PRTG Manual: Running a Discovery
When you click the Discover Network icon on the Home toolbar, the Discovery Form is displayed. The Discovery Form lets you run a manual discovery of your network. Specifically, the form lets you do the following:
1.Select the discovery settings to be used during the discovery
2.Start and stop the discovery
3.Monitor discovery progress
4.Open or merge the result of the discovery
The Discovery Settings combo box lets you select the discovery settings to be used during the discovery. The drop-down list displays the names of all currently-defined discovery settings. By default, the most recently used discovery settings are selected. You may select any of the discovery settings in the list. If you would like to modify settings, or even define some new discovery settings, click the adjacent Settings button, which will display the Discovery Settings Form.
Starting and Stopping the Discovery
Click the Start button to start the discovery.
If you want to stop the discovery before it completes, click the Stop button. After clicking the Stop button, it might take several seconds for the discovery to terminate. Once the discovery has terminated, the partial discovery results can be viewed (i.e., opened or merged).
If you want to stop the discovery and discard the discovery results, click the Cancel button. This will immediately close the Discovery Form.
While a discovery is running, the Discovery Status area displays the status of the discovery. Specifically, the following information is displayed:
1.The name of the most recently discovered device
2.How long the discovery has been running
3.The discovery phase that is currently in progress (IP Discovery, Resolving Host Names, Detailed Discovery, Processing Connectivity, or Complete)
4.Progress bar indicating percentage complete
5.The total number of devices discovered so far
6.The number of devices found so far in several specific device categories (routers, switches, etc.)
In order to get specific details on what the discovery is currently working on, you can click the Tasks button. Clicking this button will display the Discovery Tasks form. This form shows what devices are currently being discovered, what information is being collected from those devices, and why the discovery has not yet completed. It also allows discovery tasks to be individually canceled, which can be useful if discovery gets stuck on a badly-behaving device.
Opening and Merging Discovery Results
When the discovery is complete, you can view the results by clicking either the Open button or the Merge button. Clicking Open will unload the discovery result that is already open in UVexplorer, and then open the new discovery result. Clicking Merge will combine the new discovery result with the discovery result that is already open in UVexplorer. It is called a ‘merge’ because the devices in the two discovery results are merged to create a single discovery result. If you click Cancel, the new discovery result will be discarded, and the currently-open discovery result will be unaffected.
