Performing a discovery run

You can start an immediate discovery or a scheduled discovery run by clicking the Add New Run link from the Discovery status page. You can perform the following actions for a run:

Specify the IP address or range to scan during a normal discovery run.
Specify the cloud provider for performing a cloud scan.
Schedule a discovery run to occur at any time and for a specified amount of time. For example, you might want to schedule a scan during off hours to avoid the risk of touching critical applications.
Enable or disable individual scheduled discovery runs.
Assign a company name to a discovery run.

For immediate runs, you can scan a specified addresses or ranges immediately, whether or not a regular discovery run is in progress. The specified addresses or ranges are scanned automatically and as soon as possible.

To perform a snapshot discovery run of IP addresses or ranges

On the discovery page, click Add New Run.

Enter the information for the snapshot discovery run in the fields.

Field name	Details
Label	Enter a label for the discovery run. Where the discovery run is referred to in the UI, it is this label that is shown.
Targeting	Select the target for the discovery run. This is either: IP Address — Enter IP address information. Cloud — Enter cloud provider information. BMC Discovery extends the cloud scanning capabilities to cloud providers such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services.
Range	Enter IP address information in one of the following formats: • IPv4 address (for example `192.168.1.100`). Labelled v4. • IPv6 address (for example `2001:500:100:1187:203:baff:fe44:91a0`). Labelled v6. • IPv4 range (for example `192.168.1.100-105`, `192.168.1.100/24`, or `192.168.1.`). Labelled v4. Note Scanning the following address types is not supported: • IPv6 link local addresses (prefix `fe80::/64`) • IPv6 multicast addresses (prefix `ff00::/8`) • IPv6 network prefix (for example `fda8:7554:2721:a8b3::/64`) • IPv4 multicast addresses (`224.0.0.0` to `239.255.255.255`) As you enter text, the UI divides it into pills* (discrete editable units), when you enter a space or a comma. According to the text entered, the pill is formatted to represent one of the previous types or presented as invalid. Pills are not supported in Opera.
Level	Select one of the following levels: • Sweep Scan—Tries to determine what is at each endpoint in the scan range and attempts to log in to a device to determine the device type. • Full Discovery—Retrieves all default information for hosts, and complete full inference.
Ping	Select a ping for the discovery run to be performed. This can be: • Use default—Default value to perform the discovery run. • Ping before scanning—Allows ping before scanning • Do not ping before scanning—Does not ping before scanning. This option should be selected for cloud discovery as public IP addresses do not respond to ICMP pings. All cloud scans would be dropped reporting no response.

Click OK.
The Currently Processing Runs tab is displayed with the new discovery run.

To perform a snapshot cloud discovery run

On the discovery page, click Add New Run.

Enter the information for the snapshot cloud discovery run in the fields.

Field name

Details

Label

Enter a label for the discovery run. Where the discovery run is referred to in the UI, it is this label that is shown.

Targeting

Select the target for the discovery run. This is either:

IP Address — Enter IP address information.
Cloud — Enter cloud provider information.

BMC Discovery extends the cloud scanning capabilities to cloud providers such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services.

Provider

Specify the type of cloud provider such as Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure.

To schedule a discovery run

Click Add New Run.
Select the run type as described in Anchor (link to headings above).
Select Scheduled.
The dialog is expanded to display the Frequency, Start, and End menus.

In the fields provided, enter information for the scheduled scan.

Field name	Details
Label	Enter a label for the discovery run. Where the discovery run is referred to in the UI, this label is shown.
Targeting	Select the target for the discovery run. This is either: IP Address — Enter IP address information. Cloud — Enter cloud provider information.
Range	Enter IP address information in one of the following formats: • IPv4 address (for example `192.168.1.100`). Labelled v4. • IPv6 address (for example `2001:500:100:1187:203:baff:fe44:91a0`). Labelled v6. • IPv4 range (for example `192.168.1.100-105`, `192.168.1.100/24`, or `192.168.1.`). Labelled v4. Note Scanning the following address types is not supported: • IPv6 link local addresses (prefix `fe80::/64`) • IPv6 multicast addresses (prefix `ff00::/8`) • IPv6 network prefix (for example `fda8:7554:2721:a8b3::/64`) • IPv4 multicast addresses (`224.0.0.0` to `239.255.255.255`) As you enter text, the UI divides it into pills* (discrete editable units), when you enter a space or a comma. According to the text entered, the pill is formatted to represent one of the previous types or presented as invalid. Pills are not supported in Opera.
Level	Select the level for the discovery run: • Sweep Scan—Performs a sweep scan, trying to determine what is at each endpoint in the scan range. The scan attempts to log in to a device to determine the device type. • Full Discovery—Retrieves all default information for hosts, and complete full inference.
Ping	Select a ping for the discovery run to be performed. This can be: • Use default—Default value to perform the discovery run. • Ping before scanning—Allows ping before scanning • Do not ping before scanning—Does not ping before scanning. This option should be selected for cloud discovery as public IP addresses do not respond to ICMP pings. All cloud scans would be dropped reporting no response.
Public	Select this checkbox to enable TPL patterns to initiate scans on IP addresses in this range. Patterns use the TPL discovery.scan function to scan the IP addresses. The IP address can be scanned by patterns even when the scheduled scan enabled time window is not in force.
Frequency	Select a frequency for the discovery run to be performed: • Weekly by day of week • Once per week • Monthly by day of month • Monthly by week of month
Start	Based on the selected scan frequency, you are presented with different options to start scheduled scans. Discovery must be running at this time. • Weekly by days of week—You are provided with buttons for each day and drop-down menus for the start time in hours and minutes. You can select one or more days from the day buttons. The selected buttons appear with a yellow border. • Once per week—You are provided with drop-down menus to select the day of the week and the start time in hours and minutes. • Monthly by day of month—You are provided with drop-down menus to select the day of the month and the start time in hours and minutes. • Monthly by week of month—You are provided with drop-down menus to the select the week, the day of the week, and the start time in hours and minutes. For example, to start a scheduled weekly discovery run that starts on Friday at 19:30 hrs and continues until Saturday, do the following: Select the scan frequency as Weekly by days of week. Click the F and S day buttons. From the time drop-down menu, select 19 hours and 30 minutes.
End	You can end a scheduled scan when it is completed by selecting when completed. Alternatively, use the available option to end the scan which is based on the selected scan frequency. If the duration of the end time expires before the scan has completed, then the scan is suspended until the next scheduled time that the scan occurs. The scan resumes from the point at which it was previously suspended. • Weekly by days of week—You are provided with drop-down menus to select the end time in hours and minutes. • Once per week—You are provided with drop-down menus to select the day of the week and time to end the scan. • Monthly by day of month—You are provided with menus to select the day of the month and the time to end the scan. • Monthly by week of month—You are provided with drop-down menus to the select the number of days and the time within which the scan must end. For example, to end a scheduled weekly discovery run that starts on Friday at 19:30 hrs and continues until 21 hours 30 minutes on Saturday (see the example for the Start field in the previous row), select 21 hours and 30 minutes from the Time drop-down menu.

Click OK.
The Scheduled Runs tab is displayed with the new scheduled discovery run.

To add another scan to the page, click Add New Run.
To delete any existing scheduled scans, select the entry and click Delete.

To edit an existing scheduled run

You can edit an existing scheduled run. If the run is in progress, it is automatically canceled when you edit it.

From the Scheduled Runs tab of the Discovery Status page, click the scheduled run that you want to edit.
If the run is currently in progress, it is canceled if you make and apply any changes.
The dialog displays all the fields described in the previous table, all of which can be edited.
Make the required changes and click OK.

To enable or disable a scheduled run

You can enable or disable scheduled discovery runs in the following ways.

From the Scheduled Runs tab of the Discovery Status page

You can select individual, multiple, or all runs to enable or disable. If the run is in progress, it is canceled if you make and apply any changes.

From the Scheduled Runs tab of the Discovery Status page, select the scheduled runs that you want to enable or disable.
You can select all scheduled runs by using the check box in the header row.
Click Enable to enable the runs, or Disable to disable the runs.

Scans enabled in this way do not run until the next scanning window, even if a scanning window is currently open.

From the Edit Scheduled Run dialog