Configuring credentials

To discover data in your IT environment, BMC Discovery requires access to host systems and other network and management devices. BMC Discovery appliances store credentials and other login details, including IDs and passwords, and credential-like entities (data sources, Windows proxies and SNMP credentials) in secure credential vaults.

The appliance vault is protected by a 512-bit passphrase. You can configure an appropriate passphrase for the appliance vault instead of using the default. However, we strongly recommend that you use the default to avoid any access issues due to an incorrect passphrase. Once configured, the passphrase is required every time the discovery process is run.

BMC Discovery is a Linux-based appliance. In previous releases, the methods that are used to access Microsoft Windows hosts were available only from Windows systems, consequently Windows discovery required a Windows proxy host. From BMC Discovery version 21.05, the appliance uses PowerShell as means to directly discover Windows hosts without the requirement for a proxy. For more information see Discovering-Windows-hosts-by-using-PowerShell.

Managing credentials using the REST API

With the introduction of data sources, in BMC Discovery version 20.02 (12.0), credential types have been recategorized. Existing searches using the REST API might no longer provide the same results as in previous versions. You can use the REST API listing to determine the credential categories for your credentials: