Local Account Discovery Methods

Remote Procedure Calls (RPC)

This is the method that is used for local account discovery for all versions of Secret Server prior to release 8.6.000000 and is the default for all upgrades and fresh installations. It uses the same technology as the Windows remote password changing in Secret Server and is the most dependable and proven of the options. It can, however, be slower in some environments when scanning computers over a WAN.

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)

This method uses the WMI technology to query the Windows computer. In some environments, this method can be faster than the Remote Procedure Call. It does, however, require having the proper Windows permissions and network configuration setup correctly for WMI to run.

Attempt WMI First, and Failover to RPC if Needed

This option attempts to use the WMI method first, and if that fails to work correctly, it attempts the RPC method for local account discovery. This option is potentially slower because it has the possibility of performing two separate scans for each computer.

Which Scanners Use These Settings

These three options only govern the Local Accounts scanner and the Windows Service scanner. Other dependency scanners use their own fixed connection method and ignore this setting even if it appears on their Advanced Settings panel:

Scanner	Discovery Step	Honors the RPC/WMI Setting Above?
Local Accounts	Find Accounts	Yes.
Windows Service	Find Dependencies	Yes.
Application Pool	Find Dependencies	No. Always attempts Microsoft Web Administration (WMA) first, then falls back to WMI automatically. This behavior is not user-configurable.
Scheduled Task	Find Dependencies	No. Uses the Windows Task Scheduler interface only.
COM+ Application	Find Dependencies	No. Always uses RPC/DCOM over port 135. WMI is not supported for this scanner — see COM+ Dependency Scanner.

If a scanner other than Local Accounts or Windows Service shows an RPC/WMI method selector in its Advanced Settings, changing that value has no effect on how the scanner connects.