Network Discovery Guide

Introduction

SysAid offers you a full asset management solution for your IT department. You can keep track of computers, printers, switches, routers, and anything else you desire. One of the primary advantages of SysAid Asset Management is that it gives you several methods to discover all of your network devices. That way, you know exactly what exists on your network at any one time, and can keep a constant (perpetual) inventory of devices on hand. All assets that you discover appear in the Asset Management section of your SysAid.

SysAid offers several different ways to discover your network:

Discovering computers

SysAid allows you to discover the computers on your network by running a WMI scan or by installing the SysAid Agent. Both will import all of your computers into SysAid, and the SysAid Agent provides complete hardware and software information as well.

Discovering SNMP devices

SysAid allows you to scan your network and find all of your SNMP capable devices. In conjunction with WMI scanning/the Agent, this allows you to get a complete picture of your network.

Discovering non-network devices

Their may be some devices that you want to track in SysAid that are not directly connected to your network. You can easily import these devices as well, either manually, or by importing from a .csv file.

Discovering remote networks

You may have networks that are not directly connected to your SysAid Server, or that are segmented by firewalls. For situations such as these, SysAid allows you to deploy the Remote Discovery Service (RDS), so that you can easily discover these networks as well. 

Once you've discovered your network using the different discovery methods SysAid offers you, you can begin to take advantage of the other components of SysAid Asset Management.

An overview of what SysAid Asset Management offers can be found in the Getting Started Guide. An in-depth explanation of all SysAid Asset Management capabilities can be found here.

Credentials Management

SysAid Credentials Management allows you to store admin credentials for all of the domains you need to access. The relevant credentials are automatically applied when you deploy the SysAid agent via the RDS. When required for authentication, SysAid automatically transfers the information to the RDS in an encrypted format to ensure the security of your sensitive information.

The rest of this guide explains the different ways that you can discover your network using SysAid.

WMI scanning

SysAid allows you to import all of your Windows-based computers by performing a WMI scan. This does not require the installation of the Agent, and will return a full list of computers and their hardware. Furthermore, once you've imported an asset using WMI, you can easily deploy the SysAid Agent to receive the full benefits of SysAid Asset Management, such as remote control, use of the F11 Hotkey, monitoring, software inventories, and more. For further details about the SysAid Agent, please read the full SysAid Agent Deployment Guide.

The first time you launch SysAid, the Network Discovery Wizard will launch automatically in a new window. The Network Discovery Wizard allows you to perform a WMI scan in three easy steps. If you don't see this wizard, please be sure to allow popups from your SysAid Server's URL. Alternatively, you can perform a WMI scan at any time by going to Settings > Network Discovery > WMI Scan.

• For instructions for using the Network Discovery Wizard, please go here.
• For instructions for manually running a WMI scan from Settings > Network Discovery > WMI Scan, please go here.

The SysAid agent

The SysAid agent is a client-side application that resides on each of your computers and runs quietly in the background (you will not notice any performance difference after it's been installed). Once deployed, the SysAid agent has many benefits:

• Enable the SysAid Hotkey for submitting service records with screen captures or videos
• Automatically import all of your computers into SysAid, including complete hardware and software profiles
• Automatically update your computers' profiles if any hardware or software changes are detected
• Perform a remote control session to a computer with the agent installed
• Enable monitoring of your computers (with the SysAid Monitoring module)
• And more!

For more information about the Agent's capabilities, and for full deployment options and instructions, please see our complete SysAid Agent Deployment Guide.

SNMP scanning

SysAid supports SNMP scanning for automatic inventory management of SNMP devices. Benefits of importing your SNMP devices into SysAid include:

• Automatically updated SNMP asset data
• Ability to write to SNMP devices
• Ability to receive SNMP traps (with the SysAid Monitoring module)

To perform an SNMP scan, go to Settings > Network Discovery > SNMP Scan. Here, you can scan your network by IP range to locate all of your SNMP-enabled devices. You can also schedule regular scans, to ensure that your SNMP asset profiles in SysAid are always up-to-date. For full instructions for performing an SNMP scan, go here.
Note : If you need to perform an SNMP scan at a remote location that does not have direct access to the SysAid Server, you can use the Remote Discovery Service.

Importing non-computer, non-SNMP assets

You undoubtedly have many assets you will want to track in SysAid which are neither computers nor SNMP capable devices. There are two ways you can import these assets into SysAid:

1. Manually, one by one
2. From a .csv file (comma delimited file)

Manually create assets in SysAid

1. Go to Asset Management > Asset List.
2. Click .
3. Fill out the new asset form with your asset's details.
4. Click OK/Apply to save your new asset.

For a full description of all fields available on the asset form, go here.

Importing assets from a .csv file (Excel)

If you have been managing assets in either an Excel spreadsheet or in any database that allows you to export to Excel/.csv, then it is very easy for you to import all of your asset data into SysAid.

Go to Settings > Asset Management > Import Assets. On this page, you are able to import as many assets as you like from a .csv file that contains your asset data. Each row of the .csv file will create a new asset entry. Click here for full instructions for importing assets into SysAid from a .csv file. 

SysAid Remote Discovery Service

When performing any of the network discovery scans listed under Settings > Network Discovery, you can choose to perform the scan from either the SysAid Server or the Remote Discovery Service. The Remote Discovery Service can be installed onto any Windows computer, either inside your network or outside, and allows you to easily perform network discovery on an area of your network not accessible to the SysAid Server.

To download the Remote Discovery Service and for installation instructions, please go here. Once the Remote Discovery Service is installed and contacts the SysAid Server, you will be able to use it for any of your network discovery scans (described above).