Discovery

Process Guide

Updated: April 2025

Asset number: 0001229

Table of Contents
Introduction............................................................................................................................. 3
Principles and Basic Concepts................................................................................................. 3
Roles and Responsibilities....................................................................................................... 4
Discovery Administrator....................................................................................................... 4
Configuration Manager......................................................................................................... 4
CI Analyst or Class Owner..................................................................................................... 5
Process Scope......................................................................................................................... 6
Deployment Process and Objectives.......................................................................................6
High-Level Deployment Process.............................................................................................. 7
Identify Hardware Devices for Discovery..............................................................................7
Principal CIs.......................................................................................................................... 7
Plan MID Server Deployment................................................................................................ 9
Create Discovery Schedules................................................................................................. 9
Discover Data and Maintain................................................................................................. 9
Discovery Application Process............................................................................................... 10
How Discovery is Initiated.................................................................................................. 10
Discovery Lifecycle............................................................................................................. 10
Process Overview............................................................................................................... 11
Scan................................................................................................................................... 11
Classify............................................................................................................................... 11
Identify............................................................................................................................... 11
Explore............................................................................................................................... 12
Other Processes.................................................................................................................... 12
Configuration Management................................................................................................ 12
Change Management......................................................................................................... 12
Service Mapping................................................................................................................. 12
Process Governance.............................................................................................................. 12
Measurement..................................................................................................................... 12
Dashboards and Reporting................................................................................................. 13
Discovery Admin Workspace.............................................................................................. 14
MID Server Dashboard........................................................................................................ 16
Custom Tab........................................................................................................................ 17

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respective companies with which they are associated. 
Introduction
This guide explains how to configure the Discovery process within the ServiceNow platform.
Always follow this process as closely as possible, regardless of the customer's maturity level.
ServiceNow promotes simple, lean processes, which the out-of-the-box design reflects.

Customers can add functionality beyond the standard offerings, but only when necessary to
achieve a business outcome that the out-of-the-box method cannot support. This approach
also simplifies upgrade paths and expands platform use.

Principles and Basic Concepts

Discovery provides visibility into an on-premises, cloud, and serverless infrastructure and its
changes. It uses agentless technology to discover physical and virtual devices and
create/update corresponding Configuration Items (CIs) and their dependent relationships in
the Configuration Management Database (CMDB). It sets a strong foundation with accurate
data and relationship views for ITSM change management, Software Asset Management,
Customer Service Management, Security Operations, and more.
ServiceNow Discovery aims to populate the ServiceNow CMDB with CIs and relationships in
an accurate, near-real-time mechanism so that the CMDB and Configuration Management
can support operational processes.
 Discovery should provide a reliable automated method to create and update CIs
continuously.
 A successful Discovery implementation populates the CMDB with relevant data in almost
real time with as little overhead as possible.
 Discovery uses a lightweight, agentless Java application that runs on a MID Server and
sets inside your network closest to the CIs it is to discover.
Roles
and

Responsibilities
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Discovery Administrator
Dedicated resource with technical expertise to work with implementation consultants to
configure and maintain the Discovery application. Responsible for the configuration and
maintenance of Discovery when implementation is complete. Working knowledge of
Networking, Systems Administration, and JavaScript and access to critical subject matter
experts with computing and networking expertise.
Responsible for:
 Configures and Maintains Discovery Application
 Works closely with Configuration Manager in the population of CMDB.
 Interfaces with Compute, Network, and Security teams to ensure access and
permissions.
 Resolving discovery errors related to permissions and access.
 Assuring completion of scheduled discovery jobs
 Assisting in the validation and testing of Discovery after upgrades
 Reviewing the environment for changes and new requirements that may drive changes
to the Discovery solution.
 Assures downloads from the ServiceNow store occur monthly for CMDB Classes and
Discovery patterns.
 Add new schedules, IP ranges, and credentials for new devices and environments.
ServiceNow role required:
The discovery_admin role is required in ServiceNow.
In ServiceNow, a Discovery Administrator requires the [discovery_admin] role. The
Discovery Admin should also have the [itil] role to fulfil requests and view dashboards.
Additionally, they may need access to the CMDB Workspace.
Configuration Manager
The configuration manager executes the determined CMDB processes and maintains
governance with the various CI, product, or service owners. They partner with the CI owners
to ensure the data is kept healthy and provide gatekeeper alignment.
 Ensuring configuration management activities operate in line with service level targets
 Approve or reject CMDB requests for new CI selection and attribute determination
 Coordinates and interfaces between the configuration of other processes
 Review and analyze CMDB reports and configuration management and management
metrics and trends to proactively seek improvements
 Approve Verification and Audit request
 Provides communication to stakeholders on the health of the CMDB and population gaps
by CI/Service and Product Owners that update and maintain their assigned CMDB records

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trademarks of ServiceNow, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. Other company names, product names, and logos may be trademarks of the
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ServiceNow Role Required:
In ServiceNow, a configuration manager requires the [sn_cmdb_admin] role. Additional
roles include the [itil] role [app_service_admin] and [data_manager_admin] role.
Adding [itil] role allows access to CI Class Manager, fulfilling requests, updating, and
deleting CIs. With the additional role [data_manager_admin], the CMDB admin could
access the Data Manager to create or delete policies or assign tasks. Has access to search
and read/write to CMDB records and view CMDB Activity in the CMDB Workspace. The
[admin] role is required to turn on CMDB Health jobs. The Data Foundations dashboard
requires [sn_cmdb_admin] role and the additional role of [asset] or [admin] role. No
additional roles are required for the CMDB Attestation to set up schedule verification and
data audits.
CI Analyst or Class Owner
The CI analyst is responsible for updating and managing the CI classes. The CMDB records
note a group of CI owners as the Managed by Group. They may also be subject matter
experts who help resolve Discovery errors on computing, networks, applications and
databases, and cloud resources. The CI Class owner may also be considered a Service or
Product Owner.
Responsible for:
 Responsible for the CIs defined within the scope of their area – Compute, Network or
Application, Service or Product
 Assure automated data sources are populating discoverable attributes
 Creates and maintains CI queries, CMDB groups, and Dynamic CI groups using CMDB
Query Builder
 Ensures the CMDB is updated upon successful change implementation
 Collects and retains risk assessment and impact analysis information and defines how
their operational processes and secondary data sources feed into the CMDB.
 Requests Data Manager policies are configured to manage large amounts of duplicate,
stale, or orphaned CIs from the CMDB admin
 Executes assigned tasks related to data certification and CMDB maintenance regarding
data gaps.
ServiceNow Role Required:
The [itil] role is required in ServiceNow. It may require additional roles such as [asset] to
view the CMDB Data Foundations and the CMDB Health dashboard and utilize the playbooks
to resolve issues and data gaps found in the CMDB.

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Process Scope
The scope of Discovery includes populating the CMDB based on reoccurring discovery
schedules. CIs that are discoverable out-of-the-box can be found in the product
documentation. The Discovery implementation scope finds pre-determined CI Classes and
defines success at 80% of discovered devices of the actual inventory numbers. Discovery is
an ongoing maintenance and troubleshooting activity carried on past go-live.
Outside of the deployment process scope, Discovery has a process that determines how it
populates the CMDB.

Deployment Process and Objectives

Initiate Prepare/Define Transition and
Create Phase
Phase Phase Close Phases

 Identify  Attend the  Build MID Servers  Review Go-Live

Resources Scheduled Plan
 Review
Implementation
 Schedule Configuration  Move to
Workshop
Workshops Production
 Enter and Test
o *Define Principal
 Pre-Workshop Credentials  Smoke Test
CIs for CMDB
Kickoff
 Build Discovery  Maintain and
o Provide CI
 Provide Schedules Improve
Inventory
Customer
Numbers  Perform POV with  Perform testing
Preparation
Network and after major
Guide o Discuss
Server Team instance
 Perform Architecture upgrades
 Side by Side
HealthScan. If  Provide IP Ranges Mentoring with
not greenfield for Scheduled Discovery Admin
 Review CMDB Discovery Runs
 Run Schedules
Dashboard  Approve Stories
(Requirements)  Resolve Errors
 Communicate
potential risks  Schedule Working  Success Criteria
Sessions for Build Met
 Get Security
Sign Off

When implementing Discovery, follow these phases in a managed project. Discovery

projects are unlike other projects in that the configuration and the UAT happen during the
Create phase, and your implementation team will work side by side with the customer's
Discovery Admin. When errors are resolved, this is user acceptance. Self-implementation
without a partner or ServiceNow professionals tends not to go as well and comes with risk.
Each environment is different and may require special guidance based on expert knowledge
from having deployed Discovery with many customers in many industries with various
networks.

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trademarks of ServiceNow, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. Other company names, product names, and logos may be trademarks of the
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High-Level Deployment Process

Identify Hardware Devices for Discovery

One key in the Discovery process is to identify the items in your environment you need to
gain visibility of your environment. Out-of-box configuration: Discovery collects information
for configuration, Event, Incident, Change, Application portfolio, SecOps, and Vulnerability
management in ServiceNow. The main attributes discovered and populated on the CMDB
record are Name, Serial Number, Manufacturer, Model ID, e.g., Proliant DL360p G8, running
process, software installations, MAC and IP address, hostname, Disk Space, Ram, CPU and
CPU Core count. Discovery maps or relates the hardware CIs and their supporting CIs to form
an Application Dependency map.
Identifying what CIs are to be captured is part of the configuration management process.
The Discovery administrator should work closely with a configuration database manager who
owns and is accountable and or responsible for the processes that define which
configuration items are approved for the CMDB population.
Principal CIs
All CIs are not created equally, meaning that certain CI classes are much more critical to
deriving tangible business outcomes from the platform. This group of higher-value CIs is
referred to as Principal CIs. As you mature your environment, these CIs and their
relationships and references should be the primary focus. Principal CIs vary depending on
the business outcomes you are trying to achieve, so what may be considered principle for
ITSM workflows may differ from those utilized for the Enterprise Architecture or Change
Mgmt workflows.
ServiceNow provides guidance on those CIs that may bring the most value based on
maturity and phase of implementation. This guidance aligns with the "Crawl, Walk, Run, Fly"
phases of the ServiceNow platform common data model (CSDM).

Based on identifiers, the discovery population into the CMDB places the devices in the
correct CMDB table with no additional out-of-box configuration.
For greenfield implementations, setting up the foundational data is considered "Crawl" as it
is referential data used on the CMDB record. Data about the locations is the most important

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as it is referenced on the Discovery tables, and it populates the CMDB record with the
device's location.
The Walk phase of the CSDM data model is the technical and operational data it takes to
Manage technical infrastructures. Refer to the CMDB Process Guide. Some configuration
items listed below can be part of a crawl. This allows the "Walk" phase to be broken down
into two separate phases of work.
Leading practices recommend starting with these basic operational hardware devices for
Day 1 Go Live for usage in Incident and Change management processes. As Service
Mapping, Event Management, and AI operations are implemented, consider adding other CI
types.
Foundational Data (non-CMDB) Integration to platform
Company
Users
Locations
Support Groups
Approval Groups
CMDB Groups
Product Models
Contracts

Operational/Technical Data - Discovery

Servers by OS
- Windows Servers
- Linux Servers
- ESX (populated when populating vCenter datacenters)

Network Gear
- Switches
- Routers
- Firewalls
- UPS
- PDUs
- Wireless Access Points

On-Prem Datacenter (VMWare)

- Review data collected during the discovery
Templates, ESXi hosts, Storage Volumes, logical data center, vCenter Clusters, etc.
Network Printers

Computers - Agent Client Collector or SCCM Service Graph Connector

Gather Credentials
Gathering credentials is a critical step in the Discovery process. Without credentials,
Discovery cannot gather information from target devices. Ensuring the security team is on
board with Discovery early in the process is paramount. Without approval and sign-off,
Discovery projects often stall or get bogged down as teams are reticent to provide
necessary credentials. Invite them to the Pre-Workshop Kickoff meeting. Understanding how
ServiceNow security works is important. Sharing the strong story around ServiceNow's cloud
security with the security team helps alleviate concerns and pave the path for buy-in. Use
online resources from ServiceNow to learn more and share these with the appropriate
security parties. The supported credential types can be found here.
Plan MID Server Deployment

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Planning MID server deployment is the next major phase of Discovery implementation. MID
servers should be close to the targets with the most available bandwidth and what you want
to discover. Refer to the ServiceNow docs page for the latest minimum requirements and
recommended configuration for MID Server hosts. Clustering MID servers is also generally
recommended and can improve performance, but the effectiveness of doing so depends on
the volume of CIs being discovered. Following your Discovery Admin's ITOM Guided Setup in
your instance ensures accurate configuration.
Create Discovery Schedules
Planning the Discovery schedules is a crucial step in Discovery implementation. The
Discovery schedules determine what is discovered when the discovery runs, and which MID
servers are used. Defining schedules organizes networks and locations into defined jobs that
run on pre-determined schedules, which can be daily, weekly, or on demand. Staggering
start times, MID Server Clusters, and behaviors are all tools to help accomplish specific
Discovery goals. The first consideration is how many individual schedules are needed. One
schedule per location is a good rule of thumb. As of Yokohama, an IP-based discovery
schedule can be created. Discovery performed by Agent Client Collector for Visibility -
Content (ACC-VC) is compatible and can coexist with horizontal IP-based Discovery. You may
also have ACC installed on a given target host and still have that host as part of a horizontal
IP-based Discovery schedule.
Discover Data and Maintain
Discovering the data and populating the CMDB occurs as schedules are run. Numerous
checks should be run with the Configuration Management team to ensure the CMDB is
populated with a complete, correct data set. The CMDB Health Dashboard should be used to
verify overall health.
Maintaining Discovery entails daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly tasks. Reviewing error logs
daily and rectifying issues is the day-to-day activity using the CMDB dashboard. Working
with the Configuration team ensures critical tasks like updating or disposing of assets.
Participating in monthly CMDB reviews with the configuration team to ensure the overall
data quality is an essential step in the health maintenance of the CMDB.

9
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respective companies with which they are associated. 
Discovery Application Process
Discovery internally has a process it goes through to discover the CIs. The MID Servers
handle the jobs that run to discover the CIs in a nightly run schedule on IP address ranges.
How Discovery is Initiated
Schedules – Discovery Analysts can configure schedules to initiate Discovery periodically.
These schedules have several Discovery-specific options to control the IP range(s) to scan.
Quick Discovery – Discovery Analysts can initiate the Discovery of a single IP address using
the provided UI Action on the discovery schedule form.
Scripts – Discovery can be initiated via the discovery scripting API, which allows it to be
initiated as part of other processes through workflows, business rules, or even external REST
calls.
The MID Servers are configured per schedule. Datacenter #1 may use a different set of load
balanced MIDs, whereas Datacenter #2 can also use another set of MID Servers. Adding the
MID Servers to the schedules helps the schedules run concurrently, allowing the scheduled
process to be completed faster.
Discovery Lifecycle
As Discovery schedules run, they do so according to the lifecycle process below.
Understanding the lifecycle helps with troubleshooting any issues that occur during
Discovery. The Discovery process consists of the following 4 phases:
 Scan
 Classify
 Identify
 Explore

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Process Overview

High-Level Lifecycle Overview

Scan
In this phase, a Shazzam probe is launched for each network device. The probe scans for
open TCP ports on the network. This data determines device type based on activity on these
ports. Information collected during this phase determines the probes and sensors used
during the next phase (Classify). Industry standards protocols are used, much the same as
monitoring systems. Discovery uses SSH to discover Linux/Unix devices, SNMP for network
gear and printers, and WMI or WinRM to find Windows devices.
Classify
Classification probes and sensors are run during this phase to classify the device. Admin
credentials allow access to the device. If the credentials are not available, Discovery fails.
Specific probes are triggered at this phase based on the port information collected in the
previous phase. Information collected during this phase determines the device type and
which probes or patterns are triggered in the subsequent phases.
Identify
During this phase, Discovery determines the device type and launches additional
probes/sensors (or patterns) to collect information about the device. The CMDB identification
and Reconciliation Engine (IRE) is then used to find a matching device in the CMDB. The
existing CI record is updated if the Identifiers find a matching CI. A new CI is created if no
matching CI is found.
If multiple data sources are used along with Discovery, CMDB reconciliation and data
precedence rules can control attribute updates, preventing collisions and updates from
unauthorized sources.

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Explore
The explore phase is the final phase of the Discovery process. Additional device exploration
is done during this phase by launching additional probes/sensors. The Identify and Explore
phases are combined within a single pattern when using patterns.

Other Processes
Configuration Management
The configuration management system underpins all records and activities related to any CI.
It contains details of the infrastructure vital to services, CIs, and their relationships. As
Discovery creates and updates CIs, the configuration management process and governance
should be followed.
Change Management
Change management is the process responsible for facilitating the implementation of
changes. When changes are made to IT infrastructure and services, the Discovery process
can be leveraged to update and validate them.
Service Mapping
Service Mapping and Discovery go hand in hand. Once the CIs have been discovered and
populated into the database, non-discoverable CIs, like deployed versions of applications,
otherwise known as a system of CIs, that make up an Application Service, are also
populated. Service Mapping finds by port or processes the CIs that make up the entire
Application Service.

Process Governance
Measurement
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) evaluate the success of a particular activity in meeting
the critical success factors. Successfully managing KPIs can be either through repeatedly
meeting an objective (maintain) or progressing towards an objective (increase/decrease).
The Benchmarks feature gives you instant visibility into your key performance indicators
(KPIs) and trends, as well as comparative insight relative to the industry averages of your
peers. You can contrast your organization's performance with recognized industry standards
and view a side-by-side performance comparison with global benchmarks.
The Average Time to Resolve a Priority Incident for Discovery should improve when critical
business systems (systems with High Priority Incidents assigned against them) have their
monitoring systems integrated, and CIs mapped through Discovery. In addition, when
Service Mapping is integrated, visibility into the health of these business services in real-
time enables the appropriate support teams to react faster to high-priority incidents.

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Dashboards and Reporting
Process KPIs
 Provide information on the process's effectiveness and the impact of continuous
improvement efforts.
 Represented as trend lines and tracked over time
 Monitored by the Process Owner

Item Purpose

Average time to resolve a high- Measure the effect of the Discovery process on time to
priority incident resolve incidents

CMDB Overall Health Completeness, correctness, and compliance metrics

can help measure the effectiveness of the Discovery
process.

Incident leveraging of CMDB Measure the ability to leverage the CMDB in the Incident
Management process.

Change leveraging of CMDB. Measure the ability to leverage the CMDB in the Change
Management process.

Operational Data
Active catalog items/requests requiring visibility, oversight, and management intervention
are best tracked on a dashboard or homepage monitored by the Service Desk and request
fulfillment team.

Item Purpose

CI Schedule Count Tracks the number of active schedules running

Unidentified IP Count Indicates devices that are on the network, but Discovery is
not able to properly interrogate.

Active Discovery Errors List of errors in the active discovery schedules that need to
be resolved.

Unused Credentials Lists credentials that Discovery is not using.

Newly Discovered Devices by Measures the number of new device CIs created by
Device Type Discovery.

Total Discovered Devices by Measures the number of device CIs that Discovery actively
Type updates.

Unrefreshed Devices by Type Measures the number of device CIs that Discovery is no
longer updating.

Newly Discovered Applications Measures the number of new application CIs created by
by Type Discovery.

Total Discovered Applications by Measures the number of application CIs that Discovery
Type actively updates.

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 Item Purpose

Unrefreshed Applications by Type Measure the number of application CIs that Discovery is no
longer updating.

Reports and Homepages

Numerous default reports in ServiceNow can be used to generate charts, published to a URL,
or scheduled to be run and distributed at regular intervals. Users can also create custom
reports.
In addition to reports, each user can create a personal homepage and add gauges
containing up-to-the-minute information about the current status of records in ServiceNow
tables.
Discovery Admin Workspace
The Discovery Admin Workspace serves as a central location for monitoring, tracking and
completing discovery related tasks. You can view any cancelled discoveries, check for
errors, assign tasks, perform a quick discovery and determine if there is an update to the
product.

Workspace Sections

Schedules - allows the administrator to adjust and create new discovery schedules. Obtain
insights on number of Schedules, schedules by location, Discovery Status Errors by Category
and Total Discovery attempts.
Diagnostics - section allows you to prioritize and address Discovery schedule errors.
Create and manage Error Tasks to track progress on resolving errors. For each entry in the

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Discovery errors table, you can create a new Error Task or ignore the error with the Create
task and Ignore buttons. Entries that already have an associated Error Task instead have an
Edit task button and provide the task's name and priority.
Content 360 - Discover applications and evaluate application suggestions based on
machine learning or crowd-sourced resources. Then, create configuration items with a single
click. Data visualizations offer extensive visibility of your infrastructure's applications and
the resources available to create application configuration items (CIs). It offers access to a
list of classifiers to add to discovery. Collects unrecognized application fingerprints from
different environments. AI librarians analyze these fingerprints, creating dedicated classifiers
that are updated and shipped to you weekly.
Insights - Gain insights into your data and identify trends to improve and optimize
discovery of your CIs. Insights on MID Server Dashboard, Kubernetes Explorer, Nutanix to
name a few.
Tuning – Tuning checks allow discovery admins to adopt a self-service approach, validates
your existing configurations and helps you resolve configuration issues. Tools are provided
to assess instance health through configured checks and displays failed checks by priority,
category and suite. Use the tuning tools to interrogate your instance for configurations that
indicate health issues and identify opportunities to address best practices.

Important Note: Starting with the Vancouver release, the Discovery Home page is
prepared for future deprecation. The plugin for this application will be hidden and no longer
be activated on new instances but will continue to be supported. For details, see
the Deprecation Process [KB0867184] article in the Now Support Knowledge Base.
You can transition to the available Cloud Operations Workspace application starting with
the San Diego release. To use this application, enable the Cloud Operations
Workspace (sn_cloud_ops_ws) plugin from the ServiceNow Store.

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trademarks of ServiceNow, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. Other company names, product names, and logos may be trademarks of the
respective companies with which they are associated. 
MID Server Dashboard
A central place found on the Discovery Admin Workspace for MID Server users to monitor
ongoing operations. This should be checked daily or when issues occur as part of the daily
operational processes. The dashboard consists of reports and gauges that display
information from the MID Server Status table. The dashboard displays the following metrics:
Overview Tab
 Number of total MID servers by status, validation, and issues, pending upgrades, pending
jobs, processing jobs and by MID server capabilities.

Image of Overview Tab on the MID Server Dashboard

Performance Tab
 MID server lifecycle event history
 Avg Percentage of CPU Used: Trending the daily average CPU usage helps illustrate
the amount of CPU processing the MID Server host consumes. MID Servers deployed on
the same host report the same CPU usage.
 Avg Percentage of Max Memory Used: The maximum used percentage
(max_used_pct) helps determine if the MID Server has enough memory resources. This
metric is a percentage of the max used memory over the total available memory.
Trending this over time shows how much memory the MID Server needs.

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 Image of Performance Tab on the MID Server Dashboard

Custom Tab
Add MID servers you want to view usage for in the list or by entering the name in the search.
Select 5 years at a time and select a timeframe.

Resources:
Product Documentation

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