Get Lansweeper Discovery Running for a New Client in Under 10 Minutes
There’s a problem every MSP technician knows well: you take on a new client, and within the first week, you’re already working from incomplete information. Devices don’t match the asset list, software is installed without anyone alerting IT, infrastructure that was “definitely decommissioned” turns up still very much alive on the network.
Visibility isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the foundation everything else depends on. And the faster you can establish that foundation for a new client, the faster you can deliver real value.
In Part 2 of the Lansweeper MSP Masterclass series, Thomas Van Havere walks through exactly how to do that. From creating a new client site in the multi-site management portal, to downloading and installing Lansweeper Discovery, to the moment data starts flowing in, this video breaks down each step so you can follow along, flag the decision points, and avoid common pitfalls.
Where Every Client Engagement Starts: The Multi-Site Management Portal
If you’re managing multiple clients with Lansweeper, your multi-site management portal is your command center. It’s where you create and manage separate sites and where you control licensing, access, and configuration at scale.
When onboarding a new client, the first step is creating a new site. Hit Create Site, give it a name (note: this name becomes part of the site URL, so choose something clean and intentional. The name can change later, the URL component won’t), and press Create.
Within seconds, you’ll see the new site appear in your portal. If Pay As You Go is enabled on your account, a license is automatically pushed to the site. You’re live before you’ve installed a thing.
Two housekeeping options worth knowing about before you move on:
- Disable Pay As You Go: If you need to remove licensing from a site temporarily, you can disable PAYG. Note: deletion and exclusion of a site are only possible when PAYG is disabled.
- Exclude a site: If a client ever leaves but wants to keep their Lansweeper data, you can exclude the site and transfer ownership to them. This requires a second owner already in the site. It’s a clean handoff and worth understanding before you need it in a hurry.
Download and Install Lansweeper Network Discovery
With the site created, navigate inside it and head to Discovery → Discovery Systems. Since you haven’t installed anything yet, you’ll see the option to download the installer.
Click Download Install Packages and you’ll land on the Network Discovery download page. The installers are available for Windows, Linux, and Mac.
One important heads-up for Linux and Mac installs: if you’re planning to scan Windows devices, you’ll need a sensor running on a Windows machine. Windows WMI authentication doesn’t play nicely when the scan request originates from a non-Windows system. Everything else (network devices, Linux endpoints, cloud assets) works fine from any platform. Windows is the only exception.
Download the appropriate installer for your environment (the video uses Windows), navigate to your downloads folder, and double-click to run it.
The Only Configuration That Matters During Installation
The Lansweeper Discovery installer is refreshingly straightforward. You’ll move through the setup wizard, accept the EULA, choose your installation directory (default is fine for most environments), and then you’ll hit the one screen that actually requires a decision.
What to install:
- Hub: the component that communicates with the Lansweeper cloud. Always required.
- IT Sensor: the component that reaches out to your assets and pulls detailed information. Required for active discovery.
- OT Sensor: for operational technology environments. If you’re only scanning IT devices, disable this. Lansweeper has a dedicated OT installation guide and demo video.
- For a standard MSP deployment scanning IT infrastructure, keep Hub and IT Sensor enabled. Leave OT off unless you know you need it.
- Hostname and port: leave these at default unless your environment has a specific reason to change them.
Press Next, confirm, and wait. Installation typically takes one to five minutes.
Linking Discovery to Your Client Site
When installation completes, Lansweeper opens your portal and prompts you to select which site to link this discovery system to. Select the client site you created earlier [in the video, it is MSP Discovery] and the linking process begins automatically.
This is the moment your on-premise discovery component connects to the cloud-hosted site. Once it’s linked, data flows.
You can verify the connection by going to Discovery → Discovery Systems and confirming your newly connected discovery system appears in the list with status: enabled.
What Starts Happening Before You’ve Configured Anything
Here’s the part that often surprises MSPs seeing Lansweeper for the first time: you haven’t set up a single scan credential yet. You haven’t defined any active discovery actions. And you’re already pulling in data.
That’s because Lansweeper includes network visibility: a passive discovery technology that listens to traffic passing through the scanning server and identifies assets from what it sees. No active scanning. No credentials. Just passive observation of the network.
The result? In the video, Thomas pulls up the dashboard immediately after linking the discovery system and 34 assets are already showing up.
A note on network visibility for MSPs: Some clients will be comfortable with passive scanning across their full network range. Others won’t. If a client wants to limit passive discovery, you can disable it under Groups → Default Networking Group → Enable Network Discovery. It’s a toggle, and it’s per-site, so you can tune this individually for each client’s environment.
What Comes Next
Network visibility gives you a fast, passive foundation, but the real depth comes from active discovery. In Part 3 of the MSP Masterclass series, Thomas walks through the full configuration of Lansweeper Discovery: setting up credentials, defining discovery actions, configuring cloud discovery, and getting the in-depth asset information that turns a list of IPs into a properly identified, enriched, actionable inventory.
That’s where the picture really comes together.
The Bigger Picture for MSPs
The value of getting discovery right early isn’t just operational, it’s commercial.
Every managed service you sell is only as reliable as the asset intelligence underneath it. Patching services, vulnerability management, compliance reporting, incident response; all of it depends on knowing what’s actually in the environment. Not what was in the environment six months ago. Not what a client thinks is in the environment. What’s actually there, right now.
Lansweeper’s multi-site architecture means you’re not reinventing this for every client. You’re deploying the same repeatable foundation quickly, consistently, and without multiplying the tools you have to manage. One portal. Individual sites. Full visibility, per client, from day one.
That’s not just efficiency. That’s a defensible service delivery model.
Start Here
New to the series?
Start with Part 1 to understand the MSP architecture and multi-site management model before diving into installation.
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