IP Address Discovery

What is IP discovery?

IP discovery is the process of scanning your network for IP devices through one or several methods like SNMP, ICMP, or neighborhood scanning. An IP detection tool can be critical not just in setting up your network IP configuration, but also in monitoring your IP addresses for potential capacity issues and reporting status updates.

After your IP address system is set up, IP addresses should be regularly monitored to detect new devices and the removal of devices to reconfigure IP addresses accordingly. Since large networks are likely to experience a high volume of new devices as well as disengaged devices, an IP discovery tool can allow you to collect device data, update it when necessary, and more easily report on IP history.

How can I see IP addresses on my network?

IP discovery software can allow you to more easily see IP addresses on a network by launching IP scans from a central platform to automatically gather information.

Due to the complexity of dynamic network addresses, using IP discovery to see IP addresses on a network is often divided into more confined units. For large networks with complex and dynamic IP configurations, a major part of the network IP discovery process is defining the scan range to see key parts of the network. 

How does an IP address discovery tool work?

An IP detection tool works by using SNMP, ICMP, or neighborhood scanning protocol calls to collect details from devices on your network, track IP address use, and record IP addresses no longer in use. The only manual input that may be required are your preferences: you should define your range, define your credentials, and define the regularity with which your tool should conduct scans. From there, your IP address discovery tool will report IP address health and configuration data, along with historical IP address data.

An IP discovery tool can automate the IP discovery process in real time, while providing reports and alerts on IP address health. Once you launch the first scan, IP discovery software can allow you to replicate this as a regular, automated scan at a time interval of your choice. Since so many IP addresses are dynamic, it’s important to regularly conduct scans. IP discovery software can also report on device status and help you understand IP addresses on your network with up-to-date maps by directly pulling data from router configurations and connected machines.

Why is IP discovery important?

There are many reasons to scan your network for IP address information. Discovering your network’s IP addresses is a crucial first step in setting up and effectively administering DHCP and DNS systems. IP discovery isn’t just useful for finding devices during your IP setup process—it can also be crucial in maintaining the health of IP addresses and subnets. 

For instance, if there’s an IP address conflict or capacity shortage, IP discovery software can highlight the issues in need of attention as soon as they arise. This process of scanning your network for devices can also help with creating subnets, monitoring server performance, and providing historical IP address tracking, so users can more easily find orphaned, reclaim, and configure IP addresses.

For large, dynamic business networks, and especially networks with new or support for user mobile devices, the IP discovery process aims to detect any associated IP conflict and depletion issues. IP discovery can allow you to detect when devices are added to, and retired from, your network. This can also allow you to keep track of your dynamic addresses as they change, and to better understand your subnet structures in a complex, changing IP environment. 

How does IPAM help with IP discovery?

SolarWinds IP Address Manager is designed to eliminate the need to manually perform IP discovery scans of your network. Manual scanning can be a lengthy and cumbersome process and requires managing complicated spreadsheets and tracking dynamic subnet configurations. Not only is this process inefficient, but it’s also vulnerable to human error. For large networks where devices are being added and retired almost daily, manual scanning can also be logistically difficult. 

SolarWinds IPAM is built to allow you to easily transfer data from IP address spreadsheets, so you can switch to an automated IP discovery process that scans, documents, reports, and alerts.

With historical and real-time analysis of your network, IPAM can also make suggestions for how you can improve your IP address health based on network diagnosis. In addition to IP address scanning and data collection, IPAM is designed to offer a real-time understanding of your IP health and the overall health of your network. 

What other features and tools does IPAM have?

SolarWinds IPAM includes tools designed to ensure efficiency and accuracy in the IP discovery process. Aside from the core IP discovery features of IPAM (scanning, IP tracking, and alerting), IPAM can also manage DHCP and DNS addresses and report details in its performance dashboard.

For networks with heterogeneous systems operating simultaneously, IPAM can give you the ability to recognize heterogeneous systems and to appropriately collect data from diverse devices with its easy IP discovery and IP addresses mapping features for hybrid environments. This also means for networks using a combination of local, VMware, and cloud devices, IPAM is built to offer an integrated monitoring solution. 

Another key feature in SolarWinds IPAM is its intuitive interface. From a single pane of glass, IPAM is designed to help you more easily identify IP addresses, groups, or subnets in your network. The ability to centralize IP address management data in one view can help support higher visibility into the network discovery process.

Additionally, IP management in SolarWinds IPAM isn’t restricted to one IT admin. If you wish to delegate IP discovery capabilities to other members of your network, IPAM allows you to easily share permission with other team members.