How to enable Active Directory System Discovery

Use the Active Directory System Discovery method to discover the following:

•  Computer name
•  Active Directory container name
•  IP address
•  Assigned Active Directory site

Do not plan to use Active Directory System Discovery to discover the client operating system. There are other discovery methods, such as Network Discovery, that will do this.
 

Caution
Polling performed by Active Directory System Discovery can generate significant network traffic (approximately 5 KB per client computer). For this reason, plan to schedule the discovery to occur at a time when this network traffic does not adversely affect network use. Active Directory System Discovery is used mainly for Configuration Manager client installation. Once the Configuration Manager client is installed, all information provided by Active Directory System Discovery is provided directly by Heartbeat Discovery. Because Configuration Manager polls Active Directory, instead of being notified of Active Directory changes, the Configuration Manager resources obtained from Active Directory do not necessarily reflect the current Active Directory resources. Computers might have been added, removed, or changed in Active Directory since the most recent poll.

1. Open the Configuration Manager Console and navigate to the Discovery Methods node. In the right pane, right-click on the Active Directory System Discovery component and select Properties.

 2. Select Enable Active Directory System Discovery. Click the button to add a search location.

 3. Select Local domain as the location and accept the other default settings. Click OK.

 4. Select the container that contains the computers that Configuration Manager will discover.
Note
It is good practice to be as specific as possible when specifying the container. It is possible to specify more than one location and, by default, any sub-containers are also searched. Click OK.

 5. Repeat steps 2 to 4 for each container to be searched.

 6. Click the Polling Schedule tab. Select Run discovery as soon as possible. Click Schedule to specify
an ongoing schedule for the discovery process. Click OK.

Tip
Additional attributes can be discovered from Active Directory using the Active Directory attribute tab.

The progress of the discovery process can be monitored by looking at the log file
<Configuration Manager installation folder>\Logs\Adsysdis.log. Once the discovery records have been processed by Configuration Manager, they will be shown in the Configuration Manager Console within the ‘All System’ collection, and any other collection that is appropriate for the type of resource. Only very basic information is gathered as part of the discovery process and, as such, machines may not appear within the appropriate collections until the Configuration Manager client is installed and the inventory information has been processed by the Configuration Manager site server. To view the discovery information that has been gathered for a computer, either double-click the computer from within the Configuration Manager Console or right-click on the computer in the Console and select Properties.