System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Unleashed

Discovery

Discovery is used to locate potential clients prior to installing client software on those systems. Systems must be discovered before the client can be installed. The next sections discuss the different methods to discover the client.

Caution: Need for a Clean Active Directory

System Center 2012 Configuration Manager offers six different discovery types:

• Active Directory Forest Discovery

• Active Directory Group Discovery

• Active Directory User Discovery

• Active Directory System Discovery

• Heartbeat Discovery

• Network Discovery

If you use one of the Active Directory Discovery methods and your Active Directory (AD) contains objects no longer used—such as obsolete groups, computers, and user accounts—these objects are imported ...