Discovering systems and collecting inventory data

To manage a resource within an environment or view inventory data about it, that resource must first be discovered and, after access is granted, an inventory must be collected. The resource is recognized and added to the comprehensive list of native resources and native attributes for the system. Discovery and inventory collection are the two primary tasks that are used to connect to supported network resources and collect information about them.

Before you begin

If you are discovering and collecting inventory on Power Systems™ compute nodes, make sure that SCP is installed on the Power Systems compute nodes before running Discovery or Inventory Collection from the FSM so that the network adapters are discovered and inventoried by the FSM.
  • Discovery
    Discovery is the process by which IBM Flex System Manager identifies and establishes connections with network-level resources that IBM Flex System Manager can manage, such as compute nodes, storage systems, or network devices. Use system discovery to identify resources within your environment, collect data about those resources, and establish connections with them.
  • Choosing which discovery method to use
    Discovering your resources in the most efficient manner means deciding which method best suits your needs. Each method has advantages and disadvantages to consider.
  • Viewing the discovery manager summary
    You can view a summary of all activity within the past 30 days that is associated with discovery, including discovered systems, collected inventory data, system access, and system authentication. The information on the summary page is refreshed automatically when there are any changes.
  • Renaming discovered systems automatically
    You can configure IBM Flex System Manager to automatically rename each discovered system by using a customized template.
  • Discovering systems with system discovery
    Use the system discovery task to discover one or more resources based on a specific IP address, host name, or range of IP addresses or by using a discovery profile. You can also use system discovery to discover properly configured systems that use mirrored images. View the results of the current system discovery or a system discovery that ran previously.
  • Managing discovery profiles
    Use the Managing Discovery Profiles page to create a unique discovery profile, create a profile based on an existing profile, edit an existing profile, or delete one or more profiles.
  • Collecting and viewing inventory data
    Inventory collection is the process by which IBM Flex System Manager establishes connections with network-level resources, such as computers, switches, or printers, that have already been discovered and collects data about the hardware and software that is currently installed on those resources. Use the View and Collect Inventory task to view and manage an extended set of resources and relationships for network-level resources that have already been discovered.
  • Connecting to IT Registry and Context Menu Service databases
    Connect to preexisting IT Registry and Context Menu Service centralized databases to enable IBM Flex System Manager to accept external connections so that it can share tasks and resources with external applications such as Tivoli® products.
Parent topic: Managing resources with the IBM Flex System Manager management software