Delete or restore a network device in Operations Manager
After System Center - Operations Manager has discovered and is monitoring a network device, you might want to stop monitoring the device because it's being replaced or because there's no business value in monitoring that particular device or for any other reason. To stop monitoring a device, you can use maintenance mode or you can delete the network device from the discovery rule. You can also restore a deleted device that was discovered by a recursive discovery rule.
To delete a device that is the starting point for recursive discovery, you must first delete the discovery rule or remove the device from the discovery rule.
Note
You can identify the discovery rule associated with a discovered network device by right-clicking the device in Network Devices or Network Devices Pending Management and then selecting Discovery Rule Properties.
If you delete a device that was discovered by a recursive discovery rule, it will be added to the exclude list of the rule. If you want to have that device discovered and monitored again, you must remove the device from the Exclude Filters page of the rule's properties and run the discovery again.
Delete a network device discovered by explicit discovery
In the Operations console, select the Administration workspace.
Select Network Devices, right-click the device that you want to delete, and select Delete.
Note
You can select multiple devices to delete.
Delete a network device specified in a recursive discovery rule
In the Operations console, select the Administration workspace.
Open Properties for the discovery rule and remove the device on the Devices page.
Delete a network device discovered by recursive discovery
In the Operations console, select the Administration workspace.
Select Network Devices in Network Management.
In the Network Devices pane, right-click a device that was discovered by recursive discovery, and then select Delete.
You'll be prompted with a message asking you to confirm that you want to stop monitoring the selected network device. Select Yes.
Select Discovery Rules.
Right-click the recursive discovery rule, and then select Properties.
Select Exclude Filters.
Verify that an exclude filter has been created for the deleted device. This might take a few minutes to occur.
Restore a network device that was deleted from recursive discovery
In the Operations console, select the Administration workspace.
Select Discovery Rules.
Right-click the recursive discovery rule, and then select Properties.
Select Exclude Filters.
Select the network device and select Remove.
Select Summary, and select Save to save and close the discovery rule.
With the discovery rule selected, select Run in the Actions pane to rerun the discovery rule.
Note the status of the rule as it runs and wait until it shows a blank status.
Verify that the device is rediscovered. This might take a few minutes to a few hours depending on the number of devices in the environment. You can view the status of the discovery rule to determine when it has completed.
Next steps
To understand how to configure what to monitor and alert with your network devices, see How to configure monitoring of network devices.
To view information about the network devices you're monitoring, see Viewing Network Devices and Data in Operations Manager.