Essentials Computer and Device Discovery
Applies To: System Center Essentials 2010
During the configuration of System Center Essentials 2010 features in the Configure Essentials Wizard, you were prompted to select whether to automatically or manually discover and manage new computers and devices. If you selected to manually discover new computers and devices and want to change this setting to have Essentials 2010 discover them automatically (the recommended setting), you can change these settings in the Essentials console.
After completing the Configure Essentials Wizard, you have the option at the end of the wizard to start the Computer and Device Discovery Wizard. If you did not select this option and opted to perform a manual discovery during the Configure Essentials Wizard, you can run the Computer and Device Discovery Wizard from the Essentials console. Use this wizard to discover all computers and network devices in your environment that can be managed by Essentials 2010.
Note
Essentials 2010 discovers and manages computers and devices located in a branch office. Ensure that the Server Message Block (SMB) and remote access ports are open to allow the management server to deploy agents to those computers and devices. In addition, remote access ports, described in Firewall Exceptions for System Center Essentials 2010, must be open to enable the Essentials 2010 agents on managed computers in the branch office to communicate with the Essentials 2010 server. For information about how to monitor, update, and distribute software by using BranchCache, see “branch office” in the System Center Essentials 2010 Operations Guide (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=180739).
Important
If you notice that an agent’s status is displayed as Unknown and inventory values are not displayed, you might have computers in your environment that were deployed with an image that contain a duplicate SusClientID value in the registry. For more information about this issue and for instructions that might help you resolve the issue, see article 903262 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=188503).
To configure Essentials 2010 to automatically discover new computers and network devices
Open the Essentials console, and then click Administration.
In the Administration Overview pane under Computers and Devices, click Computer Discovery runs manually.
In the Computer Discovery dialog box, select Yes to automatically discover and manage computers.
Select to discover and manage all computers in your domain, or select computers in a specified Active Directory organizational unit (OU). If you select a specific Active Directory OU, click Add, click the organizational unit you want to add, and then click OK.
Select the number of hours between discoveries and the start time for Essentials to begin discovery, click Apply, and then click OK to save your changes.
To discover computers and network devices manually
Open the Essentials console, and then click Computers.
In the Computers Overview pane under Tasks, click Add New Computers and Devices.
When the Computer and Device Management Wizard opens, select the type of devices to discover and manage, and then click Next.
Computers running Windows—Search for computers that are running Windows and install agents on the computers that you want to manage.
Select either Automatic or Advanced discovery, and then click Next.
If you select Advanced discovery, specify whether to search for servers, clients, or both, click Next, select objects from Active Directory to scan or manually browse or type the computer names to discover, and then click Next to continue.
Use the local Management Server Action Account or enter the user name, password and domain of a user who has sufficient user rights to scan and install agents on the computers, and then click Discover.
Network devices—Specify an IP range to discover network devices and monitor them by using Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).
- Specify a starting and ending IP address, type an SNMP community string in the box that must be used as a password to discover network devices, select the SNMP version, configure the discovery time-out interval, and then click Discover.
A progress bar is displayed when Essentials looks for computers matching your criteria. When the Discovery Results appear, select the computers and devices you want to manage, and then click Next.
Review the Summary page, and then click Finish to close the wizard and deploy the agents to the selected computers.
An Agent Management Task Status dialog box opens when Essentials deploys the agents. Closing this window does not interrupt agent installation on discovered computers and devices. To check the status of this task after this dialog box has been closed, click the Monitoring button in the Essentials console, and then click Task Status.