Install OTbase Discovery on Windows

Installation of OTbase Discovery is achieved via a Windows installer that guides the user through various dialogs for picking a desired program folder etc.

System requirements

OTbase Discovery runs on Windows 7 and higher.

For Windows 7, the following requirements must be met:

• SP1 installed
• KB3033929 installed (Driver signature support for Npcap)
• KB2533623 or monthly KB4457144 installed (Python multiprocessing support)
• Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable installed (api-ms-win-crt-runtime-l1-1-0.dll needed).

The amount of memory that is needed mostly depends on the number of devices that are probed by the node. If this number is low, such as a couple hundred endpoints, you will barely notice OTbase Discovery consuming memory, and the probing will often be completed within a couple of minutes, if not seconds. On the other end of the spectrum, there are installations where one discovery node probes many thousand endpoints, which will then require a dedicated machine with a decent amount of RAM (16+ GB).

Installation Wizard

After launching the installation program, follow these steps to install OTbase Discovery on your computer.

Stopping the OTbase Discovery Service and configuration client

When installing/updating, the installer will stop the discovery background service and terminate any active discovery configuration client.

Accept the license agreement

Select an installation location

Specify port numbers for SFlow/Netflow collection

OTbase Discovery can collect data flow information from your switches and routers if they support SFlow or Netflow. In this case, you also need to tell your switch or router to direct such traffic to the computer on which you install OTbase Discovery. Otherwise, you can unselect the Sflow and Netflow options if you choose not to use them.

Note: You cannot change port numbers or activation settings once that the installation procedure is finished. This means that if you ever need to make changes to these settings, you must re-install OTbase Discovery.

Specify port numbers for the Discovery REST API

OTbase Discovery comes with a REST API for script based configuration;  useful if you are running dozens or hundreds of OTbase Discovery nodes. You can specify the TCP port number for REST API access in this dialog. Otherwise, uncheck the checkbox to disable REST access.

Select the service port

You can specify a custom port on which the OTbase Discovery client (the GUI) connects with the discovery service. Simply acknowledge the default port number.

Completion

Your OTbase Discovery  installation (service+client) is now ready. You can now launch the OTbase Discovery configuration client right away.

Script-Based Installation (Silent Installation)

If you want to install OTbase Discovery using a script (for example controlled by Microsoft SCCM), then call the installer with the command line option /S for "silent", here we use a capital S. Below is a list of additional parameters you can use for script-based/ silent installations.

Note: Your script needs to be executed by a user with administrator privileges.

Note: Stopping the OTbase Discovery client and service before installing or rebooting the device afterwards if needed is not done by the installer in silent mode! This has to be taken care off by the script calling the installer.