Basic Settings

The Basic settings are used to specify certain organizational and security-related aspects of the scan or policy, including the name of the scan, its targets, whether the scan is scheduled, and who has access to the scan, among other settings.

Note: Configuration items that are required by a particular scan or policy are indicated in the Nessus interface.

The Basic settings include the follow sections:

General
Schedule
Notifications
Permissions

The following tables list ,by section, all available Basic settings.

General

Setting	Default Value	Description
Name	None	Specifies the name of the scan or policy. This value is displayed on the Nessus interface.
Description	None	Specifies a description of the scan or policy.
Folder	My Scans	Specifies the folder where the scan appears after being saved.
Dashboard	Enabled	Determines whether the scan results page defaults to the interactive dashboard view. Note: This setting is available only in Nessus Manager.
Scanner	Varies	Specifies the scanner that performs the scan. The default scanner varies based on the organization and user.
Asset Lists	None	You can select or add a new target group to which the scan applies. Assets in the target group are used as scan targets.
Targets	None	Specifies one or more targets to be scanned. If you select a target group or upload a targets file, you are not required to specify additional targets. Targets can be specified using a number of different formats. Tip: You can force Nessus to use a given host name for a server during a scan by using the `hostname[ip]` syntax (e.g., `www.example.com[192.168.1.1]`).
Upload Targets	None	Uploads a text file that specifies targets. The targets file must be formatted in the following manner: The file must be ASCII format. Only one target per line. No extra spaces should appear at the end of a line. No extra lines should appear following the last target. Note: Unicode/UTF-8 encoding is not supported.

Schedule

By default, scans are not scheduled. When you first access the Schedule section, the Enable Schedule setting appears, set to Off. To modify the settings listed on the following table, click the Off button. The rest of the settings appear.

Setting	Default Value	Description
Frequency	Once	Specifies how often the scan is launched. Once: Schedule the scan at a specific time. Daily: Schedule the scan to occur on a daily basis, at a specific time or to repeat up to every 20 days. Weekly: Schedule the scan to occur on a recurring basis, by time and day of week, for up to 20 weeks. Monthly: Schedule the scan to occur every month, by time and day or week of month, for up to 20 months. Yearly: Schedule the scan to occur every year, by time and day, for up to 20 years.
Starts	Varies	Specifies the exact date and time when a scan launches. The starting date defaults to the date when you are creating the scan. The starting time is the nearest half-hour interval. For example, if you create your scan on 10/31/2016 at 9:12 AM, the default starting date and time is set to 10/31/2016 and 09:30.
Timezone	Zulu	Specifies the timezone of the value set for Starts.
Repeat Every	Varies	Specifies the interval at which a scan is relaunched. The default value of this item varies based on the frequency you choose.
Repeat On	Varies	Specifies what day of the week a scan repeats. This item appears only if you specify Weekly for Frequency. The value for Repeat On defaults to the day of the week on which you create the scan.
Repeat By	Day of the Month	Specifies when a monthly scan is relaunched. This item appears only if you specify Monthly for Frequency.
Summary	N/A	Provides a summary of the schedule for your scan based on the values you have specified for the available settings.

Notifications

Setting	Default Value	Description
Email Recipient(s)	None	Specifies zero or more email addresses, separated by commas, that are alerted when a scan completes and the results are available.
Result Filters	None	Defines the type of information to be emailed.

Permissions

Using settings in the Permissions section, you can assign various permissions to groups and individual users. When you assign a permission to a group, that permission applies to all users within the group. The following table describes the permissions that can be assigned.

Permission	Description
No Access	Groups and users set to No Access cannot interact with the scan in any way. When you create a scan or policy, by default no other users or groups have access to it.
Can View	Groups and users set to Can View can view the results of the scan.
Can Control	Groups and users set to Can Control can launch, pause, and stop a scan, as well as view its results.
Can Configure	Groups and users set to Can Configure can modify the configuration of the scan in addition to all other permissions.

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