3.6 Discovering and Inventorying Data Center Resources
You add servers to the Data Center Explorer by using the button 
.
There are seven inventory methods available:
Each inventory method is unique and has different requirements. See Section 3.7, Inventory and Discovery Methods for more information.
PlateSpin Recon gets information about data center assets in two stages:
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Discover: Discovering machines in the network retrieves information such as hostnames, IP addresses, MAC addresses, and port information.
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Inventory: Inventorying the previously discovered machines retrieves deeper data for each server, such as operating system, installed applications, services, processor speed, memory, network, and disk resources.
After machines are inventoried, they can be monitored and included in all report types, regardless of which method is used for inventory.
For information about ports used by PlateSpin Recon to inventory servers, see Knowledge Base article Q20571.
A common way to use discovery and inventory is to discover a large number of servers on the network. These servers appear under the node in the Data Center Explorer. Next, select the discovered servers and inventory them. Finally, select which inventoried servers you want to monitor. It is also possible to discover, inventory, and start monitoring servers in a single step.