Several industry-standard protocols are used in Layer 2 Network Discovery. The two main protocols used in Layer 2 discovery are ICMP and SNMP; the SSH protocol can also be used to enhance discovery of Linux and UNIX devices. WhatsConnected also supports discovery through a Virtual Machine Interface (VMI) and Windows systems (WMI). Windows (WMI) credentials are used to collect software inventory information from Windows systems.
Additionally, the WhatsConnected credentials library provides support for Telnet and SSH. Telnet and SSH credentials are used to communicate with network devices and capture device configurations. The Capture Config tool, available in a topology map's device right-click menu, lets you backup running configurations and backup startup configurations on devices such as routers and switches. For more information, see Capturing device configurations.
The following information describes how to manage each protocol/credential settings.