92CHAPTER 4: DISCOVERING THE NETWORK
Key Concepts | The discovery process can be initiated in a number of ways detailed later |
| in this chapter. This section explains the key concepts behind the |
| discovery process itself. |
| The process is divided into two distinct operations – detecting the devices |
| that exist on the network (discovering devices), and subsequently |
| establishing how they are physically connected together (determining |
| topology). Both of these operations are divided further into several |
| stages. The main concepts associated with these operations and |
| associated stages are outlined in this section as follows: |
| ■ How 3Com Network Director discovers devices on the network |
| ■ How 3Com Network Director determines the network topology |
| ■ How 3Com Network Director |
| network it already knows about |
| ■ How scheduled discoveries work |
The Discovery Process This operation determines which devices exist on one or more IP subnets.
–Detecting Devices It also finds out more about each discovered device, such as its type and capabilities. The operation is initiated with a list of subnets to discover. Within each subnet 3Com Network Director attempts to locate devices across one or more specific IP ranges. You can control the ranges of devices to be detected within each subnet, but the default behavior is to attempt the full range for each subnet.
The detecting devices part of the discovery process consists of a number of discrete stages: