Discovering Network Devices

If you choose to use ZENworks Control Center to install the Adaptive Agent to devices, you must first identify the devices within your Management Zone. To do this, you have two options: 1) you can use the ZENworks discovery technology to search for devices on your network and display them in ZENworks Control Center or 2) you can import them from a comma-separated values (CSV) file.

This section explains how to use the discovery technology. If you want to know more about importing devices from a CSV file, see Importing Devices.

There are two types of discoveries you can perform:

IP discovery: Lets you specify an IP address range. By default, it uses six discovery technologies (WMI, WinAPI, MAC Address, ZENworks®, SNMP, SSH). Each discovery technology returns varying levels of information (OS version, DNS name, and so forth) about the discovered device.

LDAP discovery: Lets you specify an LDAP directory context to search for all device-type objects (workstations, servers, and so forth). Device objects that are found are queried for well-known attributes (dnsHostName, OperatingSystem, wmNameDNS, wmNameOS, and so forth) to attempt to determine the OS version and DNS name of the device.

To perform either of the discoveries, you must create a discovery task. The discovery task lets you identify the source (IP address range or LDAP directory) that you want to search, specify the credentials required to retrieve information from discovered devices, schedule the date and time you want to start the discovery, and select the ZENworks Server you want to perform the discovery.

Creating an IP Discovery Task

In ZENworks Control Center, click the Deployment tab.

In the Discovery Task panel, click New to launch the New Discovery Task Wizard. Complete the wizard using information from the following table to fill in the fields.

Wizard Page and Field	Details
Select Discovery Type page IP Discovery Task LDAP Discovery Task	Select IP Discover Task.
Select Discovery Type page Name	Specify a name for the task. The name cannot include any of the following invalid characters: / \ * ? : " ' < > \| ` % ~
Enter IP Discovery Settings page Range	To specify a range of IP addresses for the discovery task: In the Range field, enter an IP address range using one of the following formats: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx: Standard dotted-decimal notation. For example, 123.45.167.100. xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx - xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx: Standard dotted-decimal notation. For example, 123.45.167.100 - 123.45.167.125. xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/n: Standard CIDR (Classless Inter-Domain Routing) notation. With CIDR, the dotted decimal portion of the IP address is interpreted as a 32-bit binary number that has been broken into four 8-bit bytes. The number following the slash (/n) is the prefix length, which is the number of shared initial bits, counting from the left side of the address. The /n number can range from 0 to 32, with 8, 16, 24, and 32 being commonly used numbers. For example, 123.45.167.100/24 matches all IP address that start with 123.45.167. When you add the IP address range to the Selected IP Ranges list (see the next step), it is automatically expanded to show the range of addresses in dotted-decimal notation. Click Add to add the IP address range to the Selected IP Ranges list. Repeat Step 1 and Step 2 to add additional ranges.
Enter IP Discovery Settings page Credentials	To specify a range of IP addresses for the discovery task: In the Range field, enter an IP address range using one of the following formats: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx: Standard dotted-decimal notation. For example, 123.45.167.100. xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx - xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx: Standard dotted-decimal notation. For example, 123.45.167.100 - 123.45.167.125. xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/n: Standard CIDR (Classless Inter-Domain Routing) notation. With CIDR, the dotted decimal portion of the IP address is interpreted as a 32-bit binary number that has been broken into four 8-bit bytes. The number following the slash (/n) is the prefix length, which is the number of shared initial bits, counting from the left side of the address. The /n number can range from 0 to 32, with 8, 16, 24, and 32 being commonly used numbers. For example, 123.45.167.100/24 matches all IP address that start with 123.45.167. When you add the IP address range to the Selected IP Ranges list (see the next step), it is automatically expanded to show the range of addresses in dotted-decimal notation. Click Add to add the IP address range to the Selected IP Ranges list. Repeat Step 1 and Step 2 to add additional ranges.
Enter IP Discovery Settings page Save Credentials to DataStore	In order for the SSH, WMI, WinAPI, and SSH discovery technologies to retrieve information from devices, you must provide credentials that the discovery technologies can use. The NMAP, MAC Address, and ZENworks technologies do not required credentials. Unless you save the credentials, they are stored only in memory. Saved credentials are encrypted in the database for increased security. Credentials that are not saved are cleared from memory if the ZENworks Server is restarted. If your are creating a scheduled deployment task, you might want to save the credentials to ensure that they are still available when the deployment is performed.
Enter IP Discovery Settings page Credentials	Not all technologies use the same credentials, and all devices might not have the same credentials, so you might need to specify multiple credentials to cover all targeted devices and to utilize all discovery technologies. To add a credential: In the Credentials panel, click Add to display the Enter Credential Information dialog box. In the Type field, select the type of credentials you are defining: General: Specifies credentials to be used by all discovery technologies except for SNMP. LDAP: Specifies credentials to access an LDAP directory. This option does not apply to an IP-based discovery; ignore it. Linux: Specifies credentials for the SSH technology to communicate with the SSH server on a Linux^* device. Windows: Specifies credentials for the WMI and WinAPI technology to access the WMI service and Windows registry on a Windows device. SNMP: Specifies community strings for the SNMP technology to access the SNMP service on a device. By default, the discovery process uses public as the community string. If you selected General, Linux, or Windows, fill in the username and password. If you selected SNMP, fill in a community string. Click OK to add the credentials to the Credentials panel. Repeat Step 1 through Step 5 to add additional credentials. If you add multiple credentials of the same type (for example, multiple Windows^* credentials), the technologies that require those credentials use them in the order they are displayed in the Credentials panel, moving from top to bottom. Therefore, you should make sure that you place the most common credentials first in order to speed up the discovery process.
Set the Discovery Schedule page	Choose whether you want the task to run as soon as it is created (the Now option) or if you want to schedule the task to run at a future date and time. If you select Scheduled, choose one of the following schedules: No Schedule: Indicates that no schedule has been set. The task does not run until a schedule is set or it is manually launched. This is useful if you want to create the task and come back to it later to establish the schedule or run it manually. Date Specific: Specifies one or more dates on which to run the task. Recurring: Identifies specific days each week, month, or on a fixed interval on which to run the task. Click the Help button for more detailed information about the schedules.
Select Primary Server page	Select the ZENworks Server that you want to perform the deployment task.

When you finish the wizard, the discovery task is added to the list in the Discovery Tasks panel. You can use the panel to monitor the status of the task. As devices are discovered, they are listed in the Deployable Devices panel.

Creating an LDAP Discovery Task

In ZENworks Control Center, click the Deployment tab.

In the Discovery Task panel, click New to launch the New Discovery Task Wizard. Complete the wizard using information from the following table to fill in the fields.

Wizard Page and Field	Details
Select Discovery Type page IP Discovery Task LDAP Discovery Task	Select LDAP Discovery Task.
Select Discovery Type page Name	Specify a name for the task. The name cannot include any of the following invalid characters: / \ * ? : " ' < > \| ` % ~
Enter LDAP Settings page Search pre-configured LDAP source	The Enter LDAP Settings page lets you identify the LDAP directory and contexts where you want to perform the discovery task. A preconfigured LDAP source is one that has already been defined as a user source in your Management Zone. If you want to select a new source, see Enter LDAP Settings page Specify an LDAP Source below. To use a preconfigured source: Select Search pre-configured LDAP source, then select the desired source. If you don’t want to search the entire LDAP directory, you can identify specific search contexts/groups. To do so: In the LDAP Search Contexts/Groups panel, click Add to display the Enter Context or Group Information dialog box. Fill in the following fields: Context/Group DN: Click Browse to locate and select the context/group you want to search. Recursive Search: Select this option to search all subcontexts/subgroups. Click OK to save the search context/group. If necessary, modify the LDAP search filter. By default, the filter searches for the computer objectClass or server objectClass. You can modify the filter using the standard filter syntax for your LDAP directory.
Enter LDAP Settings page Specify an LDAP Source	You can create a new connection to a LDAP directory in order to discover devices in the directory. If you want to use an already existing connection, see Enter LDAP Settings page Search pre-configured LDAP source above. To create a new connection to an LDAP directory: Select Specify an LDAP source, then fill in the following fields: LDAP Server: Specify the IP address or DNS hostname of the server where the LDAP directory resides. LDAP Port/Use SSL: Defaults to the standard SSL port (636) or non-SSL port (389) depending on whether the Use SSL option is enabled or disabled. If your LDAP server is listening on a different port, select that port number. Root Context: Establishes the entry point in the directory; nothing located above the entry point is available for searching. Specifying a root context is optional. If you don’t specify a root context, the directory’s root container becomes the entry point. Save Credentials to Datastore: Unless you save the credentials (defined in the Credentials list), they are stored only in memory. Saved credentials are encrypted in the database for increased security.Credentials are cleared from memory when the ZENworks Server is restarted. If you want to permanently retain the credentials, you should save the credentials. Credentials: Click Add to enter a username and password that provides read-only access to the directory. The user can have more than read-only access, but read-only access is all that is required and recommended. For Novell® eDirectory™ access, use standard LDAP notation. For example: cn=admin_read_only,ou=users,o=mycompany For Microsoft^* Active Directory, use standard domain notation. For example: AdminReadOnly@mycompany.com If you don’t want to search the entire LDAP directory, you can identify specific search contexts/groups. To do so: In the LDAP Search Contexts/Groups panel, click Add to display the Enter Context or Group Information dialog box. Fill in the following fields: Context/Group DN: Click Browse to locate and select the context/group you want to search. Recursive Search: Select this option to search all subcontexts/subgroups. Click OK to save the search context/group. If necessary, modify the LDAP search filter. By default, the filter searches for the computer objectClass or server objectClass.
Set the Discovery Schedule page	Choose whether you want the task to run as soon as it is created (the Now option) or if you want to schedule the task to run at a future date and time. If you select Scheduled, choose one of the following schedules: No Schedule: Indicates that no schedule has been set. The task does not run until a schedule is set or it is manually launched. This is useful if you want to create the task and come back to it later to establish the schedule or run it manually. Date Specific: Specifies one or more dates on which to run the task. Recurring: Identifies specific days each week, month, or on a fixed interval on which to run the task. Click the Help button for more detailed information about the schedules.
Select Primary Server page	Select the ZENworks Server that you want to perform the deployment task.

Where to Find More Information

For more information about configuration settings, see the ZENworks 10 Configuration Management Discovery and Deployment Reference.