Universal Discovery Agent Overview

Universal Discovery (UD) Agent is a program that is installed on a discovery node. The following table shows functions that the UD Agent performs:

Search for	Example	Results
A single word	`cat`	Topics that contain the word "cat". You will also find its grammatical variations, such as "cats".
A phrase. You can specify that the search results contain a specific phrase.	`"cat food"` (quotation marks)	Topics that contain the literal phrase "cat food" and all its grammatical variations. Without the quotation marks, the query is equivalent to specifying an OR operator, which finds topics with one of the individual words instead of the phrase.

Search for	Operator	Example
Two or more words in the same topic	`AND` `and` `+` (plus symbol) `&` (ampersand)	`cat AND dog` `"cat food"+milk` `"cat food"&"dog food"`
Either word in a topic	`OR` `or` `\|` (pipe)	`cat OR dog` `cat \| dog`
Topics that do not contain a specific word or phrase	`NOT` `not` `!` (exclamation point)	`NOT cat` `! dog`
Topics that contain one string and do not contain another	`^` (caret)	`cat ^ mouse`
A combination of search types	`( )` parentheses	`cat + (dog \| mouse)` `cat \| dog + (! mouse)`

Function
Communication. Performs job scheduling and job execution functions with the Data Flow Probe and with the Scanner.
Shell. Provides a command line interface that provides access to services. The UD Agent uses the Universal Discovery protocol.
Software Utilization. Generates files that contains application utilization data. For more information, see Software Utilization.

Function

Communication. Performs job scheduling and job execution functions with the Data Flow Probe and with the Scanner.

Shell. Provides a command line interface that provides access to services. The UD Agent uses the Universal Discovery protocol.

Software Utilization. Generates files that contains application utilization data. For more information, see Software Utilization.

The UD Agent generates a Unique ID when it is installed on a discovery node. However, if there is a Unique ID already stored on the node, the UD Agent uses the existing Unique ID. Unique ID generation occurs when agent-based and agentless discovery methods are used. Additionally, generation might also occur when the Inventory Discovery by Scanner job and the Host Connection by Shell job run.

The Unique ID can be utilized as follows:

Reconciliation. The Unique ID is used for identification and validation criterion during reconciliation operations.

Authentication. The Data Flow Probe uses the Unique ID to validate that it is connecting to the correct discovery node when performing discovery.