DiscoveryAccess page

A DiscoveryAccess is a single access to a discovery endpoint. When an endpoint is scanned, a Discovery Access node is created. This node records information about the interaction that BMC Discovery has with that endpoint.

Related topics

Discovery Conditions

Discovery Run page

When BMC Discovery is unable to access a host, the DiscoveryAccess is a good starting point for troubleshooting. If a DiscoveryAccess is about to be deleted as part of DDD aging, a red banner stating, "This node will be removed shortly as part of DDD aging." is displayed.

To view a DiscoveryAccess page

You can view DiscoveryAccesses from a number of places in the user interface.

From a host node

From the view page for a host node:

Scroll down to the Inference section.
Click the main link in that section; for example, 172.17.3.116 SUCCESS 17/10/2019 10:48 - 17/10/2019 10:55.
The Example DiscoveryAccess is shown.

From the Discovery Recent Runs page

From the Recent Runs tab of the Discovery Status page:

Click a discovery run.
Scroll down to the Endpoint field.
Click the DiscoveryAccess link.
If the link goes to a single DiscoveryAccess, then that Example DiscoveryAccess is shown. If there are multiple DiscoveryAccesses, then a list page is displayed.
Click a DiscoveryAccess line to view the Example DiscoveryAccess.

Example DiscoveryAccess

The following screens show DiscoveryAccess pages for a UNIX host, a Windows host, a network device, and a mainframe computer. The Windows example shows multiple credentials.

Attribute	Description
Endpoint Section
Endpoint	The endpoint (IP address) scanned in this discovery access.
Start Time	The time at which the scan started.
End Time	The time at which the scan finished.
Total Duration	The time it took to discover and process the data (Start Time to End Time).
Discovery Run	A link to the Discovery Run that this DiscoveryAccess is part of.
Previous Discovery Access	A link to the previous DiscoveryAccess with the same endpoint. It is not displayed if it is the first in a list.
Next Discovery Access	A link to the next DiscoveryAccess with the same endpoint. It is not displayed if it is the last in a list.
Device Summary	A read-only summary showing the node kind, OS type, and version.
Inferred Entity	A link to the inferred entity that was created or updated as part of the scan. It is not displayed if nothing was created or updated.
Status Section
State	The current state of the DiscoveryAccess. The state can be Started or Finished.
End State	The end state of the discovery run. The end state can be one of the following: Successful discovery results in GoodAccess; during processing, you might see first DeviceIdentified and later HostInferred. For optimized discovery (that is, started but stopped for a reason), you might see Opt1stScan, OptNotBestIP, OptRemote, OptAlreadyProcessing. For unsuccessful discovery, you might see NoResponse, UnsupportedDevice, NoAccess, Excluded, Error. For information about how the end state and result relate to the discovery scenario, see the table in the following section.
Result	The result of the DiscoveryAccess. The result might be Skipped, NoResponse, Success, NoAccess, or Error. For information about how the end state and result relate to the discovery scenario, see the table in the following section.
Errors	If errors were detected by the ECA engine during discovery, this will link to those errors. Examples: `Error detected by the ECA engine`—This error is typically an internal rule error or pattern error and is usually triggered when the data returned does not match what is expected. `Unable to get the deviceInfo: ExecutionFailure`—Discovery has attempted to run a command, but a failure has been reported. `Unable to get the deviceInfo: NoAccessMethod`—No access method. This error frequently occurs because it is not meaningful, such as getting patches on Linux. `Unable to get the deviceInfo: NoSuchDevice`—A `NoResponse` endstate; that is, nothing was detected on the IP address. `Unable to get the deviceInfo: TRANSIENT` `Unable to get the deviceInfo: TRANSIENT_CallTimedout`—Probably caused by the reasoning timeout; the call to discovery is taking too long to complete. `Unable to get the deviceInfo: UNKNOWN`—Some other CORBA error. Contact Customer Support.
Session Results	If there were any failures in attempting to get a session on the endpoint, a link to a list of failures and successes is provided. See the following section for details.
Discovery Details Section
Discovery Source	Whether this Discovery Access originated from this appliance, a BMC Discovery Outpost, a scanning file, or was consolidated from a scanning appliance.
Discovery Controlled By	Name of the appliance (cluster member or standalone) or BMC Discovery Outpost that controls the discovery.
Credentials Used	A link to the Windows proxy, credential or credentials used in this Discovery Access. The link name is a hash of details of the credential; it does not provide the credential itself. You are not shown the Credential pages if you do not have permissions to view them. This field is not displayed as a link on the consolidation appliance for scans that have been consolidated from a scanning appliance.
Session Establishment Duration	The time it took to establish a session; that is, to log on to the host.
Total Discovery Duration	The time taken to establish a session and run commands.
On Hold Since	If the discovery has been paused, the time at which it was paused.
On Hold Duration	If the discovery has been paused, the elapsed time since it was paused.
Skipped Entity	A summary of the entity that was skipped.
Standard Discovery
Method	The discovery method used. The methods available on each platform are shown on the following pages: UNIX and related operating systems Windows operating systems Mainframe IBM i
Status	The status of the discovery access for the method. This is OK or the failure reason.
Script	The name of the script used, if any.
Access	The access method used to connect to the endpoint (for example, ssh, telnet, rlogin, and so on).
Result	A link to the node or nodes created by this discovery method.
Additional Discovery
Method	The additional discovery method used. These discovery methods are called by patterns; for example: `getFileInfo` `getFileMetadata` `runCommand` `getDirectoryListing` `wbemEnumInstances`
Status	The status of the discovery access for the method. This is OK or the failure reason summarized into links.
Script	The name of the script used.
Access	The access method used to connect to the endpoint (or example, ssh, telnet, rlogin, and so on).
Result	A link to the node or nodes created by this discovery method.

DiscoveryAccess state

The following table shows the possible discovery scenarios and the resulting end_state and result attributes of the Discovery Access node:

In addition to end_state and result attributes on the DiscoveryAccess, there is also a reason attribute that contains further details. There is no fixed set of values for reason.

The following state diagram and table might be of use in understanding the results of an attempted access.

Discovery Scenario	Resulting State of DiscoveryAccess
IP Injected → In Exclude list Example: The user has requested a scan of an IP address that is in an exclude range.	`end_state=Excluded` `result=Skipped`
IP Injected → IP Response → Desktop host Example:The user has requested a scan of an IP address that is a desktop host when scanning of desktop hosts has been disabled. The reason attribute is populated with `Desktop host discovery has been disabled`.	`end_state=Excluded` `result=Skipped`
IP Injected → Already Processing this IP Example: The user has requested a scan of an IP address that is currently being processed as part of an earlier scan.	`end_state=OptAlreadyProcessing` `result=Skipped`
IP Injected → Second Scan Optimization (Best IP) Example: The user has requested a scan of an IP address that is on a host that has already been scanned using another IP address that is considered to be the best IP address to use to scan that host.	`end_state=OptNotBestIP` `result=Skipped`
IP Injected → No IP Response Example: No response was received from the scanned IP address. The IP address is considered dark space, and no DiscoveryAccess node is created.
IP Injected → IP Response Example: After a sweep scan of an IP address, Discovery has received a response. No identification has taken place other than that a device of some description has responded to the sweep scan. If the device is subsequently not recognized, the `end_state` is set to `UnsupportedDevice` as described in the following section.	`end_state=DeviceIdentified` `result=Success`
IP Injected → IP Response → Device Type not supported UnsupportedDevice is the default end_state for any device that BMC Discovery can detect but does not have any knowledge of in Reasoning to build an inferred node. We might still be able to identify what the device is and some key properties, or we might know nothing more than the fact that it returned a ping. Example: Discovery has received a response from an endpoint but has not been able to further identify the device. This might mean that the OS is unrecognized, garbage has been returned, or a shell error has occurred. This can be caused by a firewall. For more information, see the IP Fingerprinting information in the Base Device Discovery section.	`end_state=UnsupportedDevice` `result=Skipped`
IP Injected → IP Response → No HostInfo recovered	`end_state=NoAccess` `result=NoAccess`
IP Injected → IP Response → No MACAddresses recovered	`end_state=NoAccess` `result=NoAccess`
IP Injected → IP Response → HostInfo and MACAddresses recovered	`end_state=HostInferred` `result=Success`
IP Injected → IP Response → HostInfo and MACAddresses recovered → First Scan Optimization	`end_state=Opt1stScan` `result=Skipped`
IP Injected → IP Response → HostInfo and MACAddresses recovered → First Scan Optimization not needed	`end_state=GoodAccess` `result=Success`
IP Injected → Traceback captured	`end_state=Error\|ExistingState` `result=Error`
IP Consolidated when originally optimized on Discovery Appliance	`end_state=OptRemote` `result=Skipped`

Troubleshooting using session results

Three scenarios are highlighted using Session Results:

Initial scan and successful connection—A number of unsuccessful connection attempts followed by a successful connection shows BMC Discovery selecting credentials.
Failure to connect—BMC Discovery was unable to connect. Typical problems could be failed credentials or poor network connectivity.
Failure at start of scan before successful connection—This failure can occur when a credential fails (expiry) but a later credential is successful.

Checking credentials after a failure

From the Discovery Access, click the session results link.
Click the Connection timed out rows to display the SessionResult page for that specific login attempt.
This page shows information about the attempted login, including a credential link and a link to the DiscoveryAccess. The credential link is a hash of the credential name that links to that credential on the Login Credentials page only if you have sufficient permissions to view the credentials.
Click the test button.
If the credential tests successfully, it is likely that a transient network problem caused the connection timeout. Alternatively, you can navigate back to the Discovery Access page and rescan from the Discovery Actions menu.

For information on using the DiscoveryAccess page to troubleshoot scan failures, see the following video (02:04):

https://youtu.be/-TldKOQD_Ls