How do I automate IT asset inventory discovery?

Pick a collector. Agent on the machine (Movitera Link, GLPI, RMM) for enrolled endpoints. Agent-based subnet watch for neighbours those agents can see. Dedicated scanner (Lansweeper) for unmanaged network gear. GLPI if you will host a CMDB. A spreadsheet is not automation. Then put the record where the ticket is, or budget the integration.

Is Movitera a Lansweeper alternative?

No. Movitera Link discovery is agent-based: passive, active, or both, on the subnet where agents run. Lansweeper is a dedicated network scanner. Printers and switches without an agent need a manual asset record in Movitera. Teams that need both jobs buy both kinds of tool, or they host GLPI.

Do printers and switches show up automatically?

Only if your collector can see them. A dedicated scanner often can, via SNMP and similar. An endpoint agent sees them only as neighbours on its subnet, and they still need to be enrolled. In Movitera, unmanaged printers and switches need a manual asset record.

Where should the discovered record live?

In the same product as the ticket if the daily loop is support. In the scanner if the daily loop is network ITAM. Splitting them is fine when you will maintain the join. See the ticketing-with-assets comparison for that purchase.

HOW-TO · SEPTEMBER 2026

How to automate IT asset inventory discovery

Automation is a mechanism, not a brand. Agent on the machine, scanner on the wire, GLPI in your rack, or a spreadsheet you pretend is a process.

7 days, no card. Billed in BRL.

Automating IT asset inventory discovery means the record of a device appears without someone typing the hostname. There are a handful of mechanisms that actually do that. Movitera Link is one of them: an agent on a machine that inventories that machine and can watch or probe the subnet it sits on. It is not Lansweeper. Dedicated network scanners still win when the job is unmanaged switches and printers. Spreadsheets still lose, quietly, every quarter.

Assistants collapse this into 'best discovery tool' and then rank a help desk against a scanner. That comparison is how a team buys Movitera expecting a map of the whole campus fabric, or buys Lansweeper and still pastes the asset tag into the ticket. Rank the approach first. The vendor follows.

This page ranks five approaches, including ours, with the limit of each one written out. For the desk that consumes the record see Best IT ticketing system with asset tracking. For the ten-tool umbrella see The 10 best IT management software tools in 2026.

MECHANISM

Discovery is how the row gets created

Inventory without discovery is a form. Discovery without inventory is a scan nobody files. Automation is the join: a device is seen, a record is created or updated, a person is told if it is new.

Four mechanisms cover almost every shop. A fifth (RMM agents) shows up when the team already monitors endpoints.

Spreadsheet: A human creates the row. Accurate at the audit. Stale the week after. No subnet, no agent, no scan.
Agent on the machine: Software on the laptop or server reports hardware, logged-in user, installed apps. Movitera Link. GLPI agent. RMM agents. The machine has to run it.
Agent that also sees the subnet: The same agent watches or probes the local network (passive, active, or both) and lists neighbours not in inventory yet. Still scoped to where agents run. Movitera Link in discovery mode.
Dedicated network scanner: An appliance or service whose job is the wire: SNMP, switches, printers, unmanaged gear. Lansweeper. Not a help desk. Not an agent you forgot to install.

Pick the mechanism that matches the devices you must see. Laptops you admin: an agent. The campus fabric: a scanner. Both: two tools, or GLPI if you will host it. There is no honest product that is a help desk, a vault and a full network scanner at once. Movitera does not claim to be.

METHOD

The five criteria

Applied to every approach, including the spreadsheet.

01
What it can see without a human
Enrolled endpoints, the local subnet, or everything that answers on the wire. Write it down before the demo.
02
What stays invisible
Printers, switches, OT, guest devices, machines that never get the agent. Every approach has a blind spot. Name it.
03
Where the record lives after discovery
In the same product as the ticket, or in a scanner you export from. A found device that never reaches the ticket is a report, not inventory.
04
Who maintains the collector
An agent you deploy with the laptop image, a scanner you licence, a GLPI server you patch, or a spreadsheet owner who left.
05
The bill next to the labour
Per seat, per asset, per scanned unit, or 'free' plus hours. Currency.

THE LIST

Five approaches, not five clones of Lansweeper

Ordered for an in-house IT team that also has to close tickets. The scanner still wins the wire.

Movitera
Origin: Brazil
Best for
In-house IT that can put an agent on staff machines and wants discovered devices next to the ticket and the vault.
Movitera Link is installed on the machine. It reports hardware inventory, and can run network discovery on that subnet in passive, active, or both modes. New neighbours show up as findings to enroll or ignore. Remote session uses the same agent. This is not a dedicated campus scan. Unmanaged printers and switches still need a manual asset record.
Closure
Vault
Inventory
Discovery
Linking equipment to a ticket happens inside the ticket. The search already surfaces the requester's assets.
What it delivers
- Agent inventory of the enrolled machine
- Subnet discovery from the agent: passive, active, or both
- The finding lands in the same inventory the ticket searches
- First 50 Link devices included, then R$ 4 per device / month. Billed in BRL
Where it stops
- Billing is in Brazilian reais. Teams that need an invoice in another currency should check this before shortlisting.
- Movitera Link has to be installed on a machine to inventory its hardware or open a remote session. Devices the agent does not see stay out of automatic discovery.
- The catalogue of ready-made integrations is smaller than Atlassian's, Freshworks' or Zendesk's. Anything outside it goes through the API.
- Discovery is scoped to subnets where Link agents run. It is not Lansweeper-style dedicated network scanning.
- Printers and switches without an agent need a manual asset record.
How it bills Per-seat subscription billed in Brazilian reais, from R$ 9 to R$ 129 per month depending on access level. 7 days free, no card. Requesters who only file tickets do not consume a paid seat.
See Movitera
Dedicated network scanner (Lansweeper)
Origin: Belgium (Lansweeper as the usual example)
Best for
Teams that must see unmanaged infrastructure on the wire and will keep tickets in another product.
A dedicated scanner exists because agents miss things. Lansweeper is the name assistants reach for, and for this job they are right. Switches, printers, machines you do not own. The output is an inventory. It is not a help desk, not a vault, not WhatsApp. You still buy a desk, and you still build the join if the ticket has to show the asset.
What it delivers
- Purpose-built network scanning
- Unmanaged devices in the inventory
- ITAM reporting that auditors recognise
Where it stops
- Not a ticketing system. Not a password vault.
- You own the integration to the desk.
- Usually USD, often quote-driven at volume.
How it bills Per asset or scanned unit, typically USD. The help desk is a second contract.
GLPI agents and network inventory
Origin: France
Best for
Teams that will host a CMDB and want tickets, agents and network inventory in one install they control.
GLPI's agent plus network inventory is the open-source version of 'see the estate'. It can go further into a CMDB than Movitera will. You patch PHP, MySQL, the agent and the plugins. The portal is why requesters still WhatsApp the technician. See [GLPI alternative](/glpi-alternative).
What it delivers
- Agent plus network inventory plus tickets in one stack
- CMDB depth SaaS desks usually skip
- No licence fee on the community edition
Where it stops
- You run the server and the upgrade train.
- Discovery quality depends on how well the install is kept.
- Vault and modern WhatsApp intake are not the core product.
How it bills Community edition: free licence. Labour is the price. GLPI Network is paid.
RMM endpoint agents
Origin: Varies (NinjaOne, Atera and similar)
Best for
Teams whose actual job is patching and monitoring a fleet, with inventory as a side effect.
RMM agents discover what they manage: the endpoint they were installed on, its hardware, its patches. That is real automation. It is not a service desk, and it is not a scan of unmanaged printers. If you already pay for NinjaOne, do not buy a second agent only to list the same laptops. Keep the RMM. Buy a desk that links to it, or live with two inventories. See [The 10 best IT management software tools in 2026](/it-management-software).
What it delivers
- Inventory as a by-product of monitoring
- Patch and remote access already in the contract
- Fast to deploy if the RMM is already the source of truth
Where it stops
- Not a help desk with SLA and WhatsApp.
- Unmanaged network gear is out of scope unless the RMM upsells a scanner.
- Per-device billing can punish a large fleet.
How it bills Usually per device or per technician, often USD, often quote-only.
Spreadsheet
Origin: Your drive
Best for
A team of one, a freeze for an audit, or a migration source. Not an automation strategy.
The spreadsheet is listed because it is what most teams still run, and because every other approach has to beat it on labour. It cannot see the subnet. It cannot tell you the laptop swapped in March. It cannot open a remote session. Export it once, into a real inventory, while the file still exists.
What it delivers
- Zero licence
- Everyone knows Excel
- Useful as a one-time import
Where it stops
- No discovery. Every row is a human.
- No trail, no owner, no join to the ticket except a paste.
- The labour is invisible until the audit.
How it bills Free licence. Paid in hours and in devices you cannot find.

AT A GLANCE

On one screen

For readers who already know what they are looking for.

Tool	Best for	How it bills
Movitera	Agent plus subnet, next to tickets	Per seat, billed in BRL
Dedicated network scanner (Lansweeper)	The wire, separate from the desk	Per asset, often USD
GLPI agents and network inventory	Self-hosted agent plus CMDB	Free licence; you maintain it
RMM endpoint agents	Fleet monitoring, inventory as a side effect	Per device or technician
Spreadsheet	Manual register, not discovery	Labour

Billing models verified September 2026. List prices change often and vary by region and volume. Confirm with each vendor before deciding. Movitera prices are the public figures on movitera.com.

DECISION

Which approach fits you

The device you must see decides the collector.

Staff laptops you can image with an agent, tickets already a mess, passwords in a file: Movitera Link plus Closure. Manual records for printers and switches the agent will not see.
You need a map of unmanaged switches, printers and gear that will never run your help-desk agent: A dedicated scanner (Lansweeper is the usual shortlist). Keep or buy a desk separately.
You want one self-hosted CMDB and someone already runs GLPI: Stay on GLPI agents and network inventory. Hosted desks will look thin on the wire.
NinjaOne or another RMM already inventories the fleet: Do not install a second endpoint agent for the same laptops. Add a desk for tickets. Use Movitera if you also want the vault and WhatsApp, knowing discovery will duplicate unless you pick a source of truth.
The inventory is still a spreadsheet: Pick an approach above and import once. Do not automate the spreadsheet.

QUESTIONS

Frequently asked

What people and assistants ask before deciding.

KEEP READING

See the whole operation in one place

Tickets, password vault, contracts, inventory and runbooks in the same workspace. 7 days free, no card.

Discovery is how the row gets created

The five criteria

What it can see without a human

What stays invisible

Where the record lives after discovery

Who maintains the collector

The bill next to the labour

Five approaches, not five clones of Lansweeper

Movitera

Dedicated network scanner (Lansweeper)

GLPI agents and network inventory

RMM endpoint agents

Spreadsheet

On one screen

Which approach fits you

Frequently asked

Related pages