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Getting Started with the App

This document provides a step-by-step tutorial on how to get the Device Discovery App up and running in your Nautobot environment.

Prerequisites

Before starting, make sure you have:

Step 1: Create a Discovery Profile

A Discovery Profile defines which prefixes to scan, which protocols and credentials to use, and how the scan should behave.

  1. Navigate to Devices > Discovery > Discovery Profiles
  2. Click the + Add Discovery Profile button
  3. Fill in the form:
    • Name: A descriptive name for the profile (e.g., Lab low latency devices)
    • Included IP Prefixes: The prefixes to scan (e.g., 10.10.10.0/24, 192.168.1.0/24)
    • Maximum IP Addresses: A sanity check to prevent excessive or unintended discovery scope
    • Discovery Profile Secrets Group Assignments: Select valid SNMP and SSH credentials with their weights — see the Secrets Guide for details on credential weighting
    • SSH Port: Default 22 (modify if your environment uses a non-standard port)
    • SNMP Port: Default 161 (modify if your environment uses a non-standard port)
    • SNMP Timeout / SNMP Retries: Adjust as needed for your environment
    • Fast Path collection: Enable to optimize SSH re-discovery for recurring scans — see the Fast Path Guide
  4. Click Create

Create Discovery Profile Create Discovery Profile

Step 2: Run the Discovery Job

  1. Navigate to Jobs > Network Device Discovery
  2. Ensure the job is enabled
  3. Fill in the form:
    • Discovery Profile: Select the profile you created in Step 1
    • Logging level: Adjust as needed
    • TCP Scan Concurrency / SSH Login Concurrency / SNMP Scan Concurrency: Adjust as needed
  4. Click Run Job

Run Discovery Job Run Discovery Job

Tip

You can also access the job modal from Devices > Discovery > Discovered Devices.

The job will attempt SSH and SNMP connections to each IP within the configured prefixes, identify reachable network devices, collect identity metadata, and correlate the results with the Nautobot inventory.

Step 3: Review Discovered Devices

After the job completes, navigate to Devices > Discovery > Discovered Devices. Each entry shows the device's identity data (IP address, hostname, platform, serial number, device model), collection timestamps for SSH and SNMP, and the inventory import status.

Discovered Devices List Discovered Devices List

Step 4: Understand the Inventory Import Status

Each discovered device is categorized based on how well it matches the existing Nautobot inventory:

Status UI Tab Meaning
Imported Imported Device exists in Nautobot and all attributes match
Not Imported New Device is reachable but not present in Nautobot
Partially Imported Conflicts Device exists but some attributes differ
Conflict Conflicts Multiple Nautobot devices match the discovered data

Devices that need attention (Partially Imported and Conflict) are grouped together under the Conflicts tab, while devices ready for onboarding appear under the New tab.

For a detailed explanation of the matching logic behind each status, see Inventory Correlation & Health Evaluation.

Step 5: Onboard Missing Devices

If devices are marked as Not Imported:

  1. Select the device(s) from the Discovered Devices list
  2. Click the Onboard Selected Devices button
  3. Confirm the required onboarding parameters (location, namespace, role, etc.)
  4. Submit the onboarding job

Select Devices to Onboard Select Devices to Onboard

Onboarding Form Onboarding Form

The integration with the Device Onboarding App will create the device records in Nautobot. After onboarding completes, refresh the Discovered Devices view to confirm the status has updated.

Note

For the onboarding button to be available, your Secrets Group must include both SSH and Generic access types. See the Secrets Guide for details.

Running Discovery Again

Discovery is not a one-time task. To maintain inventory health, schedule the discovery job to run periodically and monitor changes in inventory status over time. Review "last seen" timestamps to identify devices that are no longer reachable, and investigate any status changes that appear between runs.

Running discovery on a schedule keeps your inventory aligned with the real network over time.

What the App Does (and Does Not Do)

The Device Discovery App detects network devices via SNMP and SSH, tracks last-seen and connectivity metadata, identifies missing and conflicting inventory records, and integrates with Device Onboarding so new devices can be added to Nautobot directly.

It does not replace monitoring systems (Nagios, Prometheus, etc.), perform full port scans like Nmap, re-onboard devices automatically without review, or discover non-network systems (e.g., Windows servers, Linux servers, printers).

What's Next?