Downloading and installing a BMC Discovery Outpost

Information about your organization's hardware and software is obtained by BMC Discovery Outpost. The BMC Discovery Outpost is application software that runs on a dedicated Windows server in your data center or on a public cloud. The BMC Helix Discovery service sends a request to an Outpost to scan the IP address required, and the BMC Discovery Outpost accesses the target by using the credentials that are held in a secure, encrypted vault. The targets are accessed by using a variety of methods, such as SSH, Telnet, WMI, and SNMP. Once logged into a discovery target, the Outpost executes commands to access the target details, and their results are encrypted and sent to the BMC Helix Discovery service. When the BMC Helix Discovery service receives the data, it stores it in the datastore as Directly Discovered Data (DDD). 

Multiple BMC Discovery Outposts can be deployed to handle segmented networks, and these can all communicate with a single BMC Helix Discovery service. Similarly, the BMC Discovery Outpost can be registered with multiple services and receive work from those services.

The BMC Discovery Outpost is self-updating. When a new version is available, you are notified, and you can choose to have the BMC Discovery Outpost update installed automatically, when it is idle.

The installation package is supplied as a conventional Windows Installer package in an .msi file. The location from which you can download the BMC Discovery Outpost installation package is provided in the email that you received after you registered with the BMC Helix Discovery program. Alternatively, if you have access to your BMC Helix Discovery service, you can download the installation package from the Manage > Outposts page, in the UI.

If your BMC Discovery Outpost uses an HTTPS proxy with a URL that includes a backslash character '/', you must use percent encoding for the backslash. For example:

• http://dom%5cusername:pass@127.0.0.1:8080/ 
  should be used rather than:
• http://dom\\username:pass@127.0.0.1:8080

Before you begin

If you intend to perform JDBC discovery in your IT environment, ensure that you install JDK/JRE or OpenJDK on the BMC Discovery Outpost server. This installation is mandatory for JDBC discovery. Install and maintain a JDK/JRE/OpendJDK version that is compatible with the JDBC drivers to be used. The compatibility information is to be checked on each JDBC driver vendor "Driver download" webpage listed in Managing database drivers.The BMC Discovery Outpost connects to the BMC Helix Discovery service over HTTPS (port 443). The service must be accessible over this port.

For information on overview of BMC Discovery Outpost, see the following video (02:17):

 https://youtu.be/dif5QA57Su4

For information on using BMC Discovery Outpost, see the following video (06:23):

 https://youtu.be/IALw77rTI-0

To install a BMC Discovery Outpost

Perform the following steps to install the BMC Discovery Outpost. 

1. Double-click the BMC Discovery Outpost installer package. 
   The Welcome screen is displayed.
   
   
   
   
2. Click Next to proceed. 
   The Destination Folder screen is displayed.
3. The default installation folder is C:\Program Files\BMC Software\Discovery Outpost\. You can retain the default folder or specify a new installation folder.
4. Click Next.
   The BMC Discovery Outpost Settings screen is displayed. 
5. You can retain the default port number that BMC Discovery Outpost uses for the web interface or enter a new port number.
6. Create an administrator password for the BMC Discovery Outpost. You must enter the password twice to verify the same. Note that the password is not displayed as you enter it.
7. Click Next.
   The Ready to Install BMC Discovery Outpost screen is displayed. 
8. Click Install to start the installation. 
   When the installation is complete, the Completed the BMC Discovery Outpost Setup Wizard screen is displayed. You can choose to view the BMC Discovery Outpost UI in your browser when you exit the wizard. 

9. Click Finish to exit the wizard.

   Note

   When you start the BMC Discovery Outpost for the first time, a unique certificate and key is generated so that https connections to it can work. When you connect to the BMC Discovery Outpost UI for the first time, you will see some warnings about self-signed certificates. You can safely configure your browser to trust the certificate.

   If you prefer to install your own certificate on the BMC Discovery Outpost, you can do so. To do so, you must install a certificate and key pair, server.crt and server.key, in C:\Program Files\BMC Software\Discovery Outpost\etc\https. The installation path provided here assumes that you installed the Outpost in the default location.

   If you do choose to install your own certificate and key pair, the certificate must be in PEM format, and the passphrase must be the BMC Discovery Outpost host ID. This certificate is only used for the https connection; the payload it carries is already encrypted. See Information security for more information.

10. If you chose to view the UI, you can log in by using the administrator password that you created during the installation process. 
    
    

For frequently asked questions about the BMC Discovery Outpost, see FAQs.

To install a BMC Discovery Outpost on Windows Server Core 

You can also install the BMC Discovery Outpost on a Windows Server Core platform by using the MSI wizard, or the MSI command line tool. 

You cannot install the BMC Discovery Outpost on an instance of Windows Server Core platform if it is running in a container.

Installing the BMC Discovery Outpost using the MSI wizard 

The Windows Server Core UI is limited, but supports running the MSI installer wizard, though this must be launched from the command prompt. For example:

C:\Users\user01\Downloads> ./outpost_123.12.1234.123456_ga.msi

where outpost_123.12.1234.123456_ga.msi is the BMC Discovery Outpost installation file.

The option to launch the BMC Discovery Outpost UI does not work on Windows Server Core platforms, as no browser is available.

Installing the BMC Discovery Outpost using the MSI command line tool

You can use the msiexec command line tool to launch the MSI installer wizard in the same manner as Installing the using the MSI wizard:

C:\Users\user01\Downloads> msiexec /i "C:\Temp\outpost_123.12.1234.123456_ga.msi"

where outpost_123.12.1234.123456_ga.msi is the BMC Discovery Outpost installation file.

You can also perform a non-interactive silent installation using the the msiexec command line tool:

msiexec /i "C:\Temp\outpost_123.12.1234.123456_ga.msi" /quiet /qn /norestart ADMINPASSWORD="<password>" WEBPORT=443

You can also specify an alternative installation directory using the INSTALLDIR option. For example:

msiexec /i "C:\Temp\outpost_123.12.1234.123456_ga.msi" /quiet /qn /norestart ADMINPASSWORD="<password>" WEBPORT=443 INSTALLDIR="C:\Test"

The /quiet and /qn options specify a non-interactive silent installation, the ADMINPASSWORD option enables you to specify the BMC Discovery Outpost administrator password, and the WEBPORT option enables you to specify a custom port for the UI.

For further information on the msiexec command, see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/msiexec

Where to go from here

Registering an Outpost with the BMC Helix Discovery service