Creating a scheduled scan

Screenshot 62 - List of configured scheduled scan

To create a scheduled scan:

1. Click on the Configuration button and expand the Configuration > Settings sub-node

2. Right-click on the Scheduled Scans sub-node and select New > Scheduled scan… This will bring up the ‘New Scheduled Scan’ configuration dialog.

Screenshot 63 - New Scheduled Scan dialog

3. In the General tab which opens by default, specify the target computers (i.e. hostname, IP or IP range).

NOTE: For more information on how to specify which target computers to be scanned refer to the ‘Scheduled scan: Configuring scan targets’ section below.

4. Select the scanning profile that will be used for this scheduled scan and specify a description of the scheduled scan.

5. If this scheduled scan is to be run periodically, specify the frequency at which the scan will be launched.

6. Specify the date and time at which the scheduled scan will start.

7. If alternative logon credentials are required, click on the Logon Credentials tab. For instructions on how to achieve this refer to the ‘Scheduled scan: Configuring Logon Credentials’ section in this chapter.

8. When scanning targets that are normally offline such as laptops, click on the Advanced tab. Follow the instructions provided in the ‘Scheduled scan: Configuring Advanced options’ section in this chapter.

9. Click OK to finalize your settings.

Scheduled scan: Configuring scan targets

When configuring the list of target computers you can specify:

•	The fully qualified domain name to scan all machines making part of a specific domain

•	Computer names to denote scanning of particular machines.

•	The URL (ex. computer.corporation.com)

•	The I.P. addresses (ex. 192.168.100.5) of all machines to be scanned

•	An I.P. address range (ex. 192.168.100.5 – 192.168.100.50)

•	CIDR subnets (ex. 192.168.100.0/24)

•	The name and full path of the text file which contains target computer details using the following syntax:

file:<filename>

NOTE: The file must contain one target computer name per line.

Scheduled scan: Configuring logon credentials

As with normal vulnerability scans, scheduled scans will require to logon to target computers with administrator credentials in order to perform a vulnerability scan. By default, scheduled scans will use the credentials of the currently logged on user account. However if required, you can also specify a different set of logon credentials to be used during a scheduled scan.

Screenshot 64 - Configuring logon credentials

To configure logon credentials for a scheduled scan select one of the following options from the provided drop down list:

•	‘Alternative Credentials’ – Select this option to authenticate to target computers a specific username and password string.

•	‘SSH Private Key’ – Select this option to authenticate to Linux based target computers using Private Key authentication. Specify the username and the ‘Private Key’ file in the provided fields.

Scheduled scans: Configuring advanced options

Screenshot 65 - Configuring advanced options

GFI LANguard N.S.S. can automatically keep track of scan targets that were ‘missing’ (e.g. switched off) during the execution of a vulnerability scan; and attempt to re-scan these machines as soon as these are reachable over the network.

To achieve this, click on the Advanced tab and select the “Wait for offline machines to connect to network” option.