add the selected devices to just the inventory, or the inventory and the View specified in step 4 above.
   • Click Remove from list to remove the selected devices from this list.
   • Click Go to Settings to open the Edit profile window for this profile. You can return from the Edit profile window to this results page by clicking View Results.
   • Click Close to exit the Inventory Candidates window.

To import a device file:

1. Navigate to the Auto Discovery page.
2. Click Import Devices at the bottom of the page.
   
   
   
   
3. This will open the Import Devices window, from where you can browse to locate the device file on the client system that is hosting the browser.
   
   
   
   
4. Tick the Review results before importing box to review the devices before they are added to ENA.
5. Click Import. The Import progress window will open, from which you can Stop the import or Close the import window. Once the import is completed, click View Results to open the Inventory Candidates window.
6. The devices will be displayed in the Inventory Candidates window, and by default all candidate devices will be checked and ready for addition.
7. Click Add to inventory.
8. At step 3, if you leave the Review results before adding box unticked before and then click Import, the Queued devices window will open. This window lists the devices that were queued to be added to the inventory, and any that failed to be added to the inventory.

To manage Auto Discovery in multi-server environments:

If your server is managing multiple servers, there will be a dropdown menu at the top of the page that lists those managed servers. Select a server to manage the Auto Discovery profiles on that server.

If the selected managed server's ENA software version does not contain the Auto Discovery profile feature, a temporary profile called Settings (<server name>) will be created. This profile contains the settings for the single, overall Auto Discovery for that server. You cannot create, rename, edit or delete profiles, and nor can you complete the Add to View fields and columns. However, you can start and stop the temporary profile, add candidate devices, and import a device file.

If your managing server is running a software version that is older than the version on the managed servers, then you will not be able to click the Auto Discovery button at the bottom of the Device Inventory page.

Permissions:

Administrators have full access to ENA device inventory management tools. If you are a non-administrator, your level of access to these tools is determined by the permissions assigned to the user groups of which you are a member.

The Auto Discovery Administration user permission permits you to run autoDiscovery from the Device Inventory page. You must also have the Inventory Administration permission for to use this tool.