What is Agent Based Discovery?
Agent-based discovery is one of the ways IT assets can be discovered within a network. This method utilizes software agents, designed to be autonomous programs, that are physically installed and deployed on target assets to enable the discovery process.
TL;DR
Agent-based discovery offers scalable and autonomous visibility into IT assets, ideal for large-scale environments.
It provides real-time access to resources, facilitating in-depth analysis for effective IT management.
Its autonomous operation reduces the need for constant manual oversight, streamlining asset monitoring and management.
How it Works?
In agent-based discovery, a tracking bot or software is installed into all the target assets such as laptops, PCs, servers, networks, and other IT assets.
These agents are tasked to collect in-depth details of the asset’s activities and transmit the data to the centralized management system such as CMDB.
Here’s a step-by-step process:
Here’s a concise explanation of how it works:
Step 1: Agent Installation
Agents are installed on the devices or systems within the IT environment that require monitoring and management. These agents operate autonomously on each device with minimal initial configuration.
Step 2: Data Collection
Installed agents collect comprehensive data, including performance metrics, service availability, network usage, CPU performance, and more. This data is gathered continuously and does not require manual intervention.
Step 3: Secure Communication Channel
A secure communication channel is established between the agents and a central Data Flow Probe, ensuring the confidentiality and integrity of collected data.
Step 4: Data Storage and Analysis
The collected data is stored centrally for analysis and reporting. IT administrators can access this centralized repository to gain insights into the IT environment’s status and performance.
Step 5: Real-time Access and Monitoring:
Agent-based discovery provides real-time access to IT resources, enabling proactive monitoring and troubleshooting. Administrators can actively monitor device status and performance without delays.
Step 6: Scalability and Low Maintenance
The methodology is highly scalable, allowing for the simultaneous deployment of agents on a large number of devices. Agents operate autonomously, reducing the need for frequent manual checks and maintenance.
Pros & Cons of Agent-based Discovery
Pros
- Better Visibility & Data Gathering: Agent-based discovery can gather more information about devices on a network than traditional methods, such as ICMP ping or SNMP. This includes the device’s operating system, application software, and configuration settings.Provides deep visibility into your IT environment by collecting performance and availability metrics from servers, laptops, desktops, VMs, operating systems, middleware, and network devices.
- More scalable: Agent-based discovery can be used to discover devices on large networks quickly and easily. This is because agents can be installed on a large number of devices simultaneously.
- More accurate: Agent-based discovery is more accurate than traditional methods because it can gather information that is not available through these other methods.
Cons
- Requires agents: Agent-based discovery requires agents to be installed on the devices that you want to discover. This can be a time-consuming and complex process, especially if you have a large number of devices.
- Security risk: Agents can be a security risk. If an attacker gains access to an agent, they could use it to gain access to the device that it is installed on.
- Cost: Agent-based discovery software can be expensive.
