Software-only OT asset discovery without hardware sensors
Identify and inventory your digital OT assets with unprecedented fidelity, but without installing a ton of hardware sensors. Download today and start discovering.
OT asset discovery
at scale
To this day, OT asset discovery is among the worst time-wasters on the plant floor — because most of it is done manually. Maintenance specialists, consultants, or interns are sent scrambling to collect asset details in walk-down inspections. Before they are even finished with collecting basic details in one plant, the information has already changed.
The reality is that OT asset discovery only works if automated. This is where OTbase Discovery comes in. The software crawls your process networks just like an engineering station and collects configuration data down to the detail.
The best part: No hardware sensors are needed. OTbase is a software-only product that runs on Windows, Linux, and even on Docker/Podman.
It can be remotely configured and updated using the OTbase Discovery Manager orchestration software.
Here’s how it’s done:
Deploy OTbase Discovery
OTbase Discovery is a software product that comes in various flavors: Windows, Linux, or container-based. You also have a choice between network discovery and host-based discovery. In typical environments you will find a mix of both.
Deployment can be automated as the installer supports a silent mode (no user interaction required).
How many Discovery instances you need to deploy and where depends on your network architecture. In a flat architecture the number will be much lower than in a segregated architecture. But don’t worry, the number of Discovery installations has no effect on pricing.
Configure OTbase Discovery
You can fine-tune the configuration of OTbase Discovery in any way you want. Limit IP ranges for discovery, go deep into fieldbus networks, add credentials for WiniRM or SNMP v3, and so on.
Configuration can be done via a user-friendly user interface, via configuration file (automated), or remotely using the OTbase Discovery Manager.
Forget OTbase Discovery
In typical deployments, OTbase Discovery works completely autonomous. At the specifc time of day that you have configured, it does its discovery run (which usually takes a couple of minutes) and then automatically pushes asset information to OTbase Inventory.
As the exception from the rule, you can also discover and export manually, from a laptop or USB stick. This option is used by service providers to collect a snapshot of the OT configuration.
OTbase Discovery platform variants
OTbase Discovery is available for different deployment scenarios. Pick the version(s) that suit you best. All variants are part of the OTbase base package.
Want to dive deeper?
Can we finally stop the nonsense? You have been told countless times that active asset discovery would be unsafe and dangerous. But that’s for inappropriate use of IT tools like Nmap in an OT environment! Purpose-built tools such as RSlinx and TIA Portal do active discovery, and so does OTbase. Why? Because active OT asset discovery is the only way to arrive at a useful OT asset inventory — something that users of passive sniffing tools have found out the hard way.
The OT Asset Discovery Handbook looks at:
- Active discovery myths versus reality
- Functions and use cases
- The decentralized OTbase architecture for optimum OT security
Ready to start your OT Security Journey ?
We can help.
