Enterprise Recon 2.9.1

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All Documentation > ER 2.9.1 > Scanning Overview > Start a Scan

Start a Scan

This section covers the following topics:

Overview
How To Start a Scan
Set Schedule
Probe Targets

Overview

This section assumes that you have set up and configured Targets to scan. See Scan Locations (Targets) Overview.

Start a scan from the following places in the Web Console:

Dashboard.
Targets page. See Scan Locations (Targets) Overview.
Schedule Manager. See View and Manage Scans.
New Scan page.

How To Start A Scan

Log in to the ER2 Web Console.
Navigate to the Select Locations page by clicking on:
- Scans > New Scan, or
- the New Scan button in the Dashboard, Targets, or Scans > Schedule Manager page.
On the Select Locations page, select Targets to scan from the list of Targets and click Next.

To add Targets not listed in Select Locations, see Add Targets.

From ER 2.0.21, you can browse and select the contents of Targets listed in Select Locations to add as scan locations. For details, see Probe Targets.
On the Select Data Types page, select the Data Type Profiles to be included in your scan and click Next.
On the Set Schedule page, configure the parameters for your scan and click Next. See Set Schedule for more information.
On the Confirm Details page, review the details of the scan schedule, and click Start Scan to start the scan. Otherwise, click Back to modify the scan schedule settings.

Your scan configuration is saved and you are directed to the Targets page. The Target(s) you have started scans for should display Searched x.x% in the Searched column to indicate that the scan is in progress.

If your scan does not start immediately, your Master Server and the Node Agent system clocks may not be in sync. A warning is displayed in the Agent Admin page. See Server Information and Agent Admin for more information.

Set Schedule

The Set Schedule page allows you to configure the following optional parameters for your scan:

Schedule Label
Scan Frequency
Set Notifications
Advanced Options

Enterprise Recon 2.4 Set Schedule page to configure scan parameters.

Schedule Label

Enter a label for your scan. ER2 automatically generates a default label for the scan. The label must be unique, and will be displayed in the Schedule Manager. See View and Manage Scans.

Example of scan Schedule Label set to "SharePoint-Server Dec21-1200"

Scan Frequency

Decide whether to Scan Now, or to Schedule a future scan.

To schedule a scan:

Select Schedule.
Select the start date and time for the scan.
(Optional) Set the scan to repeat by selecting an option under How Often?.

Example of Scan Frequency set to run just once on given date at 12:00 pm in the Default timezone.

When scheduling a future scan, you can set a Time Zone. The Time Zone should be set to the Target host's local time. Setting the Time Zone here will affect the time zone settings for this scheduled scan only.

The Master Server resides in Dublin, and Target A is a network storage volume with the physical host residing in Melbourne. A scan on Target A is set for 2:00 pm. The Time Zone for the scan should be set to "Australia/Melbourne" for it to start at 2.00 pm local time for Target A.

Selecting the "Default" Time Zone will set the scan schedule to use the Master Server local time.

Daylight Savings Time

When setting up a scan schedule, Time Zone settings take into account Daylight Savings Time (DST).

On the start day of DST, scan schedules that fall within the skipped hour are moved to run one hour later.

On the start day for DST, a scan that was scheduled to run at 2:00 am will start at 3:00 am instead.
On the end day of DST, scan schedules that fall within the repeated hour will run only during one occurrence of the repeated hour.

Set Notifications

To set notifications for the scan:

Select Notify.
Click + Add Notification.
In the New Notification dialog box:
- Select Users to send alerts and emails to specific users.
- Select Email Address to send email notifications to specific email addresses.
Under Notification Options, select Alert or Email for the event to send notifications for when the event is triggered. Only the Email options are available if Email Addresses is selected in Step 3.
Click Save.

See Notification Policy for more information.

Notification policies created here are not added to the Notification Policy page.

Advanced Options

Configure the following scan schedule parameters in Advanced Options:

Automatic Pause Scan Window
Limit CPU Priority
Limit Search Throughput
Enable Scan Trace Logs
Capture Context Data
Match Detail
Partial Salesforce Object Scanning
Enable Bulk Download for Cloud Target Scans

Automatic Pause Scan Window

Set scan to pause during the scheduled periods:

Pause From: Enter the start time (12:00 am - 11:59 pm)
To: Enter the end time (12:00 am - 11:59 pm)
Pause on which days?: Select the day(s) on which the scan is paused. If no days are selected, the Automatic Pause Scan Window will pause the scheduled scan every day between the times entered in the Pause From and To fields.

Set a scan pause schedule for every Wednesday and Friday from 8:00 am to 12:00 pm:

If a Time Zone is set, it will apply to the Automatic Pause Scan Window. If no Time Zone is set, the Time Zone menu will appear under How Often?, allowing the user to set the time zone for the scan. See Scan Frequency above for more information.

Limit CPU Priority

Sets the CPU priority for the Node Agent used.

If a Proxy Agent is used, CPU priority will be set for the Proxy Agent on the Proxy Agent host.

The default is Low Priority to keep ER2's resource footprint low.

Limit Search Throughput

Sets the rate at which ER2 scans the Target:

Limit Data Throughput Rate: Select to set the maximum disk I/O rate at which the scanning engine will read data from the Target host. No limit is set by default.
Set memory usage limit: Select to set the maximum amount of memory the scanning engine can use on the Target host. The default memory usage limit is 1024 MB.

If you encounter a "Memory limit reached" error, increase the maximum amount of memory the Agent can use for the scan here.

Configure the data and memory usage limit for a scan schedule.

Enable Scan Trace Logs

Select Enable Scan Trace to capture detailed scan trace messages when scanning a Target. See Scan Trace Logs for more information.

Scan Trace Logs may take up a large amount of disk space, depending on the size and complexity of the scan, and may impact system performance. Enable this feature only when troubleshooting.

Capture Context Data

Select to include contextual data when displaying matches in the Match Inspector. See Remediation.

Contextual data is data found before and after a found match to help you determine if the found match is valid.

Match Detail

For each scan schedule, ER2 balances the amount of information stored for each match location in terms of match details, contextual data and metadata.

While the default Match Detail setting is workable in most scenarios, sometimes there may not be sufficient match information captured for ER2 to safely perform "Masking" remediation on all matches within a given file. In such scenarios, ER2 will not proceed with the "Masking" remediation process.

From ER 2.0.30, you have control over the quantity of match information captured for each scan with the Match Detail setting to suit your scanning and remediation needs.

Setting	Description
View less match detail per file across a larger quantity of files	This results in a more even spread of match data across a large quantity of files. This setting captures less contextual data and metadata for each match location, which leads to less match information viewable in the Match Inspector window. This setting is recommended for first-time scans of a system where a sample-based view of match and context details within every possible location found is required for initial investigation before deciding on the appropriate remediation strategy.
Balances quantity of files and match detail in each file	This is the default setting in ER2. This results in more match detail initially captured per file, but rapidly drops off if matches are detected in a large quantity of files. This setting is best catered to typical scenarios where up to 10,000 matches per location are expected.
View the maximal detail per file across a smaller number of files	This captures maximal detail per file, but will rapidly reach the resource limit for ER2, resulting in very little match detail in subsequent files if more than a few files with a very high match count are present. If the resource limit is hit before all the locations are scanned, the scan schedule will terminate with the "Scan stopped" status. This setting is most appropriate when millions of matches are expected in a small number of locations. With the View the maximal detail per file across a smaller number of files option, you can maximize the match information stored for each file to successfully perform "Masking" remediation on match locations.

Regardless of the selected Match Detail option, the accuracy of the match count reported by Enterprise Recon will not be impacted.
All other remediation options including Delete Permanently, Quarantine and Encrypt File will also continue function as designed.

Partial Salesforce Object Scanning

The Partial Salesforce object scanning parameter lets you specify the maximum number of records per Salesforce object to be scanned for each scan schedule.

See Salesforce - Partial Salesforce Object Scanning for more information.

Enable Bulk Download for Cloud Target Scans BETA

The Enable bulk download for cloud target scans (BETA) parameter allows bulk download of files for supported cloud Targets.

Cloud Targets that support this feature are:

Box Inc

This feature is currently in BETA stage. When the Enable Box Bulk Download parameter is selected, scan results in Box Targets may report Inaccessible Locations. We strongly recommend using the feature in test environments as there may be other limitations associated with its usage.

Probe Targets

You can probe Targets to browse and select specific Target locations to scan when adding a new Target.

Requirements

Make sure that:

The Master Server is running ER 2.0.21 or above. See Update ER2.
The version of the Node or Proxy Agent assigned to the Target is 2.0.21 or above. For details on how to install or update the Agent, see Agent Admin.
The Target host and the Node or Proxy Agent assigned to the Target are running and connected to the network.

To Probe Targets

Start a new scan.
In Select Locations, click the arrow next to the Target name to expand and view available locations for that Target.
Select the Target location(s) to scan.
Click Next to continue configuring your new scan.

BETA This is a Beta feature. Ground Labs does not give any warranties, whether express or implied, as to the suitability or usability of its Beta features. If you have any feedback on bugs or usability of the Beta feature, please email your feedback to product@groundlabs.com. Your assistance on this is highly appreciated.