Stay organized with collections
Save and categorize content based on your preferences.
This page describes the collection methods available in discovery client,
and the types of data that discovery client collects from your
infrastructure.
Collection methods
The discovery client provides you with two types of data collection:
Operating system collection
Inventory discovery using the vSphere API
Operating system collection
The operating system collection lets you gather data from your Linux and
Windows servers. The collected data includes CPU, memory, disk space, and
performance data of the machine.
VMware vCenter collection
The discovery client lets you perform inventory discovery and
guest discovery on your vCenter VMs.
Inventory discovery lets you scan and list all the virtual machine (VM)
instances in your infrastructure. By using inventory discovery, you can
determine the characteristics of the VMs, such as operating system type,
storage, number of cores, and other basic information.
Inventory discovery also lets you collect the performance data.
Guest discovery lets you collect guest-level data, including system data,
performance data, and network data, using the VMware guest tools.
It uses the VMs' credentials to authenticate to the VMs and provides
additional data with respect to inventory discovery.
You can provide the guest credentials for Linux and Windows to automatically
assign them to newly discovered servers in a vCenter scan.
Alternatively, you can assign guest credentials later to individual servers,
or to groups of servers.
If you don't provide guest credentials at all, the discovery client
performs only an inventory discovery.
By default, guest discovery is performed using VMware Tools, if it is installed
on servers, otherwise using SSH or WMI.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-29 UTC."],[],[],null,["# Discovery client collection methods\n\nThis page describes the collection methods available in discovery client,\nand the types of data that discovery client collects from your\ninfrastructure.\n\nCollection methods\n------------------\n\nThe discovery client provides you with two types of data collection:\n\n- Operating system collection\n- Inventory discovery using the vSphere API\n\n### Operating system collection\n\nThe operating system collection lets you gather data from your Linux and\nWindows servers. The collected data includes CPU, memory, disk space, and\nperformance data of the machine.\n\n### VMware vCenter collection\n\nThe discovery client lets you perform inventory discovery and\nguest discovery on your vCenter VMs.\n\n- **Inventory discovery** lets you scan and list all the virtual machine (VM)\n instances in your infrastructure. By using inventory discovery, you can\n determine the characteristics of the VMs, such as operating system type,\n storage, number of cores, and other basic information.\n Inventory discovery also lets you collect the performance data.\n\n- **Guest discovery** lets you collect guest-level data, including system data,\n performance data, and network data, using the VMware guest tools.\n It uses the VMs' credentials to authenticate to the VMs and provides\n additional data with respect to inventory discovery.\n\nYou can provide the guest credentials for Linux and Windows to automatically\nassign them to newly discovered servers in a vCenter scan.\nAlternatively, you can assign guest credentials later to individual servers,\nor to groups of servers.\nIf you don't provide guest credentials at all, the discovery client\nperforms only an inventory discovery.\nBy default, guest discovery is performed using VMware Tools, if it is installed\non servers, otherwise using SSH or WMI.\n\nWhat's next\n-----------\n\n- Learn how to [create and manage credentials in discovery client](/migration-center/docs/create-and-manage-credentials)."]]
