Network Discovery frequently asked questions

Yes. The installer lets you select which components to install, and all three can run on the same machine. For a first installation, you typically install the IT sensor, OT sensor, and hub together. If you already have a hub from your trial, install only the sensors you need and point them at the existing hub.

See Install Network Discovery - Windows, Linux, or macOS.

It depends on how many assets you scan and how often you want their data refreshed. Depending on the asset type, the access available, and the credentials provided, a single asset takes several minutes to scan. Use these figures as a starting point:

Add sensors for every network segment your existing sensors can't reach, and for redundancy. For hub sizing per number of connected sensors, see Network Discovery requirements.

If the installer exits during the pre-installation phase, no files or changes are left behind. If it exits during installation, it rolls back and removes anything it added.

• 0: the installer finished without issues.
• 20-39: issues with the OS, installer, or an existing installation (pre-installation).
• 40-59: issues with user input (pre-installation).
• 60-79: issues during installation (installation is rolled back).
• 80-99: warnings during installation (installation is kept).

On macOS, the PKG installer only returns 0 (success) or 1 (general error). For the specific exit code, check /tmp/Lansweeper-Network-Discovery_exitcode.log, which contains the exit code as an integer.

See the troubleshooting section of Install Network Discovery - Windows, which covers the hub service failing to start and the "Unable to initialize installer" error.

On the machine running the hub, open https://localhost:59525 in a browser. That's the default address, unless you set a different TCP port during installation.

Most hub settings are also available in your Lansweeper Site under Discovery, so once the hub is linked to your site you may never need to open its interface again. You do need it for hub-level tasks such as resetting the hub password or relinking the hub to another site.

Yes, with the authentication tool that ships with the hub:

1. Go to the hub installation directory. The default path on Windows is C:\Program Files\Lansweeper Network Discovery\hub.
2. Right-click AuthenticationTool.exe and select Run as administrator.
3. Select one of the following:
   • Enable Authentication: set a new password, which the hub requires the next time you open it.
   • Disable Authentication: remove the password requirement.

Only disable authentication to reset a password you've lost, and re-enable it immediately afterwards to keep the hub protected.

Updates are managed through groups, which is the recommended way to control update timing:

1. In your Lansweeper Site, go to Discovery > Groups.
2. Select Default Group Network Discovery, or the group your systems belong to.
3. Turn off Enable scheduled updates, or set the days and times when updates may apply.
4. Select Save changes.

See Update Network Discovery for the full group configuration options.

Though we don't recommend it, you can also disable updates on a single Windows machine:

sc config "Lansweeper Network Discovery Update service" start= disabled
sc stop "Lansweeper Network Discovery Update service"

Pausing updates through a group stops scheduled updates from applying, but update files are still downloaded. To block downloads entirely, block outbound access to Lansweeper's download servers. Run nslookup download.lansweeper.com to find the current IP addresses, then block them with a firewall rule, for example on Windows:

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Block auto-update Lansweeper" dir=out action=block remoteip=<ip-address> enable=yes

This still allows access to the discovery gateway for your region, which the hub needs to sync data. Your Lansweeper Site requires a minimum Network Discovery version to stay in sync, so re-enable updates as soon as you can.

Yes, they update through your Linux package manager, such as apt or yum. To manage or automate these updates yourself, refer to your package manager's documentation.

No. The linking code is only used during installation to associate the hub with your Lansweeper Site. Once it expires, the hub keeps sending data to your site as expected.

Deleting a Network Discovery system from Discovery > Systems permanently deletes all sensors linked to that hub and all asset data the hub has ever brought in. This can't be undone, so only delete a system when you're certain you no longer need its data.

To stop scanning without losing data, pause or remove the relevant discovery actions instead. See Create a Network Discovery action.

To remove the software from the machine, see Uninstall Network Discovery.

You can link your hub to a site in another region, but you can't migrate an existing site between regions: a site's region is set permanently when you create it. Create a new site in the region you want, then link your hub to it.

See Relink Network Discovery to a site in a different region, and note the data loss involved in removing the hub from its current site.

Lansweeper's reconciliation engine handles this automatically. If the same physical device is discovered by Network Discovery, IT Agent, Cloud Discovery, or Lansweeper Classic within the same Lansweeper Site, the engine matches the records using stable identifiers such as MAC address or serial number, and merges them into a single asset. You don't need to configure exclusions or resolve duplicates manually.

See Understand the reconciliation engine for how matching works and what to do if you spot a duplicate that wasn't merged.

Use discovery exclusions. You can exclude assets by IP address range, hostname or FQDN, domain pattern, MAC address pattern, or asset type, and Lansweeper applies the rule across all your hubs. Go to Discovery > Exclusions to create one. See Manage discovery exclusions.

To narrow the scope of a single discovery action instead, add exclusions to its target list. See Create a Network Discovery action.

Your sensors also detect assets passively, outside the targets of any discovery action. To stop that for a group of sensors, turn off network visibility. See Configure network visibility.

Yes. Asset data that Lansweeper Classic has already synced to your site stays in your site, including assets you created or edited manually. Network Discovery isn't a replacement that takes over those records: each hub is an additional discovery system that adds new assets and updates existing ones.

Two things to check when you unlink or remove your Classic installation:

• Choose to keep the data in your site when you remove the installation.
• Review your asset cleanup rules, which can remove assets automatically after a set period. See Manage asset cleanup rules.

Assets that Network Discovery finds count toward your licensed asset limit. Once you reach that limit, scanning of new and existing assets may stop until you delete assets or upgrade your subscription.

Check your current usage under Site settings > Subscription plan. See Manage your licensed asset limit for the full breakdown of what counts.

Credentials are stored in the hub's local vault, never in the cloud, and they're protected in two layers: the hub database is fully encrypted and usable only by that installation, and each credential is encrypted separately with a key stored independently and accessible only to the machine itself.

When a sensor needs a credential to scan a target:

1. The sensor generates a public/private key pair at startup, kept in memory only.
2. After authenticating with the hub, the sensor shares its public key.
3. The hub decrypts the credential, immediately re-encrypts it with the sensor's public key, and sends it.

Only the designated sensor can decrypt and use the credential. Credentials you enter in your Lansweeper Site follow the same pattern: the hub shares a public key with your site, your site encrypts the credential before sending it, and the hub decrypts and stores it locally.

Yes. A credential is used by the hubs you assign it to, and the sensors linked to those hubs. To share a credential with another hub, go to Discovery > Credentials, select the credential, and add the hub under Assigned hubs. The credential is transferred encrypted, both in transit and at rest.

See Create discovery credentials.

Network Discovery collects Windows details over WMI and DCOM, which a sensor running on Linux can't use. The sensor still recognizes the asset, but can't read its detailed inventory.

You have two options:

• Enable Windows Remote Management between the Windows asset and the Linux sensor to collect more data. See Installation and configuration for Windows Remote Management in the Microsoft documentation.
• Scan those assets from a sensor on Windows, or use IT Agent Discovery on the endpoint itself.

Network Discovery sends discovery messages with a maximum packet size of 8191 bytes for non-PowerShell requests, and 32766 bytes for PowerShell-based requests.

Responses reach up to 4 MB for a Windows Server during an initial scan. Typical responses are much smaller, especially on rescans, since Network Discovery doesn't re-read every item on the system.

Back up the hub's installation folder. On Windows, the default path is C:\Program Files\Lansweeper Network Discovery. See Default installation and log file locations for Network Discovery for the paths on Linux and macOS.

You don't need to back up sensors. Reinstalling a sensor and connecting it to your hub restores it.

There's no on-premises inventory to protect: the hub stores discovery results only until it syncs them to your Lansweeper Site, and Lansweeper backs up your site automatically. Without a hub backup, the worst case is that your assets aren't refreshed for a period. Reinstalling Network Discovery, assigning the new sensors in your discovery actions, and assigning credentials to the new hub resumes updates.

Usually the sensor can't reach the asset, or it lacks the access needed to identify it. Check the following:

• The asset falls within the targets of a discovery action, and isn't covered by an exclusion.
• The required ports are open between the sensor and the asset. See the scanning requirements for Windows, Linux and Unix, macOS, or network devices.
• A credential of the right type is assigned to the hub and to the discovery action.

If the asset appears but isn't fully identified, see Understand recognition coverage and Improve recognition coverage.

• Check Lansweeper's status page for the Discovery data pipeline.
• Confirm the hub and sensor services are running: open Services on Windows, Activity Monitor on macOS, or run sudo ps -aux | less on Linux.
• Confirm the hub can reach the discovery gateway for your region over TLS 1.2 or higher. See Network Discovery requirements for the exact URLs and ports.
• Check the hub, sensor, and update logs for errors. See Default installation and log file locations for Network Discovery.
• If the results still don't appear, gather logs for support and contact Lansweeper Support with the bundle and the checks you've already run.