Windows discovery requires a Windows proxy host because the methods that are used to access Windows hosts are only available from Windows systems. Windows discovery is handled in one of the following ways:

• Credential Windows proxy: A BMC Atrium Discovery application that runs on a customer-provided Windows host and uses credentials supplied by the BMC Atrium Discovery appliance to perform Windows discovery.
• Active Directory Windows proxy: A BMC Atrium Discovery application that runs on a customer-provided Windows host that is part of an Active Directory domain. The user that the Windows proxy service runs as is configured when it is installed. Where that user is configured on hosts in the domain, the Windows proxy can log in and run discovery commands. The Active Directory Windows proxy does not use any credentials entered using the BMC Atrium Discovery user interface.

  Starting with BMC Atrium Discovery, version 8.2, the Workgroup Windows proxy is no longer supplied with the appliance. All of its functionality has been moved into the Active Directory Windows proxy.

Windows proxies are grouped into Windows proxy pools. This enables the appliance to distribute discovery requests in order to balance the load of the proxies. Each proxy pool can only hold one type of Windows proxy (for example, a credential proxy pool can hold only credential proxies).

All proxies in a pool must have identical access to Windows hosts, as only one proxy per pool is tested for access. Unless proxy pools are restricted by IP address, a typical configuration consists of one proxy pool per Active Directory domain containing one or more Active Directory proxies, and a proxy pool containing one or more Credential proxies.

The Windows proxy pools are displayed in the order (from top to bottom) in which you have added them to the appliance. You can change their order. For discovery tasks, the proxies in a Windows proxy pool are selected depending on their loading.

Before you can use a Windows proxy to discover your Windows IT infrastructure, you must perform the following tasks:

1. Install and run the Windows proxy software.
   For more information, see Installing Windows proxies.
2. Add Windows proxy pools to the appliance.
   For more information, see Adding Windows proxies and proxy pools.
3. Add the Windows proxies to the proxy pools.
   For more information, see Adding Windows proxies and proxy pools.

Potential user lock out By default, AD accounts have a limited number of login attempts, for example three attempts in fifteen minutes. Access Denied errors from WMI, DCOM, and local commands such as systeminfo are counted as unsuccessful login attempts. Where target hosts are incorrectly configured, this limit can be exceeded and the account locked out. To avoid this, configure the Discovery account to accept unlimited login attempts.

Windows discovery utilities no longer shipped in BMC Atrium Discovery

From version 8.1 the following utilities are no longer shipped with BMC Atrium Discovery. You can download them freely and install them where required.

• rcmd: see the Microsoft Download Center and search for the resource kit for the version of Windows that you are running .
• pulist: download this from the Microsoft Download Center.
• tlist: download this from the Microsoft Download Center.