Expected Behavior for Ad Hoc Scans
Introduction
Configuring scans
Scan order
Staging discovery
and assessment
scans
Ad hoc scans and
scan windows
IBM Proventia Network Enterprise Scanner User Guide, Version 1.3
Ad hoc scans follow rules for using policies, scanning priority, and other behaviors that
are described in more detail in other parts of this guide. This topic summarizes the most
important behaviors that apply to ad hoc scans.
Configuring ad hoc scans differs from configuring background scans in the following
ways:
When you configure ad hoc scans for the same scanning group, you can configure the
●
discovery and assessment scans at the same time.
You configure ad hoc scans on a scan-by-scan basis instead of on a recurring schedule.
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You can change the Assessment, Discovery, and Scan Control policies for ad hoc scans
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when you configure the scan without affecting the settings for the policies in
background scans.
Scans run in priority order, from highest priority to lowest priority, as follows:
ad hoc scan discovery scans
●
ad hoc assessment scans
●
background discovery scans
●
background assessment scans
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You can make sure that the ad hoc assessment scan for a group does not start until the ad
hoc discovery scan has finished. An assessment scan could begin before a discovery scan
has finished in a multi-agent environment. One agent could become available to start the
assessment scan while the discovery scan is still running on the other agent(s).
The ad hoc Scan Control policy includes a configuration option that allows you to delay
the start of the assessment scan until the discovery scan has finished. Use this option if
you want to make sure that all assets have been discovered before the assessment scan
starts.
When you configure an ad hoc scan, you can configure the scan to run continuously or
only during the scan windows defined in the Scan Window policy.
If you configure an ad hoc
scan to run...
without restriction
only during open scan
windows
Table 71: Ad hoc scans and scan windows
Then it runs as follows...
•
It can start to run immediately.
•
It runs continuously whether scan windows are open or closed.
•
If you start the scan during an open scan window, the scan can
run immediately.
•
If you start the scan when the scan window is closed, the scan
must wait for a scan window to open before it can run.
•
Ad hoc scans pause during closed scan windows.
Expected Behavior for Ad Hoc Scans
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