How policies apply to ad hoc and background scans
Agent policies apply to both ad hoc and background scans, while asset policies
apply to both ad hoc and background scans; however, you can reconfigure some
asset policies when you define an ad hoc scan.
The following table describes ad hoc and background scans:
Table13. Descriptions of ad hoc and background scans
Type of scan Description
Ad hoc One-time scans that you start manually for
discovery scans, assessment scans, or both,
typically in response to network changes or
newly discovered threats.
Note: You can run an ad hoc scan
immediately,or you can run it only during
the scan windows defined for the group in
the Scan Window policy.
Background Automatic,recurring scans that run on
separately definable refresh cycles for
discovery and for assessment scanning.

Asset policies and ad hoc scans

The following table defines configuration options for policies used by ad hoc scans:
Table14. Asset policies for ad hoc and background scans
Background asset policies that... Include the following policies:
You can reconfigurescans vAssessment
vDiscovery
Differ for ad hoc scans Scan Control
Contain the same settings for ad hoc scans
as for background scans
vAssessment Credentials
vNetwork Services
vScan Exclusion
Note: This policy applies only to
assessment scans, but it applies to both ad
hoc and background scans.
vScan Window (optional)

Changing assessment and discovery policies

An ad hoc scan initially uses any settings currently configured in the Assessment
and Discovery policies for the group. You can runthe scan with those settings, or
you can modify the settings. The following table describes the advantages of each
method:
Table15. Changes to Assessment and Discovery policies
If you... Then you...
Use the configured settings Can easily start an ad hoc scan that
duplicates a configured background scan.
Chapter5. Background scanning in SiteProtector 81