problem discovering installed software

[HugoFirst]

Since we've upgraded to Helsinki Patch 9,   none of our computers has updated the list of installed software in the CMDB.

Computers discovered since that upgrade have empty lists of installed software.   Has anyone else experienced this?

Can anyone say if the problem has been fixed in any subsequent release of ServiceNow?

[bernyalvarado]

Hi Steve,

I haven't seen that and it sounds a little bit odd that it will suddenly be broken within a patch.

I'll recommend you open a Hi ticket so that I support engineer can take a look into the problem you're facing.

Thanks,

Berny

[HugoFirst]

I have opened an incident on Hi and I'm waiting for their analysis to complete.

In the meanwhile, I found a similar problem in the know problem database.   Our situation is different than the description of this known error.

But I point this out anyways, in case someone else is experiencing the problem and would benefit from reading the report.

KB0598584 - When MID server uses WMI for Discovery instead of the "Windows - Installed Software" PowerShell probe, Discovery does not return the correct data on installed software

link: https://hi.service-now.com/kb_view.do?sysparm_article=KB0598584

[HugoFirst · Accepted solution]

YAY!   I have an explanation and more importantly, I have a fix!

The problem is related to my activation of the "Software Asset Management" plugin, which coincidentally, occurred on the same day that I upgraded our instance to Helsinki Patch 9. I now believe that the precipitating event was this activation, and not the upgrade to Helsinki Patch 9.

One side effect of activating Software Asset Management is that discovery no longer updates the table cmdb_software_instance. This is the table we used as a related list to display the software installed on a computer.

Instead, discovery updates a new table, cmdb_sam_sw_install with the installed software.

So the fix was to reconfigure the forms for windows servers, linux servers and computers to remove the old related list "Installed Software" and add the new related list "Software Installed".   Note that on the pick list for related lists, the correct entry shows up as "Software Installation -> Installed on".

[bernyalvarado]

Awesome! Great to hear you figure it out!

Thanks a lot Steve for posting back how you resolved this.