Users Guide

38 Configuring IT Assistant to Monitor Your Systems
Discovery in Jane’s Small-to-Medium Size Business
Jane wants to discover all of the systems on her network. Discovery is a process whereby IT Assistant
identifies each system and records identifying information for that system in the IT Assistant database.
As we mentioned previously, Jane is the sole system administrator of a mixed network of systems
that includes:
• 50 Dell PowerEdge™ systems
• 200 Dell OptiPlex™ desktops
• 10 Dell PowerConnect switches
Jane is going to use IT Assistant to monitor global status for her systems, as well as to receive notification
when a PowerEdge system or a PowerConnect switch on her network is in the warning or critical state.
Jane does not plan to use IT Assistant to notify her when one of her desktop systems generates an alert.
Determining Requirements for a Mixed Server-Client System
Before using IT Assistant to configure discovery, Jane needs to make some basic decisions about her
network. Specifically, she must decide the:
• Systems management protocols needed to manage the systems and devices on her network
• Community names and trap destinations for systems to be managed by SNMP
• SNMP requirements for PowerConnect switches
• CIM credentials for authentication
• Host names, IP addresses, or IP subnet ranges of systems she wants to monitor
Systems Management Protocols Needed for Jane’s Network
In planning to configure discovery, Jane has a mixture of system types (server, client, and switches). The
systems management protocols that Jane requires to manage these networked systems and devices are:
• SNMP for her PowerEdge systems and PowerConnect switches
• CIM for her systems running Windows, assuming that Jane has newer, CIM-compatible client
instrumentation installed on her client systems
For a review of protocol requirements, see "Configuring Protocols to Send Information to IT Assistant."
Community Names and Trap Destinations
Jane’s requirements for configuring Get and Set community names and trap destinations for SNMP on
her managed systems are not affected by the size of her business. For SNMP configuration requirements
associated with servers, see "Configuring Protocols to Send Information to IT Assistant."