Network Discovery Tools

Layer 2/3 Discovery, Mapping, Inventory and IT Asset Reporting

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How to use discovery scan

Discover, Map and Monitor Your Network Devices in Minutes
with the Network Discovery Tool by WhatsUp Gold

Discover everything connected to your network from devices, servers, deployed software, Windows, wireless and virtual infrastructures and more. The WhatsUp Gold's Network Discovery Tool features powerful Layer 2/3 discovery which can be initiated from an IP Range Scan or SNMP Smart Scan of a core router’s Bridge Table to generate a detailed map of your network from top to bottom - so you can focus on keeping it running securely and at peak performance.

Map, inventory, and visualize your network topology and interdependencies

Document and track all your IT assets with enhanced inventory discovery

Troubleshoot connectivity issues with Layer 2 Trace and IP/ Mac Finder tools

The picture presents a dashboard view of a list with Discovered Devices by the Progress WhatsUp Gold Network Discovery Software List of discovered devices

Discover Devices On Your Network

The WhatsUp Gold's Network Discovery Software uses a number of innovative Layer 2/3 discovery technologies - including ARP, SNMP, SSH, Virtual Infrastructure Management, IP addressing, ICMP and LLDP in combination with vendor-proprietary mechanisms - to discover everything connected to your network and build a complete and accurate picture of network devices and their port-to-port connectivity.. Full or partial discoveries can be scheduled to run automatically or run on-demand.

The picture presents an example dashboard with Network Map created by the WhatsUp Gold's Network Discovery Tool Example of a WhatsUp Gold Network Map

Visualize with Network Maps

The WhatsUp Gold Network Discovery Tool auto-generates integrated Layer 2 and 3 network maps that give you full visibility into physical, logical, and virtual connectivity, including IP and VLAN-specific information. It dynamically updates its maps as changes occur in the network. Maps are easy to customize and manipulate so you can view your network the way you want. Learn more about network maps

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Assign Device Roles and Dependencies

At the completion of the discovery process, WhatsUp Gold automatically assigns devices roles that specify what data to collect and remedial actions that are enabled. You can easily modify default device roles and sub-roles or create new ones with the Device Role Editor. The automated network discovery process also identifies dependencies that are marked on the map as directional arrows. With a couple of mouse clicks, dependency data can be used to suppress unnecessary alerts saving valuable troubleshooting time by minimizing false alerts.

The picture presents a dashboard from where you can maintain an accurate network inventory with the Network Discovery Tool of Progress WhatsUp Gold WhatsUp Gold Asset Inventory List

Maintain an Accurate Network Inventory

WhatsUp Gold provides comprehensive network inventory and configuration information – supporting the reporting/ documentation needs of your internal business process (such as ITIL) and regulatory requirements like PCI DSS, SOX, FISMA and HIPAA. Since you can easily export this information in CSV or Excel formats, your entire team will know exactly what resources are on your network, where they are and how they are connected at all times – even when your network grows, your office moves or datacenter resources get consolidated.

The picture presents that you can Manage Your Network Assets with the help of the Network Discovery Software by Progress WhatsUp Gold WhatsUp Gold Installed Software Inventory

Manage Your Network Assets

Gather, filter and export a wide variety of inventory and configuration information across networking devices and systems.

  • Networking Devices Asset Information: Manufacturer/Model, Serial Number, Hardware/Software/ Firmware Versions, Chassis/Module Inventory, Power Supplies/Fans
  • Configuration Information: Interfaces, Bridge Ports, Switch Ports, VLANs
  • Systems Inventory: All available system component details (CPU, RAM, disks, etc.), OS version & patch information, any installed software packages, support for automatic update of warranty information (Dell and HP) based on integration with their support websites

If You Can’t Find It, You Can’t Fix It

Even if you think you know where the network issue is, diagnosing it is likely going to depend upon what’s connected to it. A complete automated network discovery not only gives you an understanding of what’s connected to your network, it puts it all in context. Hard-to-diagnose problems like wireless APs that keep dropping signal suddenly become simple fixes when it’s clear that too many users are trying to connect at once.

Who’s Connected? Should They Be?

Security should be one of the top concerns of any IT team and that means knowing what’s accessing your network and why. If you don’t know what’s connected to your network you aren’t going to be able to identify insecure devices like rogue wireless access points that someone has shoved under their desk. You need to know where network access can be obtained and how – and you can’t do that without discovering what’s connected at all times.

WhatsUp Gold Automated Network Discovery Tools And Protocols

Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)

WhatsUp Gold's discovery leverages ARP tables from devices to determine the MAC address vendor. This is visible within WhatsUp Gold's web interface under the 'Brand' column. This can be especially useful in situations where you may not have the proper credentials to a device – knowing the brand can simplify your investigation into what that device is.

Secure Shell (SSH) / Telnet

WhatsUp Gold's discovery can test SSH and/or Telnet credentials against devices specified in your discovery scan. Devices that accept the credential will in turn have that credential automatically applied when you begin monitoring a device. WhatsUp Gold can use SSH or Telnet credentials for specific custom monitors – such as the SSH active monitor.

Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP)

ICMP is another protocol used to discover networks and is widely used by the WhatsUp Gold discovery process. The discovery process uses ICMP to determine if a device is on the other end of any given IP address. If a device responds to ICMP, the discovery will automatically use credentials specified for your discovery scan to attempt to discover additional details about the device.

Domain Name System (DNS), NetBIOS

WhatsUp Gold leverages DNS and NetBIOS during discovery for IP address to name resolutions. These lookups allow the discovery to store the proper IP address/hostname information for every IP address on each system it discovers.

SMI-S

WhatsUp Gold leverages SMI-S when scanning specific storage environments. The current list of WhatsUp Gold's SMI-S supported storage environments are as follows: NetApp FAS series, Dell EMC Unity, and Dell Compellent

Hypervisors

WhatsUp Gold's discovery process can discover and monitor in-depth information from virtual environments. This includes Hyper-V or VMware hypervisors, as well as VMware vCenter. Using either VMware's vSphere API or Microsoft's Hyper-V host counters WhatsUp Gold can discover and monitor your entire virtual environment with ease.

SNMP

WhatsUp Gold's discovery process uses UDP to identify SNMP-enabled devices in the network. Many out-of-the-box monitors from WhatsUp Gold require SNMP access. To ensure you're getting the full value out of WhatsUp Gold, you want to ensure that every network device (router, switch, firewall, etc.) as well as any *nix systems (Unix, Linux, AIX, Solaris, etc.) have SNMP enabled and configured.

TCP/IP

TCP/IP is a major technology used in a network discovery tool since almost all network devices from routers, printers, managed switches, workstations and servers are assigned with IP addresses. Using these addresses in combination with SNMP, WhatsUp Gold can map the network interconnections, as well as gather detailed information about the devices.

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)

Having a properly configured Windows credential within WhatsUp Gold is critical! WhatsUp Gold's discovery leverages the WMI protocol to automatically identify a system as a Windows system – which in turn applies the proper monitoring and enables the collection various data points from WMI.

HTTP/HTTPS

WhatsUp Gold's discovery leverages HTTP and HTTPS for discovery when using any of the cloud provider discovery scan options. This includes Cisco Meraki, Microsoft Azure, and Amazon AWS. Each different cloud provider has different ways to configure an API credential for use with WhatsUp Gold.

Wireless Controllers

WhatsUp Gold's discovery process can interrogate various vendors' wireless controllers. This enables WhatsUp Gold to easily discover and monitor your entire wireless environment, down to the client level if necessary.

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Learn more about device discovery.

What is network discovery?

Network discovery is the process of discovering and mapping devices on your network. Discovering network devices is the first step in mapping and monitoring your networked infrastructure. Keeping an up-to-date network inventory of hardware and software assets, physical and virtual resources, deployed patches and topology maps is only possible via automatic Layer 2/3 discovery tools.

How does it work?

Device discovery tools simplify the discovery process by using a variety of discovery protocols to discover and collect information about:

  • Physical assets such as routers, switches and servers
  • Software assets such as applications and operating systems
  • Virtual devices and networks
  • How everything is connected

Asset Inventory

WhatsUp Gold comes with the capability to create a complete asset inventory.

Learn More about Asset Inventory

Layer 2/3 Discovery

A device discovery tool should include both Layer 3 (devices) and Layer 2 discovery (port-to-port connectivity).

Learn More about Layer 2/3 Discovery

Link Layer Discovery

Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) is a vendor-neutral Layer 2 protocol for heterogeneous networks.

Learn More about Link Layer Discovery

Topology Discovery

Topology discovery is the process of discovering and mapping network devices and links.

Learn More about Topology Discovery