When choosing credentials, consider the following:

  • Quick win: for quick and wide discovery coverage, try SNMPv2 credentials with a public community string first.
    Tip: You can find community strings in use at your site by looking in network device configurations or consulting your site's documentation.
  • For Windows host devices, add Windows credentials. (Additional steps might be needed if you need these credentials in order to gather information managed by WMI.)
  • Some Linux/UNIX and Windows hosts might need an SNMP agent (service) running to fetch SNMP statistic values for initial discovery.
    • From most Windows versions, you can add this from the Windows Turn Windows Features On or Off dialog.
    • From Linux, install the SNMP package from your respective package manager (yum, apt-get, zypper).
  • Add SSH credentials for Linux/UNIX host devices.
  • Apply VMware credentials to vCenter hosts.
  • When reapplying existing Hyper-V host credentials, an additional step is needed to distribute the new credentials to the VMs. For details, see Windows credential for Hyper-V.