MgsIPScan is a customized version of Nmap that uses raw IP packets to discover inventory in your environment. During FlexNet Manager Suite’s discovery and inventory process:
- Devices are initially discovered using the MgsIPScan network discovery process.
- Remote inventory is taken via the inventory beacon's remote execution processes.
- If device records are present in the initial MgsIPScan output, they will be present in the remote inventory reporting.
If your devices aren’t discovered as you expected, you can manually trigger the MgsIPScan executable to identify any issues that have occurred. MgsIPScan utilizes the same command-line parameters as NMAP. For full details on the parameters in use, refer to the NMAP Reference Guide.
Manually trigger MgsIPScan
Before running MgsIPScan manually, confirm that your devices to be discovered are:
- Present in the inventory rule's target and
- Present in the relevant beacons' assigned subnets view
- Find the MgsIpScan command in your discovery.log file.
The MgsIPScan executable is separate from the main BeaconEngine executable file.
When the discovery process is run, MgsIPScan is triggered with command-line parameters like the example below.
20xx-01-02 16:00:00,000 [iscovery.NMapDiscovery|IPScan] [INFO ] Command line for mgsipScan: -p T:22,139,443,445,U:443 -oX "C:\Windows\TEMP\ManageSoft\discovery\mgsipscan-t-20xx11_16000-xxxxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx.xml" -PI -sS -sU <target IPs>
- Change the line C:\Windows\Temp\Managesoft to C:\Windows\Temp\Managesoft\test.xml.
NOTE: You can amend your command-line for MgsIPScan output similarly to run MgsIPScan manually for your own discovered devices.
- Run the edited MgsIPScan executable from an administrator command prompt. The default location to run this command is C:\Program\Files (x86)\Flexera Software\Inventory Beacon\RemoteExecution\MgsIPScan.
Program Files (x86)\Flexera Software\Inventory Beacon\RemoteExecution\MgsIPScan\MGSIpScan.exe -p T:22,139,443,445,U:443 -oX "C:\Windows\TEMP\ManageSoft\test.xml" -PI -sS -sU <target IPs>
Troubleshoot with your results
After receiving the output results from running MgsIPScan, answer the following questions to further troubleshoot.
- Is your expected discovered device present in the XML output?
- If yes, are the relevant ports open and accessible?
If the relevant port(s) are reported as CLOSED or FILTERED, contact your network or firewall teams.
You can also manually test TCP port accessibility using the below PowerShell command:
Test-NetConnection -ComputerName <Enter target name or IP here> -Port <Port number>
- If not, verify if your device is targeted and assigned to your beacon’s subnets.
- Do you see any errors thrown by MgsIPScan in the command-line?
- In an error state, error.xml and test.xml output files are generated. Compare the results in these files with any outputted errors in the Command Prompt.
