Launch a Scan

In addition to configuring a scan's Schedule settings to launch the scan at scheduled times, you can launch a scan manually. You can only launch a new scan when the previous scan has the Completed, Aborted, or Canceled status (for more information, see Scan Status).

Alternatively, you can launch a rollover scan to scan the remaining targets of a previous scan that ended prematurely (for more information, see Launch a Rollover Scan). You can also launch a remediation scan to run a follow-up scan against existing scan results (for more information, see Launch a Remediation Scan).

Note: If you are scanning a Linux machine with Tenable Vulnerability Management, the Linux machine's shell configuration file must have a PS1 variable of four or more characters (for example, PS1='\u@\h:~\$ '). Having a PS1 variable of less than four characters (for example, PS1='\$ ') can drastically increase the overall scan time.

Note: To learn more about scan limitations in Tenable Vulnerability Management, see Scan Limitations.

Launch a Scan

Required Tenable Vulnerability Management User Role: Scan Operator, Standard, Scan Manager, or Administrator

Required Scan Permissions: Can Control

Use the following steps to launch a scan manually. You can launch the scan using the targets as configured in the scan, or you can launch the scan with custom targets that override the configured targets.

To launch a scan:

  1. In the left navigation, click Scans.

    The Scans page appears.

  2. Below Scans, choose to view Vulnerability Management Scans or Web Application Scans.

  3. In the Folders section, click a folder to load the scans you want to view.

    The scans table updates to display the scans in the folder you selected.

    For more information about scan folders, see Scans Folders.

  4. In the scans table, roll over the scan you want to launch.

    The action buttons appear in the row.

  5. Do one of the following:

    • To launch the scan using the targets as configured in the scan, click the Launch button in the row.
    • If you have previously launched the scan and want to use custom targets that override the configured targets:
      1. In the row, click the button.

        The Custom Launch Scan plane opens.

      2. In the Targets box, type a comma-separated string of targets.
      3. Click Launch.

    Tenable Vulnerability Management launches the scan.

    You can follow the scan's progress by checking its Scan Status on the Scans page.

Launch a Rollover Scan

Required Tenable Vulnerability Management User Role: Scan Operator, Standard, Scan Manager, or Administrator

Required Scan Permissions: Can Control

When you launch a rollover scan, the scan runs only against targets and hosts that Tenable Vulnerability Management did not scan previously. This happens when a scan ends before scanning all the assigned targets, which can occur when:

  • A user manually stops the scan

  • The scan times out due to the Scan Window setting

  • The scanner aborts scan tasks or does not initialize properly

In some cases, you may see Completed scans that you can perform rollover scans for. This indicates that even though all the assigned targets were scanned, some individual scan tasks may have failed.

Rollover scans allow you to achieve complete scan coverage for all your assets, and you can use the rollover feature to split up large, network-impacting scans. You can launch a rollover scan from Scans page. Tenable Vulnerability Management marks scans that you can launch a rollover scan for in the scan table with the Rollover tag in the Name column.

To view the remaining targets that the rollover scan will run against, see Download Rollover Targets. If you want to restart the scan and rescan all the targets, see Launch a Scan.

Note: You cannot launch rollover Web Application scans.

To launch a rollover scan:

  1. In the left navigation, click Scans.

    The Scans page appears.

  2. Below Scans, choose to view Vulnerability Management Scans or Web Application Scans.

  3. In the Folders section, click a folder to load the scans you want to view.

    The scans table updates to display the scans in the folder you selected.

    For more information about scan folders, see Scans Folders.

  4. In the scans table, roll over the scan you want to launch.

  5. In the row, click the More button.

    A menu appears.

  6. Click the Launch Rollover option.

    Tenable Vulnerability Management launches the rollover scan.

    You can follow the scan's progress by checking its Scan Status on the Scans page.