Configuring discovery settings

Before you can run a discovery scan on your network, you need to configure the discovery settings. These settings are located in the Settings column of the Discovery Console.

Select scan settings

WhatsUp Gold can use several different methods to scan your network. Select the scan type that best suits your network.

• SNMP Smart Scan. This scan type uses one or more SNMP-enabled devices to identify the devices and sub-networks on your network. For more information, see Using SNMP Smart Scan.
• IP Range Scan. Type the IP range that defines the addresses to include in the network scan. For example, Start Address 10.0.0.1 and End Address 10.0.0.100. For more information, see Using IP Range Scan.
• Hosts File Scan. WhatsUp Gold imports devices from a hosts file. For more information, see Using Hosts File Scan.

  Important: If you update the Hosts text file, you must click Load/Reload (console) or Upload (web interface) to update the host file information. If you do not, the Hosts file changes will not be updated for new Hosts File Scans.

Note: The VMware scan feature is available in WhatsUp Gold when you are licensed for WhatsVirtual or when you are running the WhatsUp Gold product evaluation. To update or purchase a license, visit the WhatsUp Customer Portal.

• VMware Scan (available for WhatsVirtual license). This scan connects to VMware servers and uses the VMware vSphere API to gather infrastructure information about your virtual environment. The VMware Scan uses a list of user provided VMware vCenter servers or VMware hosts as targets for the scan.
  • Rescan existing WUG VMware vCenter servers and hosts (recommended). Use this option to rescan previously discovered vCenter servers and hosts. Choosing this option updates the device lists and maps provided in the Device View and Map View.
  • Add new VMware vCenter servers or hosts. Enter the IP address of the managing vCenter or VMware hosts. Separate each host name or IP address with a comma.

  Note: You can enter a vCenter IP address as a target and WhatsVirtual will discover all VMware hosts and virtual machines the vCenter manages.

  Note: If you want detailed information about VMware hosts to be available for the VMware Host Details log, you must add credentials for the VMware hosts.

  Note: You must have VMware credentials for all of the servers in the list of targets for the scan.

  Note: Ensure that VMware Tools are installed on each virtual machine you want to discover. If VMware tools are not installed on a virtual machine, the device is not discovered during the VMware Scan.

Select Credentials

To correctly identify devices, WhatsUp Gold needs to query the devices using SNMP, Windows (WMI), the VMware API or all of these methods. In these sections, select the credentials that you want WhatsUp Gold to use during discovery. You can select multiple credentials. The credentials list contains the credentials currently configured in the Credential Library. To use a credential that is not listed, you must first add the credential to the Credential Library in WhatsUp Gold. For more information, see Using Credentials.

Note: Selecting too many credentials may significantly increase the time required to run discovery. To decrease the amount of time it takes for discovery to run, select only the credentials that are used by the devices you want to discover.

Configure Scan Method

WhatsUp Gold can use two methods to detect that a device exists on an IP address:

• Ping. When using this method, WhatsUp Gold detects devices by issuing a ping request via ICMP and listening for a response.
• Advanced. When using this method, WhatsUp Gold first detects all devices that respond to ping. Then, if a device does not respond to ping, WhatsUp Gold scans common TCP ports for a response.
  • Ping Timeout (seconds). Enter the time, in seconds, for a device to respond to a ping scan. If it does not respond to the scan within this time, the scan continues on to the next IP address. The default is 2 seconds.
  • Ping Retries. Enter the number of times to attempt to ping a device before continuing on to the next device. The default is 1 retry.

Configure Advanced Settings

• SNMP Timeout (seconds). Enter the time, in seconds, for an SNMP device to respond. If it does not respond to the scan within this time, the scan continues on to the next IP address. The default is 2 seconds.
• SNMP Retries. Enter the number of times to try to attempt to discover a device at a given IP address before continuing on to the next device. The default is 1 retry.
• WMI Timeout (seconds). Enter the time, in seconds, for a WMI device to respond. If it does not respond to the scan within this time, the scan continues on to the next IP address. The default is 10 seconds.
• Merge Level allows you to adjust the device discovery merge level from an existing device in WhatsUp Gold with a newly discovered device in WhatsUp Gold on a per session basis. This Merge Level option applies to devices that have multiple IP addresses assigned to it. The Primary IP, during a discovery session, refers to the first IP found on the device. The Primary IP of a device that has been saved to the WhatsUp Gold database can be viewed and set in the device's Device Property dialog. The following options are available for discovery merge levels:
  • Any to Any. Any IP of an incoming device merges to Any IP of a device previously discovered and included in the WhatsUp Gold database. This is the default discovery behavior in v16.0 and 16.1.0. 16.1 SP1 and later use Primary to Primary as the default merge level.
  • Any to Primary. Any IP of an incoming device merges to the Primary IP of a device previously discovered and included in the WhatsUp Gold database.
  • Primary to Any. Primary IP of an incoming device merges to Any IP of a device previously discovered and included in the WhatsUp Gold database.
  • Primary to Primary. Primary IP of an incoming device to Primary IP of a device previously discovered and included in the WhatsUp Gold database. This is the default discovery behavior in 16.1 SP1 and later.
  • Always Create. Always create a new device with no merging for previously discovered devices that are included in the WhatsUp Gold database.

Note: Scheduled discovery does not have a concept of merge level and always uses the Primary to Primary merge method.

• Resolve host names. Select this option to have WhatsUp Gold attempt to populate the list of discovered devices with host names. If the Use SNMP SysName to name devices option is selected (see below), it is used first to identify device names. If SNMP information is not available, the Resolve host names option is used to identify device names (if the option is selected).
• Use SNMP SysName to name devices. Select this option to discover each device name by accessing the device SNMP SysName. This method is used first to identify device names. If not available, the Resolve host names option is used to identify device name (if the option is selected).
• Autoscan virtual environments. Select this option to automatically scan virtual machine devices after WhatsUp Gold detects a vCenter server or VMware host. If you do not want WhatsUp Gold to scan for the virtual machines hosted by discovered VMware servers, clear Auto scan virtual environments.

  Note: When the Autoscan virtual environments option is selected and a vCenter server is being discovered, the scan will first scan the vCenter server, then it will scan each of the VMware hosts and virtual machines managed by the vCenter server.

  Note: When the Autoscan virtual environments option is selected and only a VMware host is being discovered, the scan will first scan the VMware host, then it will scan each of the virtual machines hosted by the VMware host.

  Note: In order for WhatsUp Gold to successfully scan a virtual machine device, VMware Tools must be installed on the device.

• Use layer 2 discovery and generate layer 2 topology map. By default, WhatsUp Gold automatically uses layer 2 discovery to generate layer 2 topology maps and inventory information available in the Device Viewer. This information is used to create graphical representations of network connections between discovered devices.
• Gather information for wireless topology and performance. Select this option to enable wireless device discovery using the Wireless plug-in.

See Also Configuring and running discovery Running discovery Viewing progress summary information Viewing device discovery information Adding discovered devices to WhatsUp Gold Configuring scheduled discovery Configuring discovery results email settings Viewing Device Information tab Viewing scheduled discoveries Saving discovery results Using saved discovery results