Discovery Planning

The next step is to determine which discovery methods you will enable for your SMS sites. You can choose different combinations of discovery methods to locate resources. The discovery method you use determines the type of resources discovered and which SMS services and agents are used in the discovery process. A computer does not automatically become an SMS client through discovery. Depending on how you plan to use SMS, you can choose to perform discovery without performing installation, or vice versa.

The Discovery Planning flowchart in Figure 1.3 can help you identify which discovery methods you should plan for. Then complete the Discovery Planning worksheet based on the decisions you make from the flowchart. For a complete discussion about discovery and discovery methods in SMS 2003, see Appendix C: "Appendix C - Client Deployment Planning" later in this book.

Figure 1.3   Discovery planning flowchart