Basic Concepts - IBM Proventia Network Enterprise Scanner User Manual

Basic Concepts

Introduction
Types of scans
Discovery separate
from assessment
Scopes of scans
IBM Proventia Network Enterprise Scanner User Guide, Version 1.3
This topic explains basic concepts about your Enterprise Scanner agent that you need to
know before you begin. Keep these in mind as you work with the agent. If you have used
the IBM ISS Internet Scanner application, some of the differences are significant.
Enterprise Scanner runs the following types of scans:
Type of Scan Description
Ad hoc One-time scans for discovery and/or for assessment.
Background Recurring, cyclical scans that refresh your discovery and/or assessment
information at user-defined intervals.
Table 15: Definitions of ad hoc and background scans
With Enterprise Scanner, discovery scans and assessment scans are separate for both ad
hoc and background scans. You may, however, link scans so that an assessment scan does
not run until the corresponding discovery scan has finished.
The scopes of discovery and assessment scans are based on the following settings:
Type of Scan Scope
Discovery Operates on IP addresses—single and/or ranges—that you assign to the
scan.
Note: The group you use for discovery scans may already contain assets.
Those assets do not have to belong to the IP range of the scan.
Assessment Operates on the assets in a group in the SiteProtector system.
Table 16: Scope of discovery and assessment scans
Basic Concepts
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