Add a Virtual Scanner Appliance

What do I need?

The Virtual Scanner option must be turned on for your account. Contact Qualys Support or your Technical Account Manager if you would like us to turn on this option for you.

You must be a Manager or a sub-user with the “Manage virtual scanner appliances” permission. This permission may be granted to Unit Managers. Your subscription may be configured to allow this permission to be granted to Scanners.

Configure and activate your scanner

1) Go to Scans > Appliances and select New > Virtual Scanner Appliance. Click Start Wizard. You'll give your scanner a name and then walk through the steps to get your personalization code.

If you're a sub-user then you’ll need to pick an asset group that has been assigned to your business unit by a Manager user. Not seeing any asset groups? Please ask a Manager to assign an asset group (other than the All group) to your business unit.

2) Complete the configuration using the virtual scanner console or cloud platform (you'll enter the personalization code).

3) Verify activation is successful (you're done once you see the friendly name and IP address).

Virtualization Platforms

Virtual Scanner Appliance is available for a variety of platforms.

Local system or server: VMware Workstation, Player, Workstation Player, Fusion, Oracle VM VirtualBox, VMware vSphere: vCenter Server, ESXi, Citrix XenServer, Microsoft Windows Server (Microsoft Hyper-V)

Cloud: Amazon EC2-Classic, Amazon EC2-VPC, Microsoft Azure Cloud Platform (ARM), Google Cloud Platform, OpenStack, OCI and OCI-Classic, Alibaba Cloud Compute

From the Community

Virtual Scanner Appliance Platforms

Troubleshooting tips

Need the personalization code?Need the personalization code?

Each appliance has a unique personalization code and you'll need this code to configure and activate your virtual scanner. You should have gotten the personalization code as you walked through the wizard. If you don't remember the code, go to Scans > Appliances and choose Info from the Quick Actions menu. The code is shown under General Information.

Be sure to verify activation is successfulBe sure to verify activation is successful

Your appliance needs to make a connection to our cloud platform. You'll see the friendly name and IP address when the activation is complete. It may take a few minutes for the appliance activation to occur.

What's next?

Is my appliance ready for scanning?Is my appliance ready for scanning?

Your appliance must be connected to our cloud platform. Go to the appliances list (Scans > Appliances) and check your appliance status. You'll see Green scanner connected iconnext to your appliance when it is ready to process scans.

Important: If your appliance isn't connected, you'll need to troubleshoot the issue before you can start scanning.

How do I grant users access to an appliance?How do I grant users access to an appliance?

Users who are not Managers need to be granted access to an appliance in order to use it. If you are a Unit Manager and you activated the appliance, you won't be able to use the appliance for scanning until your Manager grants you access to it. Learn more

Do you want to change the friendly name?Do you want to change the friendly name?

The friendly name helps you identify your appliance. We'll assign one automatically and you can change it at any time. Go to Scans > Appliances, hover over your appliance and select Edit.

Do you want to restrict access for Unit Managers?Do you want to restrict access for Unit Managers?

By default Unit Managers (in business units) have full permissions to manage virtual appliances. As a Manager you can restrict access to just scanning by editing a Unit Manager's account and de-selecting the permission "Manage virtual scanner appliances". This way the Unit Manager will not have permissions to add virtual scanners, edit or delete them.

Quick Links

User Guide PDF icon

Manage your appliance

From the Community

Scanners Help Center

Best Practices for Internal Scanning

Scanner Appliance Troubleshooting

Tip Your account can include a mix of physical, virtual and offline scanner appliances.

Did you know? You can replace an appliance with a new one. Just go to Scans > Appliances > New > Replace Scanner Appliance.