Discovery client is an application that automatically discovers your physical servers and virtual machines (VMs) in your infrastructure. Discovery client collects all required metrics for a successful migration to Google Cloud.
It then automatically sends this information to Migration Center, where you can review the collected data and perform an assessment.
How data collection works
The following section summarizes how discovery client gathers data from your infrastructure.
- You create an instance of discovery client from Migration Center and you download it to your local Windows machine that can access your infrastructure.
- You install discovery client.
- You create the credentials needed to access your assets.
- You manually add the IP addresses of your machines to the credentials, so that discovery client can access them to gather data. Alternatively, you can provide ranges of IP addresses that discovery client can ping to automatically identify assets.
- Discovery client accesses your assets at regular intervals and collects performance data.
- Discovery client sends the collected data to the Migration Center portal, where it is aggregated and analyzed.
Limitations
The following limitations apply to discovery client:
- The discovery client can only be installed on Windows machines. To run a discovery from a Linux machine, use the Migration Center discovery client CLI.
- The discovery client can only scan devices running a Windows or Linux OS.
Pricing
The discovery client is provided as part of Migration Center and is available to use at no charge. Google Cloud Migration Center assessments are active for up to 3 years, while the discovery is typically active for 30 days. You can connect with your Google representative to customize these time frames.
What's next
- Learn how to install discovery client.