Discovering Devices

When you start Network Director for the first time, the system does not have any devices. The first step is to build your network. Even with large networks, Network Director has made this step relatively easy and straightforward. You will add devices to Network Director and the database by using a process called device discovery. Once a device is discovered, it shows in the interface and Network Director begins to monitor the device.

Network Director provides a wizard for device discovery. The following example shows the path for device discovery through the wizard. For an alternate path, you can get a step-by-step instruction from the help system.

In this example, we provide an IP address range, and Network Director populates the database with all supported devices within that range.

While in the Build mode, select Logical View, Location View, Device View, or Custom Group View from the View selector.
To discover physical devices, click Discover Devices in the Tasks pane. Each mode has a Tasks Pane that displays the actions you can take while in that mode and that particular network view.
(Optional) Type a name for the discovery job. The default name is ND Discovery.
Click Add in the Device Targets window. You can add a single device IP address, a range of IP addresses, an IP subnet, or a hostname. In this example, we select an IP address range.
Provide the initial or the lowest IP address value and the ending or highest IP address value for the range and click Add. You can have up to 1024 devices in a range. After you click Add, the address range is listed in the Device Targets window.
Click Next or click Discovery Options to proceed to specify the device credentials and method of discovery.
Click Add in the Device Credentials window and enter the username and password assigned for administrative access.
Select Ping, SNMP, or both as the method of device discovery. Selecting both is the preferred method if the device is configured for SNMP.
If you select SNMP, the Add SNMP Settings dialog box is displayed. In this example, because we run SNMP version 2, we need to provide the community string. Click Add to save the setting.

Note:
You cannot choose a method for device discovery for virtual network discovery.
Click Next or Schedule Options to proceed to schedule the time when discovery is run.
Note:
Scheduling options are not available for virtual network discovery.
Indicate whether to run the device discovery now or set up a schedule to minimize network traffic. In this example, we set the schedule to run during off hours.
Click Review to review the settings before you exit the wizard.
Click Finish to complete the discovery setup and to save the settings.
Click View Discovery Status to view all scheduled and completed jobs. After a job completes, you can click Show Details to view further information on any unexpected results.