Preparing for autodiscovery

Autodiscovery can be used to discover SNMPv1 or v2c systems in IPv4 networks. Autodiscovery requires discovery filters. For systems that match a discovery filter and are added to the modeled topology, they too are probed for IP addresses of their neighbors. The autodiscovery cycle continues until no more new IP addresses match the discovery filters. The discovery filters, which are configurable, ensure that the IP Manager sweeps only the networks that the customer systems are configured to access. Preparing for autodiscovery consists of the following tasks as listed in Tasks to prepare for autodiscovery:

Table 1. Tasks to prepare for autodiscovery

Tasks	Type	Purpose
Create seed file to seed the topology or Use Add Agent command	Mandatory	Autodiscovery uses the IP addresses and topology that are gathered from seed systems to discover all of the systems in the managed network. The IP addresses or system names of the seed systems are specified in a seed file or in Add Agent commands.	“How to create a seed file” on page 96
Create discovery filters	Mandatory	For autodiscovery, discovery filters determine which systems are discovered and added to the modeled topology. You must create at least one discovery filter for autodiscovery.	“Starting discovery” on page 87 “How to create a discovery filter” on page 89 “How to delete a discovery filter” on page 89
Specify autodiscovery safeguards	Optional	To ensure that autodiscovery does not automatically add to the modeled topology to those systems that you do not intend to manage, use one or both of the following safeguards:	“If you use cron or sm_sched or some other scheduler utility to schedule pending discoveries, set the Interval field for pending discovery to 99 days in the Domain Manager Administration Console.” on page 87 “Setting a current system limit for the topology” on page 90
Select autodiscovery data source	Optional	The Name Resolution, IP Network, and Neighbor probes contact the autodiscovery data sources to gather the topology and IP address table (ipAddrTable) MIBs of the seed systems to determine what other systems are known to the seed systems.	“Procedure to select autodiscovery data sources” on page 91
Enable autodiscovery	Mandatory		“Enable autodiscovery” on page 91

In the discussions, you will see several references to the Pending Devices list, Discovery Progress window, pending discovery, and full discovery for the IP Manager.

Chapter 3, Discovery, in the VMware Smart Assurance IP Manager Concepts Guide provides information about the Pending Devices list that appears in the Discovery Progress window, and “Scheduling automatic discovery” on page 85 provides information about pending discovery and full discovery.