Use AssetObserve with confidence.

The dashboard is the daily starting point for assets, active findings, risk score, coverage and recent scanner activity.

1. Open Dashboard from the sidebar and check the four metric cards at the top.
2. Use the onboarding strip to jump to the next unfinished setup step.
3. Review Risk snapshot and Coverage intelligence before opening detailed pages.
4. Use Priority actions and Recent scan history for the most urgent follow-up work.

If the dashboard is empty, create an agent token and run the first scan.

Agents run authorized discovery from a network position you control.

1. Open Agents and create an enrollment token. Copy it now; it is shown once.
2. Copy the install command for the target platform from the box next to the new token, or download the package from the same page and compare its SHA-256.
3. Run it on a host that can reach the intended internal networks: `sh install.sh --server <your-server> --token aoa_...` on Linux and macOS, `install.ps1 -Server <your-server> -Token aoa_...` on Windows.
4. Confirm heartbeat, version and command status in the agent list, then queue a scan from that agent's page.
5. Add more agents only when sites, VLANs or security zones cannot be reached from the first scanner.

Linux and macOS install from a source package that needs Python 3.9 or newer; Windows uses the compiled installer when your deployment publishes one and the same source package otherwise. The installer registers a systemd user timer, a LaunchAgent or a scheduled task, and never asks for the token on a command line it did not receive it on.

Coverage shows which sites and network segments are visible and which still need attention.

1. Open Coverage and add the sites or segments that belong to the workspace.
2. Record owner notes so later reports explain who is responsible.
3. Compare covered segments, blind spots and AD-only or network-only assets after scans.
4. Place another scanner or adjust routing/firewall rules for unreachable areas.

Coverage is an operational map, not just a percentage.

Scans collect evidence from authorized internal ranges or configured cloud collectors.

1. Open New scan and choose the scan type that matches the target.
2. Enter a limited IP range or select an automatic cloud/everything mode when available.
3. Choose the language used for generated findings and reports.
4. Start the scan and inspect the scan detail page for discovered assets, evidence and reports.

Large scopes should be explicit and planned with the network owner.

Assets consolidate scan evidence into one view for endpoints, servers, network devices and services.

1. Open Assets to filter by search text, role, source or risk context.
2. Select an asset to review hostname, IP address, role, evidence and lifecycle fields.
3. Use bulk actions when multiple assets need the same owner or context update.
4. Keep hostname, role and business importance clean so risk scoring is easier to understand.

Unknown assets should be triaged instead of ignored.

Software inventory helps find installed products and recurring package exposure.

1. Open the software view from Assets.
2. Search for product names, versions or publishers.
3. Use asset links to see where a package was observed.
4. Prioritize unsupported or unexpected software before low-risk cleanup.

Software quality depends on authenticated endpoint evidence.

Hardware fields and warranty lookup support lifecycle planning.

1. Open an asset detail page and review model, serial number and procurement fields.
2. Use warranty lookup when the asset has enough vendor-identifying data.
3. Record purchase or owner information when automatic evidence is incomplete.
4. Use lifecycle gaps in reports when planning replacement work.

Lifecycle data is best treated as planning evidence, not a blocking control.

Findings translate evidence into active risks with severity, asset context and a recommendation.

1. Open Findings from the sidebar or a dashboard metric.
2. Filter by scan, language and workflow status.
3. Read severity, asset, business context, description and recommendation together.
4. Export CSV when another team needs the current finding list.

A finding is active until it is fixed, accepted or marked as a false positive.

Accepted-risk decisions document why a finding is not being fixed immediately.

1. Open the Accept control on an active finding.
2. Choose the decision: accepted risk, business required or false positive.
3. Choose the scope: this asset, the same site or the whole workspace.
4. Add a reason and optional expiry date, then save the decision.
5. Use Reopen when the exception is no longer valid.

Accepted risk should always include a business reason.

Actions turn recurring or important findings into a work queue.

1. Open Actions from the sidebar or dashboard.
2. Sort by priority and focus on open or in-progress items first.
3. Use the linked asset or finding to understand the evidence.
4. Update status as remediation work moves forward.

The dashboard shows the highest-priority actions so they are not buried in tables.

Reports package scan results into management, technical, action-plan or compliance-oriented output.

1. Open Reports and choose the scan to report on.
2. Select report type, output format and language.
3. Generate the report and download or open the finished artifact.
4. Use management reports for stakeholders and technical reports for remediation teams.

Report quality improves when asset owners, coverage and risk decisions are maintained.

NIS2-oriented views collect declarations and evidence for security management conversations.

1. Open Security & Compliance settings to maintain declarations.
2. Generate a NIS2 report from the report builder when evidence is ready.
3. Review gaps and use them as governance tasks rather than automatic legal conclusions.
4. Keep declarations current when controls or responsible people change.

Compliance reports support preparation; they do not replace legal advice.

Credential profiles help authenticated collection while keeping the boundary explicit.

1. Open Settings, then Credentials.
2. Create profiles only for systems you are authorized to inventory.
3. Match credentials to collectors and target types intentionally.
4. Rotate or remove credentials that are no longer needed.

Do not store broad admin access when a narrower read-only account is enough.

Workspace settings control team members, security context and operational metadata.

1. Open Settings to review workspace and team details.
2. Invite users with the role they need for their work.
3. Maintain risk context so findings reflect business impact.
4. Use Security & Compliance for policy declarations and security posture metadata.

Role changes should follow the least-privilege principle.

Billing shows plan status; support creates a ticket with the operational details needed for help.

1. Open Billing to review plan status, limits and checkout or invoice state.
2. Use Download PDF on an invoice row when accounting needs the invoice file.
3. Open Support to create a workspace ticket.
4. Choose the best category and include affected area, operating system, browser or agent details.
5. Reply on the ticket thread when the support team needs more information.

Public visitors can use Contact; signed-in users should use Support.

Partners can separate customer workspaces while keeping oversight from one console.

1. Open Partner Center when your organization has partner access.
2. Review customer workspaces and open the customer detail page when needed.
3. Keep reports, tickets and billing separated per customer workspace.
4. Use admin-level access only for operational tasks that require it.

Customer separation is part of the operating model.

Use the smallest approved source that can answer the inventory question.

1. Start with a limited network range or one owned lab segment.
2. Use optional endpoint mode for devices that roam or are not reliably reachable from a scanner.
3. Add AD LDAPS, SNMPv3 or DHCP/DNS snapshots only after confirming the required read-only access.
4. Review source provenance on assets before using the result in a report or operational decision.

Do not connect a source just because credentials exist. The owner, purpose and scope should be clear first.

Endpoint mode reports local inventory, heartbeats and queued batches from an approved device.

1. Create one enrollment token for the intended endpoint or rollout group.
2. Install the agent on a device you own or are authorized to administer.
3. Confirm the first heartbeat and inventory result in the agent list.
4. Check update target, offline queue and last result before treating a device as current.

Agent requests are HMAC-signed. Production installer code signing is a separate release and distribution control.

These sources are designed to document approved state without changing the source system.

1. Use a least-privilege read-only account for AD LDAPS and confirm its directory scope.
2. Use SNMPv3 credentials approved for inventory-only device reads.
3. Provide DHCP/DNS state through the authorized HTTPS snapshot endpoint.
4. Run one small validation collection and compare the observed records with the source owner.

Keep credentials in the customer-controlled scanner host or vault. Do not place passwords in tickets, reports or source code.

AssetObserve preserves observations and resolves them with stable identity signals where possible.

1. Open an asset and inspect its source observations and evidence.
2. Prefer serial number, SMBIOS UUID, managed-device ID, directory GUID and MAC address over display names.
3. Review ambiguous candidates instead of assuming two similar names are the same device.
4. Keep an identity decision reversible when new evidence appears.

A clean inventory is more valuable than an aggressive automatic merge.

Use jobs, task outcomes and coverage to understand what happened after a discovery request.

1. Check the discovery job status before starting the same work again.
2. Read task outcome, lease and retry information for incomplete work.
3. Use coverage to distinguish an unreachable segment from stale evidence or failed authentication.
4. Escalate repeated failures with the affected source, scope and timestamp instead of only a screenshot.

Durable leases and checkpoints let eligible work be retried without silently duplicating evidence.

Use the inventory controls to narrow results before opening or exporting a large result set.

1. Use server-side search and filters to define the operational question.
2. Save a useful view for recurring ownership, freshness or source checks.
3. Move through results with cursor pagination rather than opening every asset at once.
4. Request a CSV export and monitor its background-job status for large result sets.

The commercial Enterprise asset limit remains 50,000 even though local technical tests include a synthetic 60K scenario.

Keep discovery scope and concurrency within the tested guardrails.

1. Plan network discovery in authorized ranges up to 65,536 candidate hosts.
2. Keep host concurrency at 24 and port concurrency at 12.
3. Keep the Enterprise commercial asset limit at 50,000.
4. Use an owned staging environment before claiming production-scale readiness.

Do not raise these limits for a real environment without approved capacity, backup, monitoring and recovery evidence.

Start with placement and authorization, then use coverage and task evidence to narrow the failure.

1. Confirm scanner or agent placement, routing and firewall policy for the intended scope.
2. Check that the source credential has the expected read-only permission.
3. Inspect the latest task outcome, retry state and last observation timestamp.
4. Collect the affected scope, source, timestamp and error context before opening a support ticket.

An unreachable segment is not the same as an empty segment. Keep those outcomes separate in the investigation.