---
title: "Best Practices for Deploying NIOS-X Discovery"
canonical: "https://docs.infoblox.com/space/BloxOneInfrastructure/1348501515/Best%20Practices%20for%20Deploying%20NIOS-X%20Discovery"
format: markdown
---
This topic outlines best practices for deploying NIOS-X servers for discovery purposes. 

# Hardware and Virtualization Environment

This section outlines recommendations for deploying and optimizing NIOS-X servers on VMware. For information on how to deploy a NIOS-X server, see *[Deploying NIOS-X Servers](https://infoblox-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/BloxOneInfrastructure/pages/204800163)*. See *[Minimum System Requirements for NIOS-X Discovery](https://infoblox-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/BloxOneInfrastructure/pages/1361543714)* for recommended resource allocation for NIOS-X servers running the discovery service.

## Hardware Virtualization Support

Deploy NIOS-X servers on the latest processors with hardware virtualization support. NIOS-X servers benefit greatly from the hardware virtualization support included in the latest generation processors. Older processors may not perform well in high-performance applications, such as those with a high license count.

## vCPU Allocation

Monitor the Discovery service status and adjust vCPU allocation based on CPU Ready State times. If the Discovery services status is in a degrading state, check the CPU Ready State times on the NIOS-X server. If the times are high, reduce the number of vCPUs. If the times are low, increase vCPUs. For additional information about vCPU allocation, refer to *[Performance Best Practices for VMware vSphere](https://www.vmware.com/docs/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-80-performance-best-practices)*. 

## Disk Performance

Use dedicated disks/spindles for NIOS-X servers to avoid I/O delays. In high-performance applications, such as high license count deployments, NIOS-X servers can be I/O intensive. If multiple applications are configured to access the same physical disk, NIOS-X servers can experience significant read/write delays that might degrade its performance. 

## Server Performance Monitoring

If monitoring is set up for your VMware server, adjust alert thresholds for NIOS-X to prevent unnecessary alarms. NIOS-X is a high-performance network analysis system that can be different than the enterprise applications you regularly monitor. It may use CPUs intensely for extended periods of time and may exceed the CPU thresholds currently set on the server performance monitoring applications.

# Best Practices for Configuring Discovery Job

To ensure efficient discovery of network devices, use the following guidelines. By adhering to these best practices, you can optimize the discovery process and ensure accurate and efficient network device management with NIOS-X Discovery. For information on how to configure discovery, see *[Creating Discovery Services](https://infoblox-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/BloxOneInfrastructure/pages/606437586)*.

### **VM Sizing**: 

- Ensure that you have deployed a properly-sized virtual machine (VM) for optimal performance.

### **Pre-Configuration**: 

- Configure settings and credentials before starting discovery. This ensures that they are applied and tested beforehand.

### **Phased Discovery**: 

- Perform discovery in phases for simplicity. Start with a small set of devices to catch issues early and ensure that credentials, firewall filters, and other settings are correct.

### **Network Size Management**:

- Avoid large networks such as /8 or /16, as they cause longer discovery times when using active polling.
- Avoid configuring more than 1,000 networks or exclusions. Each time an address is found, the discovery engine checks if it is in an included network. More networks result in longer discovery cycles and greater impact on performance. Merge several networks into larger ones. If they become too large, disable ping sweep and add relevant seed routers.

### **Seed Routers**:

- It is better to have large networks and seed routers than thousands of small networks. With seed routers, the discovery engine relies less on active polling to discover most devices, making large networks less of an issue.

> ⚠️ While seed routers speed up discovery, adding too many is not advisable as they count towards the included networks and exclusion count.

### **Avoid Duplicate Polling**:

- Avoid polling the same device from more than one discovery service or server. Polling a device from multiple discovery services places additional load on the target device and results in duplicate data in the asset inventory database. For large networks, divide them into non-overlapping ranges and assign them to different discovery services. Use seed routers for quicker discovery.

### **Comprehensive Service Selection**:

- Select all discovery services such as SNMP, CLI, and others. All settings are important for discovery, and having one disabled may cause incomplete data.

> 📝 SNMP is used to gather basic information about a device (vendor, model, OS, etc.) required for proper CLI polling. If SNMP is disabled before this information is collected, CLI collection will not occur.