It is possible that, across subnet boundaries, only an IP address can be found for a device (that is, the device data is missing both a MAC address and a device name).
I want to ask if beacon and targets are in different subnets, is it 100% that MAC address(es) of targets are missing?
The Installing FNMS also said that:
Being within the target subnet allows the inventory beacon to reliably use ARP or nbtstat requests to determine the MAC address of a discovered device (reliability of these results is reduced across separate subnets)
Then is there any way to make sure that it is reliable enough for the beacon to determine the MAC address?
In relation to your first question: no, it is not guaranteed that MAC and name information will be missing for devices in other subnets. Whether or not you get names will depend on whether your DNS is set up to be able to do a reverse lookup to find names for discovered IP addresses. Whether or not you get MAC addresses will depend on whether the networking between your subnets it set up to allow APR/nbtstat requests to work across the subnets.
I don't know what is needed for ARP/nbtstat to work across subnets sorry. I'll have to leave that question to somebody with more networking expertise!
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It's down to the network topology configuration of the physical and virtualized infrastructure components to allow the required traffic to be passed between the environments in either or both directions. And obviously the operating systems and any firewalls at either level needs to be configured to allow the required traffic between the physical/virtual devices.
In relation to your first question: no, it is not guaranteed that MAC and name information will be missing for devices in other subnets. Whether or not you get names will depend on whether your DNS is set up to be able to do a reverse lookup to find names for discovered IP addresses. Whether or not you get MAC addresses will depend on whether the networking between your subnets it set up to allow APR/nbtstat requests to work across the subnets.
I don't know what is needed for ARP/nbtstat to work across subnets sorry. I'll have to leave that question to somebody with more networking expertise!
(Did my reply solve the question? Click "ACCEPT AS SOLUTION" to help others find answers faster. Liked something? Click "KUDO". Anything expressed here is my own view and not necessarily that of my employer, Flexera.)
May I ask another question related to beacon in different subnet with targets.
To inventory, the beacon and targets must communicate with each other. Then for virtual environment, I just need to open interface for them to connect, don't I? And it is also right in case the beacon is virtual machine, targets are physical machines?
It's down to the network topology configuration of the physical and virtualized infrastructure components to allow the required traffic to be passed between the environments in either or both directions. And obviously the operating systems and any firewalls at either level needs to be configured to allow the required traffic between the physical/virtual devices.
