Configuring Device Scout in the Pharos Cloud web portal

To configure a Device Scout :

Go to Discover > Device Scout.
Select the Device Scout you want to configure.
Click the Configure button to open the Device Scout Configuration dialog box.
Use the tabs (General, Discover and Advanced) to make your changes. Refer to the tables below for more information about these configuration settings.
Click Save to update the Device Scout.

The Configure Device Scout dialog box contains three tabs: General, Discover, and Advanced.

On the General tab, you can configure the schedule and communication settings of the Device Scout.
On the Discover tab, you can configure host addresses to scan. Communication settings specific to the Discovery process can also be configured here.
On the Advanced tab, you can configure special case settings. Unless specifically directed, the settings on the Advanced tab should remain at their defaults.

Note: You can configure only one Device Scout at a time. Also, it's important to point out that additional Device Scout configuration will occur during installation.

Device Scout Configuration

The General Tab

Field Name	Description	Default
Device Discovery	Designates when the Device Scout scans a network to discover devices. (Daily or Weekly.)	Weekly, Sunday
Discover Between	The time frame of a device discovery process. A random start time is selected within the configured range.	2:00 AM – 4:00 AM
Collect Device Status	Collect device status and alert information at the designated frequency.	Collect every 2 hours
Collect Toner Level	By default, toner level is collected with device usage. When the 'Collect with usage’ option is disabled, you can set the frequency at which Toner Level will be collected.	Collected with Device Usage
Collect Device Usage Between	The time frame to collect device usage information (meters and supplies). A random start time is selected within the configured range.	12:00 AM – 2:00 AM
Timeout	The length of time to wait for a response from a device when scanning addresses or communicating directly with a device.	2000 milliseconds (2 seconds)
Retries	The total number of attempts made to discover a device at an address or to collect a single piece of information from a device.	3 attempts

Note: A Device Scout will only request updated configuration based on the Configuration Polling Schedule defined in the configuration (on the Advanced tab).

The Discover Tab

You have the option to specify host addresses for either inclusion or exclusion. This host address information is used for device discovery and to gather device usage and status data. If you choose not to specify any host addresses, the Device Scout will perform a scan only on the local subnet, based on the IP address and subnet mask of the server where the Device Scout is running.

Note: If you provide only exclusions, no device discovery will occur.

Manual entry of a single IP Address or Hostname

To manually enter a single IP address, follow these steps:

Select Host Address (IPv4, IPv6, Hostname) from the drop-down menu.
Enter the single IP address or hostname in the first text field.
Click the Add button. The host address will now be listed in the text box labelled List of Host Address.
Click Save to save the changes.

Manual entry of an IPv4 Address Range

Select IPv4 Range from the drop-down menu.
Enter the starting IP address in the first text field.
Enter the ending IP address in the second text field.
Click Add Range to include the specified IP address range.
Optionally, click Exclude Range to exclude the IP address range if needed.
Click Save to save the settings.

Importing host addresses from a file

You also have the option to import host addresses from a simple text file. For this import, each device entry should be placed on a separate line and can be represented by a hostname, IPv4 address, or IPv6 address. The list can include any combination of these network information for the devices.

Take note of the following when preparing your text file for import.

Each IP address should be a single line item in the file
An IP address range should consist of a single line item with two IP addresses separated by a hyphen.
To exclude an IP address/range, enclose the excluded item in parentheses.

Below is an example of a file showing an included IP scan range, an included IP Address, and an excluded IP scan range.

To import hostnames from a text file:

Click Select A File.
Browse and select the file you want to import.
Click the Import button. The printer host addresses defined in the text file will appear in the List of Host Address box.
Click Save to complete the process.

Communication Settings

Timeout is the length of time to wait for a response from a device when scanning addresses or communicating directly with a device. This setting overrides the Timeout value set on the General tab. Timeouts will be more common when scanning a range of addresses and altering this setting can impact network load. The default value is 2000 milliseconds (2 seconds).
Retries is the total number of attempts made to discover a device at an address or to collect a single piece of information from a device. This setting overrides the Retries value set on the General tab. Timeouts will be more common when scanning a range of addresses and altering this setting can impact network load. The default value is 3 retries.
Ping Frequency is the time between retries. The default value is 20 milliseconds.

The Advanced Tab

Unless you are specifically directed, the settings on the Advanced tab should remain at their defaults. The following table summarizes each setting.

Field Name/Button	Description	Default
Perform Hostname Lookup	Enable/Disable hostname lookup. On some networks, the hostname lookup for a device address can be invalid or meaningless, especially those using static IP addresses for devices. Note: Starting with Pharos Cloud3.5.0, the default value of the Perform Hostname Lookup setting on the Device Scout has been changed to OFF (disabled). Previously, this setting was enabled (ON) by default, which posed issues for sites without a reliable DNS infrastructure. If you have reliable DNS information for your devices, you can choose to enable this setting. This update exclusively applies to newly created Device Scouts and does not impact existing Device Scout installations.	Disabled (unchecked)
Add SNMP Community String	Data entry area for specifying an SNMP Community String.	N/A
Add String button	Click the Add String button to add the specified SNMP Community String to the SNMP Community Strings table.	N/A
SNMP Community Strings	Text string(s) in the box are used during SNMP communication with a device. Some devices may use non-default community strings as a security measure.	public
Delete button	Select one or more rows in the SNMP Community Strings table and click the Delete button to remove the string(s) from the table.	N/A
Default Port Setting	The default SNMP port to use when communicating with devices.	161
Concurrency Limit	The Concurrency Limit controls how many devices can be communicated with at the same time. Increasing this setting can result in quicker scan times but at the cost of higher network load.	10
Configuration Polling Schedule	The timeframe the Device Scout uses for requesting updated configuration settings from the server.	2 hours
Post Health Check Between	The timeframe the Device Scout uses to send information about itself and its health to the server.	8:00 PM – 12:00 AM
Offline Posting Between	The timeframe the Device Scout uses to resend any device information which had previously failed to send.	12:00 AM – 3:00 AM

Pushing configuration settings through to the Device Scout

The Device Scout picks up the new IP ranges that were configured within the Pharos Secure Release web portal upon its next check in. You can speed up this process by launching the Device Scout Configuration application (on the machine where the Device Scout is installed), selecting the Tasks tab, then clicking the Refresh Tasks button. If you then open the Device Scout Discovery application, you should see the new IP ranges, as specified within the Secure Release web portal.