Within Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007, after you have installed your central Configuration Manager 2007 site, you can begin adding clients and resources to the site. These are added by using one of the available Configuration Manager discovery methods, which searches your network to find resources that you can use with Configuration Manager. You must use at least one discovery method before you can use most Configuration Manager functionality. In short, you must discover computers on your network before you can install the Configuration Manager client software that allows you to deliver such items as packages and updates to those clients.

Heartbeat Discovery

The Configuration Manager 2007 Heartbeat Discovery method is the only configurable discovery method that is automatically enabled when Configuration Manager is installed. This is because Heartbeat Discovery is designed to keep data discovery records (DDRs) up to date in the Configuration Manager database.

This discovery method is very important to the continued maintenance of your site database, because it ensures that resource records are current and are not accidentally aged out of the Configuration Manager database.

Network Discovery

The Configuration Manager 2007 Network Discovery method searches for network resources by polling your network for any IP addressable resources. This means you can discover not only computers, but also printers, routers, bridges, and so on. By default, only the subnet and local domain on which your site server resides is searched, but you can discover other subnets and domains throughout your enterprise network by using Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), or other mechanisms.

Network Discovery can provide an extensive list of attributes as part of the discovery record, including:

  • NetBIOS name

  • IP addresses

  • Resource domain

  • System roles

  • SNMP community name

  • Media Access Control (MAC) addresses

Active Directory User Discovery

The Configuration Manager 2007 Active Directory User Discovery method searches for computer user resources by polling the closest Active Directory domain controller. The Active Directory domain can be in mixed mode or in native mode.

The user attributes that are returned by Active Directory User Discovery can be configured by the administrator, but by default they include the following information about the user account:

  • User name

  • Domain Name System (DNS) host name

  • Object class

  • Active Directory domain

  • Active Directory container name

Active Directory System Group Discovery

The Configuration Manager 2007 Active Directory System Group Discovery method searches for security groups by polling the closest Active Directory domain controller. The Active Directory domain can be in mixed mode or in native mode.

Active Directory Security Group Discovery

The Configuration Manager 2007 Active Directory Security Group Discovery method searches for security groups by polling the closest Active Directory domain controller. The Active Directory domain can be in mixed mode or in native mode.

Active Directory System Discovery

The Configuration Manager 2007 Active Directory System Discovery method searches for system resources by polling the closest Active Directory domain controller. The Active Directory domain can be in mixed mode or in native mode.

The system attributes that are returned by Active Directory System Discovery include the following information about the system:

  • Computer name

  • Operating system

  • Object class

  • DNS Host name

  • Domain

See Also

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