In order to effectively manage a network the program must be able to discover and identify all of its devices. For this task the ANASIL package contains a specialized discovery agent. Upon request from the console this agent scans its subnetwork.

In order to make this possible within each subnetwork at least one workstation should have an agent of this type installed.

In normal circumstances this agent remains passive and does not cause unnecessary burden to the workstation. It becomes active only when a scan network command is received from the console. This - depending on the size of the network and the chosen options - may take from 2 to 10 minutes.

The scanning of a network consists of discovering of the IP addresses of all active devices within the network (the discovery process is based on the combination of the ARP and ICMP protocols. With the help of the ARP even devices with active firewalls that do not respond to the ICMP requests are discovered.) Next, found computers are queried with the help of a few protocols and network services and identified. The set of these protocols may be defined by the administrator console.

Used protocols include:

• SNMP protocol

• NetBIOS (NetBT) protocol

• DNS protocol

• WMI service after the DCOM protocol

Windows Networking services

This set of protocols enables a relative precise identification of workstations, their functions within the network, their operating systems and other properties.

A discovery agent is also responsible for the creation of an inventory hardware list within the network. By using an administrator account with high privileges an agent is able to remotely query the WMI interfaces of computers within its reach and receive detailed information related to components installed on those computers. The resulting inventory list may be exported from ANASIL to the CSV format, which then can be opened by programs such as Microsoft Excel.
The number of computers requiring the installation of AAM depends on the range of information we want to receive. It is assumed, however, that AAM should be installed on at least one computer within a given subnetwork.