Windows domain scanning requirements

[Lansweeper]

This page provides information on scanning Windows computers with or without a scanning agent.

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There are two main ways to scan a Windows computer: with a scanning agent or without a scanning agent.
Both options return the same data, but the scanning agent allows for offsite scanning and is immune to credential and firewall issues.

Outlined below are the requirements for scanning Windows domain computers with or without an agent. Lansweeper will pull most Windows computer data from Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), a management framework built into Windows operating systems. Some data is pulled directly from the client machine's registry as well.

Requirements for scanning without a scanning agent

To scan a Windows domain computer without an agent, the computer must meet the following requirements:

• Architecture
  32-bit or 64-bit
• Operating system
  Windows XP or any more recent Windows operating system.
• Firewall
  As Lansweeper pulls most Windows computer data from WMI, you need to ensure that WMI traffic is allowed through your client machines and other firewalls.

By default, Windows sends WMI data over random ports, as explained in this Microsoft knowledge base article. There are three options to ensure the data stream: 

1. Configure your firewalls to allow all WMI traffic. Windows Firewall includes a remote administration exception that you can enable to allow WMI traffic, as explained in this knowledge base article. For third-party firewalls, consult your firewall's documentation.
2. Configure a fixed WMI port and allow traffic through that port.
3. If you are unable to allow WMI traffic through your firewalls, scan your computers with the LsPush scanning agent instead, which does not require firewall reconfiguration.

The firewall on the scanning server must whitelist Lansweeperservice.exe to make outbound connections and correctly scan your network.

• Credentials
  You must provide Lansweeper with a username/password combination that has administrative privileges on the client machine and, for scanning Active Directory information, read-only access to Active Directory.
• Installed software
  No Lansweeper software is required on the client machine you're scanning. You do need to ensure that the Windows Management Instrumentation service is running on the machine, as this is what Lansweeper will use to retrieve data.

Requirements for scanning with a scanning agent

To scan a Windows domain computer with our LsAgent scanning agent, the computer must meet the following requirements:

• Architecture
  32-bit or 64-bit
• Operating system
  Windows 7 SP1 or any more recent Windows operating system
• Firewall
  No firewall reconfiguration required
• Credentials
  No credentials required
• Installed software
  The LsAgent software needs to be installed on the client machine you want to scan. After collecting an inventory of the computer it's installed on, LsAgent sends scanned data back to your Lansweeper installation, either directly or through our relay server in the cloud.