I am trying to set up Network discovery to discover the computers on Network . However so far what SCCM has discovered is inclusive for me know if it is really working on not. SCCM discoverd Windows 7 , Windows Xp clients , however it is not discovering Windows 2008 R2 member servers. All the active directory discovery options are disabled. Only discoveries enabled are 1) Heart Beat Discover 2) Network Discovery. Subnet and boundaries are defined in SCCM and Network Discovery is using AD Site and services to include subnet. I read through multiple post where it is suggested to enable active directory system discovery. Is it really necessary to enable Active directory discovery ? Can SCCM not discover systems using Network and heartbeat discovery only ? Thanks

SCCM can and will discover machines using network discovery however it makes one heck of a mess. If you are in an Active Directory environment use AD discovery. Network dicovery is there for people who do not have AD. John Marcum | http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/jmarcum/|

Heartbeat discovery does not discover any new clients, it just refreshed the client records and enables the client to maintain an active status. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb633103.aspx Can SCCM not discover systems using Network and heartbeat discovery only ? Regards, Madan

Also note that network discovery is not a simple ping sweep. It uses either DHCP information SNMP information to do its "discovery" and that's probably why you are not seeing your servers. I concur with John and his implied suggestion to stay away from Network Discovery.Jason | http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/jsandys | http://blogs.catapultsystems.com/jsandys/default.aspx | Twitter @JasonSandys

Jason , I agree it does not do just a ping sweep , However I read in posts on this forum that DHCP is not really necessary and if SNMP string was needed then I don't know why windows 7 and Xp clients would show up

You will have specify a DHCP server on the DHCP tab, when Network discovery finds a resource it must obtain the IP address of that resource through DHCP or SNMP and after that SCCM tries to ping the specific resource. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb693986.aspx Refer this thread http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/configmgrgeneral/thread/5e3b0dbd-04f3-40b5-9ac5-cb63305f0e1b/ //Eswar Koneti @ http://eskonr.com/

Hello - I think, it's always better to use AD discovery methods if the AD infrastructure is in place. That is the best discovery method excepted by the techie world and it's better to manage.Anoop C Nair