Network Discovery for Managing Networked Devices

Topic

This article describes how to use the Network Discovery utility to detect and manage networked devices in your organization.

Environment

NinjaOne Network Management System (NMS)

Description

This utility replaces the legacy NMS download and installer, allowing you to perform network discovery directly from the NinjaOne console.

Refer to our NinjaOne NMS System Requirements article before installing the NMS agent.

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Index

• NMS Agent Architecture
• Running and Saving Network Discovery
• Adding Discovered Devices to your Organization
• Assigning Device Roles to Discovered Devices

NMS Agent Architecture

Refer to Figure 1 below for an overview of the NinjaOne NMS architecture, and note the following points:

• To use NinjaOne's network management suite, deploy the NinjaOne NMS agent separately for every customer whose SNMP-capable devices you want to monitor.
• The NMS agent is a separate installation from the NinjaOne monitoring agent, but you can install both agents in parallel. The NMS agent performs network discovery (manually) and will add the associated devices to the system.

The data is illustrated in the following diagram:

Configuring Network Discovery

1. In the NinjaOne console, click the + icon, then select Add device.
2. Click Network Discovery.

3. The Network Discovery window will open, allowing you to configure the network and location parameters for discoverable devices.

3. In the Network Discovery window, configure the following settings:

4. In the Credentials (optional) section, enter any credentials used by the devices you are discovering. Refer to the Credential Settings section of this article for more information.

Credential Settings

You can use the Credentials section of the Network Discovery window to add optional credentials, enabling a more granular device discovery search. If your credential is not listed, perform the following steps:

1. In the Network Discovery window, click Create credential. The New Credential window will open. Select a credential type from the list (SNMP v1, SNMP v2, SNMP v3, Telnet, or SSH).
2. The New Credential window displays the appropriate configuration fields for the selected credential type. Refer to the Credential Types table in this article for more information.

If you are not entering credentials, continue to the Running and Saving Network Discovery section of this article.

SNMP Considerations

• NinjaOne uses SNMP to discover, profile, and monitor your devices.
• An SNMP community uses a string to access a router's network device and is available only with the SNMPv1 and SNMPv2c protocols.
• SNMPv3 requires username/password authentication and an encryption key.
• Telnet and SSH credentials perform two functions:
  • Backing up configurations of specifically supported NMS devices. This process uses Enabled (Privileged) Mode.
  • Establishing remote terminal connections from within the NMS device.
• NinjaOne will use Windows credentials in future releases to gather additional details and install the NinjaOne Windows Agent.

Credential Types

Refer to this table for an explanation of the settings for each credential type.

When you have completed your entries, click Add. Your credentials are now available from the Credential drop-down menus.

Additional Credential Options

As an option, you can select an additional credential:

• In the second SNMP drop-down menu: NinjaOne will also try this credential in addition to the first one selected.
• In the Telnet/SSH drop-down menu: NinjaOne will use Telnet/SSH credentials when backing up the configuration.

Running and Saving Network Discovery

After configuring Network Discovery, you can click Run discovery to perform the discovery immediately, or click Save and close to save the network discovery job.

Running a Network Discovery Job

After you click Run discovery, NinjaOne will begin searching for eligible devices on your network. During the network discovery job, NinjaOne will create a new service that promotes the device to become the NMS delegate. The service is named Ninja NMS Manager Service, and the corresponding process name is nmsmanager.exe. If you close this window while the job is running, NinjaOne will display an alert.

• Click Close and continue to close the Network Discovery window and keep the job running.
• Click View job history to open the Job history tab. Refer to the Viewing Network Discovery Job History section of this article for more information.

Saving and Scheduling a Network Job

Saving network discovery jobs enables you to re-run specific job configurations as needed, or on a custom schedule.

1. Set up your network discovery job as described in the Configuring Network Discovery section of this article. When finished, click Save and close. The Save network discovery window will open.
2. Activate the Enable discovery job toggle, then use the drop-down menus to enter a job name and configure an optional job schedule. You can schedule network jobs to run on an hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

Network Discovery Job Schedule Settings

Enter the following settings when scheduling a network job. When finished, click Apply. The job will now appear on the Saved jobs tab.

Viewing Saved Network Discovery Jobs

The Saved jobs tab lets you view all jobs that you have saved after running.

1. In NinjaOne, navigate to Devices → Discovery and click the Saved jobs tab. This tab displays a list of saved jobs, which you can filter by data column.

Viewing Network Scan Details

Click a saved network job to open the Network scan details window. The window displays the following:

Editing Saved Jobs

1. Place your cursor over a job, then click the ellipsis (three dots) icon when it appears, and choose one of the following options from the drop-down menu:
   • Edit: Change the job's scheduling parameters.
   • Clone: Create a duplicate of the job.
   • Enable or Disable: Activate or deactivate a job.
   • Delete: Remove the job from the Saved jobs list.

Viewing Network Discovery Job History

The Job history tab shows all recent executions of each network discovery job.

In NinjaOne, navigate to Administration → Devices → Discovery and click the Job history tab. You'll see a table that lists all previously run network discovery jobs, which you can filter by data column.

Re-running Historical Network Jobs

You can re-run any job instance from the Job history tab.

1. In the Job history tab, place your cursor over a job, then click the ellipsis (three dots) menu when it appears and choose Run from the drop-down menu.

Saving Historical Network Jobs

You can add any job instance from the Job history tab to your Saved jobs list.

1. In the Job history tab, place your cursor over a job, then click the ellipsis (three dots) menu when it appears and choose Run from the drop-down menu.
2. The Save network discovery job window will open. Configure the following settings:

Viewing Job Instances From the Job History Tab

You can view details of specific job run dates and save previously run jobs to your Saved Jobs list for future reference.

Viewing Job History Details and Scan Results

Click a saved network job to open the Network scan details window. From the Job history tab, a window will open containing two tabs:

• General: This tab displays the same information as the Network scan details window when accessed from the Saved jobs page.
• Scan results: Clicking this tab displays the results of the network scan for each historical execution of the network job. The window displays a list of each historical job instance, with the following data columns:
  • IP address
  • DNS information
  • Ping time
  • Ports
  • Credentials used

Claiming Ownership of a Network Discovery Job

If the user who created the network discovery job has been deactivated, you can become the new owner of that job by opening the Network scan details window on either the Saved Jobs or Job history tab and clicking the Claim ownership button.

Applying Ping Conditions Through Advanced Settings

Ping conditions are optional, but they let you fine-tune how NinjaOne NMS checks device availability, tailoring the process to your specific network and devices. To apply ping conditions for network discovery:

1. Click Advanced settings.

2. If your device is not local (for example, on a VPN), we suggest increasing the ping timeout and TTL.

Advanced Settings Explained

Refer to this table for an explanation of each advanced setting.

For any device not previously used as a network probe, NinjaOne will create a new service that promotes the device to become the NMS delegate. The service is named Ninja NMS Manager Service, and the corresponding process name is nmsmanager.exe.

Adding Discovered Devices to Your Organization

After the Network Discovery job finishes, you can convert discovered devices to managed NMS devices.

1. In NinjaOne, navigate to Dashboard → (Your Organization) → Devices → Discovered.

2. The Discovered page will list all devices found during network discovery. Select the checkbox next to each device you wish to bring under NMS management, then click either of the two Add buttons:
   • Convert NMS device: Use this option for devices responding on the network that you wish to bring under NMS management.
   • Convert unmanaged device: Select this option for devices you need in inventory but don't need to manage in NinjaOne NMS.

Assigning Device Roles to Discovered Devices

Device roles determine which NinjaOne policy will govern the device. You must assign a role to each device if NinjaOne did not assess its role during discovery. Refer to NinjaOne Endpoint Management: Device Roles for more information.

1. In NinjaOne, navigate to Dashboard → (Your Organization) → Devices → Discovered, then click the device name.
2. In the device's dashboard, navigate to General → Settings → Device information → Edit.

In the Edit device information window, use the Device role drop-down menu to select a new role, then click Update.

Additional Resources

Refer to NinjaOne NMS: Device Dashboard Navigation and Management for more information on connecting to and managing your discovered devices.