Discovery App

The Discovery application creates an inventory of the devices on your networks along with their attributes: device types, names, addresses, interfaces, VLANs, resources, and other connected or associated devices. The app allows you to identify and analyze network devices and acts as a jumping-off point for further analysis using other apps, such as Path Analysis, and connection tests.

Devices are discovered in the local broadcast domains where the LR 10G is physically connected. By default, discovery processes run out of both test and management ports.

NOTE: AllyCare is required to use this application. Your LR 10G must be claimed. Please visit:
NetAlly.com/AllyCare Support and Features.

Discovery Topics

This chapter describes how the Discovery process and app screens work, shows examples of Discovery data, and details the Discovery settings.

See the Introduction below or skip to one of the following topics:

Main Discovery List Screen

Discovery Details Screens

Device Types

Device Names and Authorization

Discovery Settings

Problem Settings

TCP Port Scan Settings

Introduction to Discovery

Discovery uses Ethernet and fiber to find, classify, and display the details of network components. Information provided by Discovery can include the following:

  • IP, BSSID, and MAC addresses
  • Device Names
  • Device Connectivity
  • SNMP Data
  • Network Problems
  • Interface Details and Statistics

Devices are discovered via ARP and Ping sweeps; SNMP, DNS, mDNS, and netBIOS queries; and passive traffic monitoring. Discovery classifies each device as it is found. Up to 2,000 devices can be reported.

The Discovery app also detects Problems with discovered devices, including Warning and Failure conditions.

The LR 10G's discovery process begins when the unit is powered on. Once a network connection (test or management) is established, the active discovery process begins.

The discovery progress notification icon indicates the progress of active discovery.

NOTE: If you upload or save Discovery results before discovery is 100% complete, data may be missing from your results.

This icon indicates that no links are currently available for active discovery, either because none of the ports enabled for discovery are connected or because AutoTest is running.

The Discovery app consistently monitors network traffic, but the active discovery process reruns every 90 minutes by default. You can select a different Refresh Interval in the Discovery Settings.