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Windows Discovery Service Installation

The Windows Discovery Service (WDS) should be connected directly to a Remote Collector (RC) to enable WMI discovery directly from the Device42 UI.

The .NET service must be installed on a Windows machine with the .NET runtimes installed.

Installing the Windows Discovery Service​

  1. Download the current WDS .msi installer file from the Device42 Autodiscovery software download page.

  2. Run the downloaded Device42Discovery.msi installer. Click Next and follow the prompts to continue with the installation:

Welcome Device42Discovery Setup Wizard

  1. In the Device42 RC Link Setup dialog, indicate your RC Endpoint by entering the RC IP address or FQDN in the first field.

RC Link setup Device42

  1. Enter a one-time pin in the RC Code field, after generating it as follows:

    • From the Device42 MA, navigate to Discovery > Remote Collectors.
    Remote Collectors menu locationRemote Collectors menu location
    • Click Generate OTP in the upper-right corner of the Remote Collectors list page.
    Generate OTPGenerate OTP

  2. Accept the default installation directory for the WDS service or specify a custom installation path.

Select installation folder

  1. Click Next to confirm installation.

Confirm Installation

  1. Confirm that the installation was successful by checking that RCs in the Device42 UI have been renamed and the WDS indicator icon has turned green to reflect the WDS connection.
Running and connected WDS in list pageRunning and connected WDS in list page

Securing WDS Implementation in Device42​

Both the MA and the RC ship with a self-signed certificate, making it necessary to support invalid certificates with the default installation of Device42.

Install a valid certificate on the MA and the RC. You can then change the default behavior of the WDS to no longer ignore SSL errors by editing the WDS runtime configuration file:

Click to expand the code block
<configuration>
  <appSettings>
....
    <add key="IgnoreSSLErrors" value="false"/>
....
  </appSettings>
...

Create a New WMI Autodiscovery Job​

You are now ready to run discoveries with your new WDS. When creating a new Windows WMI autodiscovery job (Discovery > Hypervisors/*nix/win for Autodiscovery), choose the WDS connected to the RC with WDS, and configure the job settings to discover Windows devices:

Add new Windows Discovery JobAdd new Windows Discovery Job
caution

Do not set up an autodiscovery scan using critical production account credentials! Please create a separate, dedicated account to use only for discovery.

Depending on your permissions and configured password policies, account lockout could result in an otherwise avoidable outage. You as a customer are responsible for any such behavior.

Update Your WDS Installation​

You do not need to update your WDS installation separately. After the initial connection, WDS updates are automatically pushed and distributed with regular Device42 updates.

If you are concerned that you are not running the latest version of WDS, please update your main Device42 appliance to the latest version.