Configuring initial discovery settings

Use this information to set up your initial discovery.

About this task

Understanding scope settings
You can specify the boundaries of the network to discover by creating scopes that correspond to the IP addresses and subnets that you want to manage.
Setting a single IP address scope zone
Set a single IP address scope zone when one of your managed regions is made up of a single IP address only; for example, 10.30.1.20/32.
Setting a subnet scope zone
Set a subnet scope zone when one of your managed regions is made up of a complete subnet.
Fine tuning a subnet scope zone using prediscovery filters
You can also restrict discovery to more complex IP address ranges. For example, you can configure your managed regions to include the first five addresses only in a set of subnets 10.30.*.1-5. The prediscovery filter is a mechanism that allows you to fine tune your discovery scope.
Enabling the Ping finder and the feedback mechanism
You can discover neighboring connected devices using the feedback mechanism. Feedback enables the discovery process to learn about the existence of devices as a result of querying other devices. In order for feedback to work, the Ping finder must be enabled.
Configuring device and subnet access using SNMP community strings
To enable discovery agents to access your network devices to retrieve SNMP data, you must specify SNMP community strings for the subnets and IP addresses in your network.
Ensuring all network technologies are covered
Network Manager discovery agents retrieve information from devices in your network. Dedicated agents such as CiscoFrameRelay retrieve specific network technology data. Check the list of full discovery agents to ensure that all the technologies in your network are covered.
Configuring initial discovery settings: Summary
While working through this information, you configured initial discovery settings. You will use these settings to run a discovery.

Parent topic: Getting started with discovery

Next topic: Launch the discovery and monitor discovery progress