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Common Workflows

Learn the most common scanning patterns and workflows for different use cases.

Quick Network Scan​

Discover hosts and identify services:

pentora scan --targets 192.168.1.0/24 --profile standard

Vulnerability Assessment​

Full scan with CVE checks:

pentora scan --targets critical-servers.txt --vuln --output report.json

Discovery Only​

Identify live hosts without port scanning:

pentora scan --targets 10.0.0.0/16 --only-discover

Resume from Discovery​

Scan previously discovered hosts:

# First, discover hosts
pentora scan --targets 10.0.0.0/16 --only-discover

# Then scan discovered hosts
pentora workspace show <scan-id> | jq -r '.discovered_hosts[].ip' > live-hosts.txt
pentora scan --target-file live-hosts.txt --no-discover

Custom Workspace​

Use non-default workspace location:

pentora scan --targets 192.168.1.100 --workspace-dir /data/scans

Stateless Scan​

No workspace persistence (ephemeral):

pentora scan --targets 192.168.1.100 --no-workspace --output results.json

Remote Execution​

Submit scan to remote server:

export PENTORA_SERVER=https://pentora.company.com
export PENTORA_API_TOKEN=your-token-here

pentora scan --targets 192.168.1.0/24 --server $PENTORA_SERVER

Scheduled Scan (Server Mode)​

Create recurring scan:

pentora scan --targets 192.168.1.0/24 \
  --schedule "0 2 * * *" \
  --profile standard \
  --notify slack://security-alerts

Requires server running.

Best Practices​

1. Use Configuration Files​

Avoid long command lines:

# Instead of:
pentora scan --targets 192.168.1.0/24 --rate 5000 --timeout 5s --vuln --profile deep

# Use config file:
pentora scan --targets 192.168.1.0/24 --config deep-scan.yaml

2. Leverage Profiles​

Create reusable scan profiles:

# ~/.config/pentora/profiles/production.yaml
scanner:
  rate: 500          # Conservative rate for production
  profile: standard
  vuln: true

fingerprint:
  enabled: true

notifications:
  channels: [slack://security-prod]
pentora scan --targets production.txt --profile production

3. Separate Discovery and Scanning​

For large networks, split phases:

# Phase 1: Fast discovery
pentora scan --targets 10.0.0.0/8 --only-discover -o live-hosts.txt

# Phase 2: Detailed scan of live hosts
pentora scan --target-file live-hosts.txt --no-discover --vuln

4. Use Workspaces for Organization​

Separate workspaces per project:

pentora scan --targets client-a.txt --workspace-dir /data/pentora/client-a
pentora scan --targets client-b.txt --workspace-dir /data/pentora/client-b

5. Automate Cleanup​

Prevent workspace bloat:

# Weekly cleanup cron job
0 0 * * 0 pentora workspace gc --older-than 30d --quiet