Network Discovery Just Got Better with Powerful New Enhancements to the NetBox Discovery Agent

Keeping network documentation up to date is hard—and the cost of drift is high: misconfigurations, security risks, and operational pain. That’s why we’re excited to introduce the latest release of the NetBox Discovery Agent, featuring major upgrades to its network discovery capabilities.

These enhancements give teams more control, deeper visibility, and a streamlined path to validating what’s really in the network

Smarter Network Scans, Your Way

At the heart of this release are enhanced fine-grained controls over how discovery scans are run. Whether you’re doing quick surveys or deep inspection, you can tailor scans to suit your needs. Key new features include:

• Fast Scan Mode and Timing Templates: Speed up scans with a fast mode or fine-tune scan aggressiveness using timing templates.
• Targeted Port Scanning: Focus scans on specific ports or the top N most common ports.
• Ping-Only Mode: Identify live hosts without performing port probing.
• Multiple Scan Techniques: Choose from various scan techniques, including SYN, UDP, and stealthier methods for precision.

This flexibility makes it easy to strike the right balance between speed, depth, and scope—whether you’re scanning a handful of devices or an entire enterprise network.

What’s Next

This release sets the stage for even more powerful capabilities. With the upcoming launch of NetBox Assurance, you’ll be able to take discovered data further—detecting operational drift, reconciling discrepancies, and continuously verifying that your network aligns with your intended design. It’s another step toward making NetBox not just your source of truth, but the living blueprint of your infrastructure.

Get Started

The new discovery features are available now in the latest NetBox Discovery Agent release. Check the documentation for configuration examples and tips. If you’re looking for a sandbox environment to test the agent, check the NetBox Discovery Quickstart guide.

Know What’s Out There with Improved Network Discovery

Whether you’re just starting with NetBox or managing thousands of devices, NetBox Discovery gives you immediate, actionable visibility across your network.

Fire up the agent, run a scan, and start closing the gap between your documentation and your infrastructure.