Configure 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

You can modify the timeout and retry settings for SNMP and WMI requests. By default, WhatsUp Gold has a 2 second timeout for SNMP requests, 10 seconds for WMI requests, and retries failed SNMP requests once.

If the Use SNMP SysName to name devices option is selected, WhatsUp Gold attempts to identify the SNMP SysName as the first measure to define the device name. If SNMP is not enabled on a device, WhatsUp Gold attempts to resolve the DNS host name of discovered devices if the Resolve host names option is selected. If neither the SNMP SysName nor the DNS host name is available, WhatsUp Gold uses the device IP address to name the device. Clear Resolve host names and Use SNMP SysName to name devices if you do not want WhatsUp Gold to resolve the device name with either of these discovery methods.

By default, WhatsUp Gold automatically scans for virtual machines hosted by discovered VMware servers. If you do not want WhatsUp Gold to scan for the virtual machines hosted by discovered VMware servers, clear Auto scan virtual environments.

By default, WhatsUp Gold automatically uses layer 2 discovery to generate layer 2 topology maps and inventory information available in the Device Viewer. If you do not want WhatsUp Gold to use layer 2 discovery, clear Use layer 2 discovery and generate layer 2 topology map to disable Layer 2 discovery.

You may also enable wireless device discovery using WhatsUp Gold Wireless by selecting the Gather information for wireless topology and performance option.