In the Discovery phase, you configure and run discovery jobs to scan your IT environment and collect asset data. These jobs systematically identify infrastructure components, including network devices, servers, desktops, laptops, and cloud resources, and store the discovered information in the central database.

Discovery is the second phase of the asset management implementation process and plays a critical role in building an accurate and up-to-date inventory. For a complete view of the implementation workflow, see the implementation overview.

Note: Available only for new signups after the 31 March, 2026 release. If you signed up earlier, refer to the existing ITAM documentation.

Overview of the Discovery phase

During the Discovery phase, you will perform the following tasks: 

1. Prepare for discovery - Configure credentials, subnets, and required ports to enable secure access to your environment.

2. Create and run discovery jobs - Define and run discovery scans for different asset types based on your infrastructure. There is a recommended order later on.

3. Verify discovery results - Review discovery scores, logs, and records to confirm accuracy and resolve issues.

4. Schedule automated discovery - Configure discovery schedules to keep asset information current over time. As a best practice, don't start all discoveries at the same time.

You can review results and schedule discovery jobs immediately after running them, rather than waiting until you create all discovery jobs.

Task 1: Prepare for Discovery 

Before you run any discovery jobs, configure the foundational settings that allow discovery to securely access your environment. This setup includes defining connectivity requirements and ensuring you grant appropriate permissions

1.1 Store Discovery Credentials

You can create secrets or add them while creating a discovery. Credentials (Secrets) are stored centrally in the Secret Vault at Global Settings > Admin > Asset Management > Credential Management > Secret Vault. Incorrect credentials are a common cause of discovery failure.

1.2 Configure ports

Ensure the necessary ports are open between the Remote Collector and the target devices. For example, SNMP requires UDP Port 161, while Windows discovery typically requires Port 5985/5986 (WinRM) or Port 135 (WMI).

Note: Testing that ports are open is one of the first and most common steps for troubleshooting discovery.

For more information about the list of all ports that may be used to access targets for discovery, along with their directionality, refer to Discovery Port Configurations.

Task 2: Discovery Jobs order

To achieve the best results and minimize future reconciliation, run discovery jobs in the following order. You can skip any jobs that are not applicable to your organization.

Task 3: Verify Discovery Jobs

After you run discovery jobs in the Discovery phase, verify the results to confirm discovery accuracy and completeness. Freshservice provides multiple views to help you evaluate discovery outcomes at the job level, device level, and target level.

You can evaluate discovery success using the following views:

• Discovery Job Results – Review overall job status.

• Discovery Scores – Evaluate discovery success at a granular level.

• Discovery Target Details – Review results for individual targets.

3.1 Discovery job results

After you run a discovery job, you can view Job Status. This page provides a high-level summary of the discovery job outcome.

In the Job Status section, you can:

• View the latest job status (Success, Failure, or Warning).

• Review basic and detailed discovery results.    

Click Show next to the Job Run Report to view the job report log. Use this log to understand how the system executed the job and identify potential issues.

The Discovery Breakdown section highlights common discovery outcomes, such as port check failures or authentication failures. Click the count for any breakdown category to view the associated Discovery Scores. From there, you can drill down into Discovery Target Details for individual items.

3.2 Discovery scores

The Discovery Scores page allows you to evaluate discovery success in detail across all discovery jobs. It provides a consolidated summary of discovery performance, including discovery success rates and discovery queues.

Each discovered device appears as a separate entry. For each entry, you can review:

• Discovery target

• Job name

• Job timestamp

• Cumulative discovery score

• Success or failure indicator

Access discovery scores

To review Discovery Scores:

• Go to Admin > Asset Management > Discovery Hub > Discovery Status > Discovery Scores. You can review the list of discovered devices, sorted from newest to oldest by default. Click a Discovery Target, Job Name, or Remote Collector Group to view additional details.

3.3 Discovery Target details

Discovery Target Details provide detailed discovery information for a single discovery target within a specific discovery job. A discovery target typically represents an IP address or resource discovered during a scan. 
To access Discovery Target Details, click a discovery target from the Discovery Scores page.

You can view the following sections to view extended diagnostic information:

• Advanced Status

• Detailed Discovery Scores

• Detailed Queue Scores

Use this information to troubleshoot discovery issues and improve overall discovery success.

Task 4: Schedule Discovery Jobs

After you validate that a discovery job runs successfully, schedule it to run automatically. Automating discovery prevents asset data from becoming outdated and ensures continuous visibility.

1. Go to the specific discovery job type such as Discovery Hub > Scand and Discovery > Discovery Jobs > SNMP.

2. Click Job Name and then click Edit.

3. In the Discovery Schedule section, click Add new.

4. Specify the schedule you want and click Save.
   Note: We recommend that you do not run all discovery scans at the same time.
   
   

Discovery and Unprocessed Device Records

Unprocessed Device Records represent discovered devices that the system could not confidently match to an existing device record. This situation commonly occurs when you use Moderate or Conservative device matching levels.

At these levels, the system evaluates multiple attributes such as hostname, IP address, MAC address, serial number, and UUID and calculates a combined matching score. If the score does not meet the required threshold, the system does not merge the device with an existing record. Instead, it classifies the device as Unprocessed, which requires manual review.

You can take the following actions on unprocessed records:

• Merge them with existing assets

• Create new device records

• Delete outdated or incorrectly discovered records

To view Unprocessed Device Records, go to Admin > Asset Management > Discovery Hub.

Unprocessed Device Records Best Practices

Follow these best practices to maintain clean and accurate data:

• Review the Unprocessed Device Records page regularly

• Merge records that clearly match existing assets

• Delete old or stale entries

• Configure Automation rules to automatically remove outdated records when appropriate

• Update discovery credentials or methods if frequent unprocessed records indicate incomplete data collection or matching issues

• Consider switching to the Classic device matching level in environments where matching proves difficult

Refer to Unprocessed Device Records for detailed information on matching levels, Enhanced Device Matching, and related configurations.

Post Discovery Data Management

Maintaining a clean database requires ongoing management of hardware types and specialized software modules.

Software License Management (SLM)

If you have the SLM module, you can include software discovery in HyperVisors / *nix / Windows jobs by checking the Discover Software box. This applies to platforms including *nix, Classic WinRM, IBM i/AS400, IBM z/OS, and SCCM. This feature is applicable to Pro or enterprise plans.

Handling Unknown Device Types

All non virtual devices are initially assigned the Unknown device type because the system has not yet been told which hardware type they belong to.

• To resolve this, categorize the hardware model as Regular (physical), Blade, or Other (laptops/printers).

• Once the hardware type is updated, all corresponding devices will automatically move to the correct category. Use the hardware bulk edit feature to manage this efficiently.

Discovery Job best practices

Follow these best practices to ensure your discovery jobs run efficiently, securely, and consistently while delivering accurate results.

Planning and organization

• Limit Initial Focus: Prioritize high value jobs like SNMP and Virtualization before moving to niche scans.

• Organize by Location: Create separate jobs based on Data Center, Region, or specific Remote Collectors (RC).

• Standardize Naming: Use consistent naming conventions to ensure jobs are easily searchable.

Configuration and Security

• Use Dedicated Accounts: Never use critical production credentials. Create a dedicated discovery account to prevent accidental service outages from account lockouts.

• Leverage Remote Collectors: Always use remote collector groups to balance loads larger than /24.

• Be Specific: Define targets clearly and exclude unnecessary ranges to reduce discovery failures.

• Limit Network Ranges: Do not exceed a /16 range per job to avoid inconsistent results.

Scheduling

• Confirm Health First: Only schedule jobs after verifying they return the expected data.

• Monitor Frequency: Ensure a job completes before its next scheduled run. Avoid peak network traffic hours.

Discover phase checklist

The Discover phase is complete when:

• Subnets are defined.

• Discovery jobs are named and organized by location or type.

• Jobs are executed and verified through Discovery Scores.

• Unprocessed records are reviewed and resolved.

• Unknown device types are categorized via hardware models.

• Jobs are scheduled for regular execution.