5.3

Your initial discovery can take anywhere from one afternoon to a couple of days, depending on the size of
your network. You may not have a 100% success rate with the first discovery process you run because
some machines may not be available during that time (for example, laptops that are not currently on the
network). It may, therefore, take a few days to coordinate and resolve scenarios in order for you to
discover the machines in your enterprise.
NOTE It is not necessary to complete the discovery of every machine in your enterprise before you
proceed with licensing machines. If you choose to move forward and license a subset of your machines, be
sure to review these chapters when you discover additional machines at a later time.
All discovered Windows machines will be placed in the Administration | Machines Manager | Available
Windows Machines list, and all discovered UNIX/Linux machines will be placed in the Administration |
Machines Manager | Available UNIX Machines list.
NOTE A Discovered Machines Import Tool (DMIT) is available from VMware Customer Support to assist
you with the following process. This tool imports machines discovered by the Network Mapper (Nmap)
into the configuration database. To use the tool, contact VMware Customer Support; otherwise, use the
following process.
After the initial discovery, VMware recommends that you generally perform a discovery about once each
week to keep the list of available machines current. You can schedule these future discoveries during your
organization’s off-hours, if you prefer.
NOTE To schedule a VCM job for discovery, go to Administration | Job Manager | Scheduled and
follow the Wizard. Refer to the online Help for more information.
Use the following procedure to discover machines.
1. Click Administration | Machines Manager | Discovery Rules.
2. Click Add to create a Discovery Rule. The Discovery Rules wizard appears.
Getting Started with VCM
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