Discovering Your Enterprise › Discovering Your Network Devices on Demand Using Classic Discovery › How Names of Discovered Devices are Determined

How Names of Discovered Devices are Determined

You can decide where Discovery gets device names in your network. The names of devices discovered are determined by the parameter used on the dscvrbe command, or the options you set when using the Management Command Center Advanced Discovery tool or the Classic Discovery GUI. You can use the DNS name, the IP address, or the sysName to name your devices.

Note: If you configure Discovery to remove the DNS suffix, it is only removed in the label of the object, not in the object name property. The object name property is an important key for cross-product reference in the MDB.

To use the DNS name, set one of the following options:

• On the dscvrbe command, use the -F parameter, which means to use the DNS name, if it exists, from the domain name server/host file as the object's name.
• On the Options page in the Advanced Discovery tool in the Management Command Center or the Discovery page in the Classic Discovery GUI, select the Use Domain Name Server/Host File option.

To use the IP address, set one of the following options:

• On the dscvrbe command, use the -J parameter, which means to use the Internet Protocol (IP) address as the object's name instead of the MIB-II SYSNAME.
• On the Options page in the Advanced Discovery tool in the Management Command Center or the Discovery page in Classic Discovery GUI, select the Use IP Address Instead of sysName option.

If no parameter or option is set, the sysName (from SNMP) is used. If the sysName is not available, the IP address is used as the object's name.

The names of devices discovered are obtained using the Use Domain Name Server/Host File option, which is enabled by default. This option lets Discovery call the socket function gethostbyaddr() to resolve the device name. On Windows, this function checks the local host file and then queries the DNS server, WINS, NetBIOS, and so on (depending on Windows network properties).

If the device's IP address has a DNS name, the DNS name becomes the object's name. If the device's IP address does not have a DNS name, if the Use Domain Name Server/Host File option is disabled, or if the -J flag specifies IP, then the IP address is used to name the object. Otherwise, Discovery checks to see if the device is SNMP agent‑enabled. If the device is SNMP agent‑enabled, the MIB‑II SYSNAME value is used for the object's name. If the device is not SNMP agent‑enabled, the IP address is used for the object's name.

Note: If you are combining Classic and Continuous Discovery, see How You Can Combine Running Classic and Continuous Discovery.