This concepts article will help admins using the Asset Discovery Service understand what settings TeamDynamix provides for Ping, Active Directory, and ARPDNS.
Overview
The Ping, Address Resolution Protocol (ARP), Domain Name System (DNS) and Active Directory data providers are supplementary discovery protocols which can help gather information about assets, but do not provide enough information on their own to create an asset record. This article describes when you would use them, how to configure them, and how to choose an appropriate Target Selection Type for the other protocols which can depend on these results.
Ping
The ping data provider sends ping requests to each of the IP addresses in the job range, and keeps track of which IP addresses respond. This can then be used in the Target Selection Type dropdown for Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), Secure Shell (SSH), and Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) data providers.
TeamDynamix provides the following settings to configure the ping data provider on a discovery job:
- Retry Count – The number of times to retry a query when there is a timeout or error. Defaults to 5 when not provided.
- Timeout Length – The length of time to wait for a timeout (ms). Defaults to 2000 when not provided.
- Max Concurrent Requests – The number of concurrent requests that can be sent. Defaults to 500 when not provided.
Active Directory
The Active Directory data provider queries one or more domains to identify devices that can be discovered. This can then be used in the Target Selection Type dropdown for the WMI data provider.
TeamDynamix provides the following settings to configure the Active Directory data provider on a discovery job:
- Timeout Length – The length of time to wait for a timeout (ms). Defaults to 8000 when not provided.
- Max Concurrent Requests – The number of concurrent requests that can be sent. Defaults to 500 when not provided.
- Maximum Age – Device records older than this age will be ignored. Defaults to 30 days when not provided.
- Page Size – Limits the size of the data that is queried from Active Directory. Defaults to 100 when not provided.
- Domain(s) – The domain(s) that will be targeted. Enter each one on a new line.
- Username – The username for Active Directory queries. This should be entered as DOMAIN\username and the user must be a member of the Users group for the devices that will be discovered.
- Password – The password for Active Directory queries.
ARPDNS
The ARPDNS data provider sends ARP and DNS requests to each of the IP addresses in the job's range, to discover media access control (MAC) addresses and device names respectively, when they have not been otherwise discovered.
TeamDynamix provides the following settings to configure the ARPDNS data provider on a discovery job:
- Timeout Length – The length of time to wait for a timeout (ms). Defaults to 3000 when not provided.
- Max Concurrent Requests – The number of concurrent requests that can be sent. Defaults to 500 when not provided.
Choosing a Target Selection Type (for WMI, SSH, and SNMP)
The WMI, SSH, and SNMP protocols all require a Target Selection Type option. This controls which IP addresses in the job's range will be queried using this protocol and can be used to reduce the amount of network traffic by only querying IPs that respond to lighter weight protocols. It can also be used to ensure all IPs are thoroughly interrogated by choosing to query every IP address.
The following table describes the Target Selection Type options and identifies which protocols they apply to.
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Option
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The service will send the request to every…
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WMI
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SSH
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SNMP
|
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IP
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IP address in the range.
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Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
IP, already discovered
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IP address in the range which has already been discovered by another protocol.
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
IP, not already discovered
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IP address in the range which has not already been discovered by another protocol.
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Pingable
|
IP address which responds to the Ping protocol.
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Pingable, not already discovered
|
IP address which responds to the Ping protocol which has not already been discovered by another protocol.
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Active Directory
|
device identified by Active Directory.
|
Yes
|
No
|
No
|
|
Active Directory, not already discovered
|
device identified by Active Directory which has not already been discovered by another protocol.
|
Yes
|
No
|
No
|
|
Active Directory / Pingable
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device identified by Active Directory or which responds to the Ping protocol.
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Yes
|
No
|
No
|
|
Active Directory / Pingable, not already discovered
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device identified by Active Directory or which responds to the Ping protocol and which has not already been discovered by another protocol.
|
Yes
|
No
|
No
|