To take full advantage of the Discovery functionality, the SNMP subsystem must be configured to respond to the following probes:

This probe is sysObjectOID (.1.3.6.1.2.1.1.2). This probe returns an OID that conforms to the enterprise OIDs allocated by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. Be aware that the SNMP agent resident on the device returns this number, and this number might not be the same number as the hardware manufacturer. For example an HP N-class server may return the enterprise OID of 1.3.6.1.4.1.11 or 1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.250.14 depending on whether the SNMP agent is provided by HP or is the open source NET-SNMP package. The number returned is matched against a lookup table to try and determine the company value of the OID. (For example, IBM or Sun).

This probe is made for the sysDescr OID (.1.3.6.1.2.1.1.1). This probe returns a description of the device or agent. This string is matched against a lookup table to try and determine the system description value. (For example, Windows 2000 or Solaris).

Lastly, if configured, a query is made against the Device and Storage section of the Host Resources Management Information Block (MIB). Specific information retrieved is the file system mount point, storage type, storage description, allocation units, size in storage units, and storage units used. Before this information is returned, calculations are made to convert the values into kilobytes. Only fixed disk storage units are returned.