ServiceNow Discovery is the primary package used to auto-discover IT Assets (servers, network equipment, applications) and map them into CMDB (Configuration Management Database).
CMDB is an integral part of any IT Service provision and ServiceNow Discovery is the tool to keep CMDB in good shape.
Discovery includes and covers aspects of:
– MID Servers;
– Credentials and Behaviours;
– Phases, Probes, and Classifications;
– Application Mapping;
– Horizontal Discovery Patterns;
– Application Discovery Patterns;
– Overall Configuration management.
ServiceNow Discovery uses 4-step approach to discover assets:
– Scanning – where Shazzam probe scans active ports and identifies asset, e.g. Server;
– Classification – where additional asset information is collected to classify that this is e.g. Windows Server;
– Identification – rules to determine is such asset already exists in our CMDB (and hence needs to be updated), or not (and needs to be added/inserted);
– Exploration, where patterns are applied to collect detailed information about the asset components, applications running on them and relationships between assets/configuration items.
The functionality of the product is quite powerful, comes with hundreds of patterns, but, like with anything in ServiceNow, it can be further customized and automated.
We are helping our customers to discover their IT assets and keep their CMDB up to date. Should you need any help with ServiceNow, let us know!