Picture this scenario:

A factory undergoes expansion, new switches go online, and business traffic starts running—yet these devices are missing from the monitoring system. One early morning, a core link fails. On-call engineers dig through Excel asset ledgers only to find out that this device was never brought under monitoring in the first place.

One such incident is already one too many.

The reality is often far more complex: hundreds or thousands of devices, fragmented network segments, hardware from dozens of vendors, and asset records scattered across different employees’ computers. Implementation teams receive outdated device lists with both offline and newly added IP addresses; SNMP community names sit in separate spreadsheets, while database credentials have to be chased down from application owners one by one. When logging into the monitoring platform, engineers must manually identify device types, select monitoring templates, fill in credentials, and validate each entry individually. Manual entry is bearable for just one or two devices—but what about hundreds?

This is not a technical issue; it is a vicious cycle where manpower is consumed by repetitive manual work.

What Problem Does Perseus Asset Discovery Solve?

In one sentence: shift the workflow from people hunting for devices to devices being automatically discovered.

Powered by Perseus collection capabilities, asset discovery centers on automated identification, with three methods to detect online resources:

1. Network segment scanning: Automatically scan IPs and network segments to uncover unregistered devices.
2. Agent-based scanning: Automatically detect databases, middleware and other underlying software on already managed hosts.
3. Cloud platform discovery: Discover cloud resources automatically using cloud access keys.

Once discovered, the system automatically matches resource types, monitoring templates and collection credentials. Combined with automated scanning + automated onboarding, the full workflow becomes:

New device online → Auto-discovery → Auto-onboarding → Added to monitoring Old device offline → Auto-identification → Marked for cleanup → Asset ledger synchronized

This delivers far more than productivity gains: it eliminates unmonitored assets, a major source of outages, right at the source.

Applicable Scenarios

This solution fits environments with hundreds of on-premises or factory devices, including network hardware, servers, operating systems, databases, storage, middleware, virtualization and cloud resources, plus URL monitoring targets—where asset management still relies on Excel spreadsheets and manual monitoring configuration for every single device.

Best Practices for Device Onboarding via Asset Discovery

Align with your asset scale and device types, and adopt a strategy of automated discovery + bulk onboarding as the primary approach, supplemented by manual onboarding:

• Prioritize bulk onboarding for all resources that support auto-recognition and batch processing.
• Manually add niche hardware, rare equipment and temporary devices to complete the inventory.

Pre-Deployment Preparation

Credential management supports multiple sets of SNMP community names and account passwords, which the system will cycle through automatically during scanning. If credential errors occur, simply update the credentials and re-run the scan.

Mandatory Preconditions for Onboarding by Device Type

• Network devices: Enable and configure SNMP (SNMPv2 recommended); open UDP ports 161 and 162.
• Physical servers: Connect to out-of-band management ports; open UDP 161 and 623; prepare management account credentials and SNMP community names.
• Operating systems: Prepare root/ITOps privileges for Linux/AIX, and administrator rights for Windows; open Agent port 10073; install Bash on AIX systems.
• Databases: Create accounts with session and SQL execution permissions; open instance service ports.
• Middleware: Configure JMX ports for Java applications; open service ports or JMX ports.
• Storage devices: Connect to out-of-band management ports; enable SNMP if supported; otherwise prepare accounts with monitor group permissions; open ports 22, 5989, UDP 161 and 623 per vendor requirements.
• Virtualization platforms: Prepare read-only accounts; open TCP port 443.
• Network links: Configure SLA or NQA on gateways; open UDP port 161.
• Website/URL monitoring: Ensure target URLs are accessible; avoid CAPTCHA in simulated login scenarios; TLS 1.0 and earlier versions are not supported.
• Cloud platforms: Prepare access keys and key IDs; confirm account scope, regions and target resource range.

Recommended Discovery Sequence：Follow this order: infrastructure discovery → underlying software discovery → cloud platform discovery.

Typical Use Cases

Scenario 1: Centralized Management of Multiple Credential Sets

Problem: Credentials are scattered across spreadsheets and work orders. Network devices use multiple SNMP community names, while operating systems and databases have separate sets of usernames and passwords. Engineers waste time searching for records and copying credentials during onboarding. When onboarding fails, troubleshooting requires extra effort to distinguish between network policy issues and incorrect passwords.

Solution: Centralize all credentials in the credential management module, including global SNMP settings, OS accounts, database logins and cloud keys. Reuse these credential sets across all scans and onboarding tasks; the system will automatically cycle through all available credentials to find a match.

Outcome: Engineers no longer need to paste passwords device by device or memorize which community name corresponds to each hardware vendor. When account passwords need to be updated company-wide, only the centralized credential configuration requires modification.

Scenario 2: Automated Scanning & Onboarding After Network Segment Expansion

Original Pain Point: Initially only the 20–80 IP segment was scheduled for monitoring. Business expansion suddenly brings the 90–100 segment online. New servers and switches are deployed incrementally day by day. Engineers must constantly follow up on deployment progress and update asset ledgers. Even minor delays mean new production devices go live without any monitoring coverage.

Solution: Add the new 90–100 segment to infrastructure discovery rules and enable scheduled automatic scanning. The system runs periodic scans. Any unmonitored asset with valid credentials will be automatically added to monitoring. If credential mismatches occur, fix the credentials and re-scan.

Outcome: No more manual oversight of newly deployed devices after network expansion. With correct scanning ranges and valid credentials, newly launched devices are automatically brought under monitoring, eliminating monitoring gaps and unmanaged assets.

More Than a Productivity Tool — It Delivers Risk Mitigation

Perseus Collection Asset Discovery delivers value far beyond labor savings. It transforms monitoring from a set of manual ad-hoc fixes into a self-maintaining system that automatically adapts to infrastructure changes.

The larger your device fleet, the more fragmented your network segments, and the faster your business grows, the greater the value this tool delivers.

Closing Summary

Static ledgers bring constant anxiety; automated discovery brings peace of mind.

When you manage hundreds or thousands of devices, you do not need more data entry staff. What you need is an automated discovery and onboarding mechanism.