The present disclosure is directed to a discovery process that enables discovery of database management systems (DBMSs) hosted by at least one client device of a client network. The disclosed discovery process involves a discovery server disposed on the client network accessing the client device hosting the DBMS to collect configuration item (CI) data on the configuration and operation of management, extraction, and replication processes of the DBMS. More specifically, this discovery process involves the discovery server requesting and receiving certain CI data from the management process of the DBMS, requesting and receiving certain CI data from an operating system (OS) of the client devices, as well as parsing and retrieving certain CI data from configuration and report files of the DBMS. Additionally, the disclosed discovery process is designed to be performed without being granted special or additional privileges within the DBMS itself.