Network discovery is the process WhatsUp Gold uses to identify devices on your network that you may want to monitor. Network discovery scans each device to determine its manufacturer, model, and running software and services, also known as the role each device plays on the network. WhatsUp Gold uses this information to automatically assign commonly used monitors to each device. For more information, see Learning about the Discovery Console.
Before you discover the devices on your network, you need to prepare both your devices and WhatsUp Gold so that devices are discovered properly. For more information see, Preparing devices for discovery and Preparing WhatsUp Gold for discovery.