Set up Assets Discovery

You can run Assets Discovery manually on a network to collect information about devices or configuration items. On Windows-based systems, Assets Discovery can also be used as a scheduled service that runs periodically, scans your network, and exchanges information with Assets Discovery agents that may be running simultaneously in your network.

Before you begin


Configure the various settings and run Assets Discovery

Before you can scan your local system you should configure your settings in Assets Discovery.

  1. As an administrator on your Windows or Linux system, open a command-line interpreter window.
    This is required to write into the destination folder if you choose C:\Program Files or it will be needed to install the Discovery tool as a service.
  2. Navigate to your Assets Discovery folder and type discovery.exe -s in your terminal or command-line interpreter.
  3. Enter your password. If this is the first time you have used Assets Discovery you will be asked to enter and confirm a new password. This password must contain at least 8 characters including at least one uppercase, one lowercase, one numeric and one non-alphanumeric (symbol) character.
  4. Select the Common tab and configure the Common settings. This tab deals with with the general settings for the tool.
  5. Select the Pattern tab and configure the Pattern settings. This tab allows you to manage which pattern groups and patterns will be applied when Assets Discovery is executed.
  6. Select the Scan tab and configure the Scan settings. This tab allows you to select an IP address or range of IP addresses to scan when Assets Discovery is executed.

    You will have to add a scan with at least one valid IP address for Assets Discovery to function.

  7. Select the Credentials tab and configure the Credential settings. This tab allows you to specify the credentials to be used in accessing devices on your network.
    If your devices are protected with any credentials, you will have to add these for Assets Discovery to function.
  8. To generate information about your network, Assets Discovery must be run so it can scan your local system. To run Assets Discovery, open a command prompt window with administrator permissions, navigate to your Assets Discovery directory and type discovery.exe.


On Windows-based systems, Assets Discovery can be used as an optional scheduled service that runs periodically, scans your network, and exchanges information with Assets Discovery agents that may be running simultaneously in your network. Learn how to configure the service settings

Using parameters to run Discovery

If Assets Discovery is run without any parameters, a scan will be started across all scan settings. For a more specific scan, you can use parameters to define which scan settings or range of IP addresses you wish to scan.

Parameter

Description

Discovery.exe
Scan with all stored settings.
Discovery.exe -s
Open the Discovery tool settings.
Discovery.exe -r <ScanSettingID>

Scan with a single scan setting specified by the scan setting ID.

Discovery.exe -r <ScanSettingID>;<ScanSettingID>...

Scan with multiple scan settings specified by scan setting IDs, separated by semicolons.

Discovery.exe -rs <IP-Address>

Manually scan a single IP address.

Discovery.exe -stsc

If Assets is running as a service, check and run any pending scans.

Discovery.exe -stad
Starts collecting data from available Discovery agents
Discovery.exe -v

View the version number of the Discovery tool.

Discovery.exe -l

Start scanning your local system using the credentials of the currently logged-on user.

Discovery.exe -i

This is available only if you’re using Discovery on Windows.

Install Discovery as a service.

Discovery.exe -u 

This is available only if you’re using Discovery on Windows.

Uninstall the Discovery service.

Discovery.exe -e
This mock-scan generates example hosts_example and devices_examples files in your Discovery folder.
discovery.exe -resetpassword
Reset your password, if you forgot it. (Important: Your encrypted credential-store will be deleted!)
discovery.exe -z
Start package result data (if required) and transport them with the configured settings

discovery.exe -backup

Back up Discovery configuration and patterns
Last modified on May 5, 2024

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