Deploying Management Agents with Discovery Rules

You can deploy Veeam Service Provider Console management agents on managed and client computers using discovery rules. This method allows you to run discovery and initiate the installation procedure in the Veeam Service Provider Console portal. Thus, you can minimize manual operations with the managed and client computers, or usage of any 3rd party tools during the installation process.

How Installation with Discovery Rules is Performed

For installation with discovery rules, Veeam Service Provider Console requires a master agent. A master agent is a Veeam Service Provider Console management agent that runs on a Windows or Linux machine in the infrastructure. This agent is responsible for performing various types of tasks during the discovery and installation procedures, such as collecting information about discovered computers, installing Veeam Service Provider Console management agents on managed and client computers, downloading the Veeam backup agent setup file, uploading it to managed and client computers, and so on.

Installation with discovery rules includes two processes that run one after another:

• Discovery of managed and client computers
• Installation of Veeam Service Provider Console management agents and Veeam backup agents on discovered computers

The following diagram provides a high-level pictorial overview of the discovery-based installation method.

Discovery of Managed and Client Computers

Discovery of managed and client computers runs as follows:

1. A backup administrator sets up a master agent in a managed or client location, configures a discovery rule and initiates the discovery process.

The discovery rule describes settings required to perform discovery and (optionally) installation of Veeam backup agents on discovered computers. Discovery rule prescribes what master agent will be used for discovery, what managed or client computers must be scanned, what account will be used to connect to these computers, whether Veeam backup agents must be installed on discovered computers, and so on.

The discovery rule can use one of the following discovery methods: network-based discovery, Active Directory discovery or import-based discovery.

2. The master agent obtains from Veeam Service Provider Console discovery settings specified in the discovery rule. The agent connects to managed or client computers under the specified account, collects configuration information about each scanned computer through WMI, and communicates information about discovery results to Veeam Service Provider Console.

Information collected from discovered computers includes details on the computer type, platform, host name, guest OS, IP address, MAC address, available applications and information about Veeam products (their presence on the machine, product version and license installed).

3. If the discovery rule is configured to install Veeam backup agents on discovered computers and set up a backup job, the master agent initiates these tasks after discovery.

For details on the installation process, see How Installation of Veeam Backup Agents is Performed.

Required Privileges

To perform this task, a user must have one of the following roles assigned: Portal Administrator, Site Administrator, Portal Operator, Read-only User.

Read-only User can only view and export discovery results.

In This Section

• Configuring Windows Discovery Rules
• Configuring Linux Discovery Rules
• Running Discovery
• Resetting Discovered Computers
• Configuring Notifications About Discovery Results
• Viewing and Exporting Discovery Results