Lifecycle Settings

The Lifecycle Settings enables configuring the global discovery cycle parameters.

To open the Lifecycle Settings, click from the top right corner of all pages. The System Settings page opens.

The Lifecycle Settings consists of the following options:

Discovery Settings

• Discovery Schedule (required, default: Interval) - Select the discovery schedule option. Note that all times are in UTC.
  • Every x hours - When this option is selected, discovery cycles will run every number of hours defined in the Repeat scheduled discovery every (hours) field.
    • The discovery cycle start time is determined based on the specified value, starting midnight. For example, if the specified value is 6, the discovery cycle start times are: 12am, 6am, 12pm, 6pm, 12am, etc.
      • The start time for the next discovery cycle task will be the closest interval. For example, If the specified value is 6, and the configuration was saved at 10am, the next discovery cycle will start at 12pm.
      • The maximum possible value is 24.
  • Every x days - When this option is selected, discovery cycles will run at the time specified in Scheduled discovery time field every number of days defined in the Repeat scheduled discovery every (days) field. The start time is determined based on the specified value, starting the 1st of each month. For example, if the specified value is 10, the discovery cycle is triggered on 1st, 11th, 21st, 31st (if exists), 1st, 11th, etc. The first start time is the closest interval. For example, If the specified value is 10, and the configuration was saved on the 12th, the next discovery cycle will be on the 21st. The maximum possible interval is 30.
  • Days of week - When this option is selected, discovery cycles will run at the time specified in Scheduled discovery time field in the selected days of week as specified in the Repeat scheduled discovery on field.

Setting More Than one Scheduled Discovery Time

When you choose Every x days or Days of week you can set a number of discovery times that will run at set hours on the days that you chose. In this way you can run a discovery time, at defined hours, and not every X hours, for instance to fit in with specific events during the working day.

• Click the + button to set more one discovery time, to run the discovery at defined hours during the day.
  

• Use delete to delete a scheduled discovery time.

  
  

• Constantly run Enforcement Sets (required, default: False)

  • If enabled, Axonius will constantly run the automatic Enforcement Sets. This option should be enabled when you have a real-time adapter and the assets fetched from that adapter are part of Saved Queries used as the trigger for different Enforcement Sets.
  • If disabled, Axonius will run the automatic Enforcement Sets in the end of each discovery cycle. It is recommended to keep this option disabled.
  NOTE

  • For details on real-time adapters, see Adapter Advanced Settings.
  • For details on Enforcements Sets, see Create and Execute an Enforcement Set.

• Tag reimaged devices (required, default: False) -

  • If enabled, Axonius tags a device as 'old' if Axonius identifies that the device had been reimaged and there is a new asset record in Axonius that represents that device.
    For example, a new employee receives a laptop that was owned by a former employee. The laptop had been reimaged. When the discovery cycle discovers the reimaged laptop, Axonius identifies there are two different devices sharing common characteristics (for example, same MAC address) and one device is 'new' in the network, while the other has not been discovered for some time. In such case, Axonius tags the 'old' device as 'Reimaged by [new device host name]'.
  • If disabled, Axonius will not tag any devices automatically.

Historical Snapshot Scheduling Settings

• Enable scheduled historical snapshot (required, default: switched on)

  • If switched on, Axonius saves historical collected data which can be used in the dashboard and in the Devices page and in the Users page to show insights on historical data.
  • If switched off, Axonius does not save historical collected data.
    
    

  Once switched on, specify the following parameters:

  • Historical snapshot schedule (data will be saved for first discovery on each day) (required, default: Every discovery cycle) - Select the historical snapshot schedule option:
    • Every discovery cycle - When this option is selected, historical snapshot data will be saved as part of every discovery cycle.
    NOTE

    Historical snapshot data is saved only for the first discovery cycle on each calendar day.

    • Every x days - When this option is selected:
      • Historical snapshot data will be saved at the time specified in Scheduled historical snapshot time field every number days defined in the Repeat scheduled historical snapshot every (days) field. Note that the time set here is in UTC. The start time is determined based on the specified value, starting the 1st of each month. For example, if the specified value is 10, the historical snapshot data is saved on the 1st, 11th, 21st, 31st (if exists), 1st, 11th, etc. The first start time is the is the closest interval. For example, If the specified value is 10, and the configuration was saved on the 12th, the next time historical snapshot data is saved will be on the 21st. The maximum possible interval is 30.
      • Historical snapshot data will not be saved as part of any discovery cycle.
    • Days of week - When this option is selected:
      • Historical snapshot data will be saved at the time specified in Scheduled historical snapshot time field in the selected days of week as specified in the Repeat scheduled historical snapshot on field.
      • Historical snapshot data will not be saved as part of any discovery cycle.

Historical Snapshot Retention Settings

Use historical snapshots to save historical collected data. You can set a retention period that defines the number of days for which historical data will be kept.
In addition you can use the snapshot settings to set rules to control the way historical data is retained. These rules define how many snapshots to keep or delete for set time periods. This helps conserve disk space and allows you to save reduced amounts of data for a longer period of time.

• Enable historical snapshot retention (required, default: switched off) - Select this checkbox to enable historical data retention. This setting is only relevant if the Enable scheduled historical snapshot is switched on.
  
  

  Once enabled, specify the following parameters:

  • Historical snapshot retention period (days) (required, default: Customer-hosted 180 days, Axonius-hosted (SaaS) 90 days) - Specify the number of days for which the historical data will be kept. Any historical data which is older than the number of days specified, will be deleted.

Setting Rules
Use the Rules button (optional) to set snapshot retention rules.
Set rules as follows:

1. Click the add button to add a new rule; the snapshot definition fields are displayed.

2. Specify the parameters for:

   • Snapshot Age - If the snapshot is older than (days)
   • Frequency - retain a single snapshot every (days)

3. Use Add to add rules, for instance to define rules for older snapshots. You can add up to 5 rules.

• Once you apply the rule – the system finds all snapshots older than the age defined and keeps a single snapshot every retention period.

• Snapshot retention is active till the day defined in the historical snapshot retention period, so if you define that you’re saving historical snapshots for 180 days, the rules you create will apply to data up to 180 days back.

  For example:
  You can define rules:

  • Retain data up to 180 days
  • When the snapshot is older than 30 days, retain 1 snapshot every 7 days.

  With this rule, there will be 30 snapshots for 30 days, and from day 30 only one snapshot will be retained every week. Day 30 is saved, and when the six following days become 30 days old they are erased.
  When the snapshot is older than 60 days the system retains 1 snapshot every 30 days. Therefore, from day 60 only one snapshot is retained every month.

4. Click Save on the Lifecycle Settings page to save your settings.

Deleting rules

• Click X to delete a rule,

Historical Snapshot Data Settings

• Save entity advanced view data (required, default: False) - Select whether to save entities advanced view data (the raw data fetched from the adapter connection source) as part of the historical collected data. This setting is only relevant if the Enable daily historical snapshot is switched on.
  • If enabled, the saved historical collected data will include all the entities advanced view data.
  • If disabled, the saved historical collected data will not include any of the entities advanced view data.
• Always override earlier daily snapshot data, when snapshot data is taken more than once a day. - Set the system to override snapshot data from earlier in the day with the latest snapshot data from that day, for systems that run a discovery cycle more than once a day,

Advanced Settings

Disable all scheduled activities (including Discovery cycles, Adapter fetches, Enforcement actions and Reports) - Admin users can toggle on this setting to pause all the scheduled activities. This includes all scheduled activites including Discovery cycles, Adapter fetches, Enforcement actions and sending of Reports. This setting is only available to admin users. Once you enable this setting, a banner is displayed on the system notifying you that activites are paused.