Network Discovery Tasks – Import File Syntax
The “Import” button used on Network Discovery scan definition pages may be used to help specify scan information for a discovery task. Import files must be text files, where each line contains either a comment or scan information in a specific format. Scan entries may designate a specific IP address, a range of IP addresses in a subnet, an entire subnet, or a range of IP addresses potentially spanning multiple subnets.
• Lines that begin with a ‘#’ character are treated as comment lines. They are skipped.
• Each scan line consists of 3 to 5 comma-separated fields, as discussed below.
• Field 1 must always be present. It specifies the inclusion/exclusion type, and must be one of the following:
| “SingleIpAddr” |
Include or exclude a single IP address |
| “IpAddrRange” |
Include or exclude a range of IP addresses |
| “Subnet” |
Include or exclude an entire subnet |
| “Hostname” |
Include or exclude a specific hostname |
| “CustomIpAddrRange” |
Include or exclude a range of subnets and/or IP addresses |
• Field 2 must always be present. It must be either “Include” or “Exclude”, indicating whether the entry should be treated as an inclusion or exclusion entry. Inclusion entries designate devices that the scan should try to discover; they drive the discovery effort. Exclusion entries are used to exclude certain devices from discovery by the current task.
• Fields 3 through 5 are interpreted based on the inclusion/exclusion type (designated in Field 1), as follows:
| “SingleIpAddr” |
Field 3 must be a valid IP address. It specifies the IP address to included or excluded.
Fields 4 and 5 do not apply to this case. |
| “IpAddrRange” |
Field 3 must be a valid IP address. It specifies the starting IP address of the range to be included or excluded.
Field 4 must be a valid IP address. It specifies the ending IP address of the range to be included or excluded.
Field 5 must be a valid subnet mask. It specifies the subnet to use for the IP address range. |
| “Subnet” |
Field 3 must be a valid subnet address. It specifies the subnet to be included or excluded.
Field 4 must be a valid subnet mask.
Field 5 does not apply to this case. |
| “Hostname” |
Field 3 must be a valid hostname. It specifies the host to be included or excluded.
Fields 4 and 5 do not apply to this case. |
| “CustomIpAddrRange” |
Field 3 must be a valid custom IP address range, consisting of 4 numeric values separated by periods (like an IP address).
The first and second values must be numbers within the range 0-255.
The third and fourth values may be either:
(a) a number within the range 0-255,
(b) a pair of numbers, each within the range 0-255, separated by a dash (‘-‘), the first number being less than the second, or
(c) an asterisk(‘*’), representing the range 0-255.
Field 4 must be a valid subnet mask. It specifies the subnet to use for the custom IP address range.
Field 5 does not apply to this case. |
Sample Input File Content
# Include a specific IP address…
SingleIpAddr, Include, 10.104.155.38
# Include a range of IP addresses in a specific subnet…
IpAddrRange, Include, 10.104.123.5, 10.104.123.105, 255.255.255.0
# Exclude a range of IP addresses from the preceding subnet…
IpAddrRange, Exclude, 10.104.123.95, 10.104.123.99, 255.255.255.0
# Include all IP addresses in a specific subnet…
Subnet, Include, 10.104.133.0, 255.255.255.0
# Include a specific range of IP addresses (35-42) in several subnets (10.104.12.0 through 10.104.18.0)…
CustomIpAddrRange, Include, 10.104.12-18.35-42, 255.255.255.0