Discovery Scripts
Discovery scripts collect the information needed to classify and group managed computers. The scripts assign values to a set of pre-defined attributes. The attributes describe the hardware, software, services, and other characteristics of the computer. The values of the attributes are used to determine which computer groups should include the computer as a member.
In MOM 2005, attributes represent more than just values collected from Windows registry entries. An attribute can represent any characteristic that you can determine programmatically within a MOM script. Common sources for attribute data include:
- WMI
- Windows components
- Custom COM components
Several classes in the MOM Scripting Library are designed only for use in discovery scripts:
- DiscoveryData object
- DiscoveryCollection object
- DiscoveryRelationshipCollection object
- DiscoveryClassInstanceID object
- DiscoveryInstance object
- DiscoveryRelationshipInstance object
Discovery data collected by these objects is sent back to the Management Server using the ScriptContext.Submit method.
Discovery scripts can run either on the Management Server or on an agent-managed computer. The data for most attributes will be easier to collect if you run the script locally on the managed computer.
In most cases, you should create a timed event rule to periodically run the discovery script.