This article will help to provide clarity on the Agent Client Collector (ACC) on the ServiceNow AI platform and how it is critical to enabling Digital End-user Experience in collecting and surfacing end-user data. Please use the graphic below to help guide your understanding of DEX ACC-VC.
Customer Environment (Black Box)
Everything inside the black box represents the customer environment which includes servers and endpoints (Windows and Mac laptops). This is where all components like ACC and DEX run locally.
ACC-F (Framework)
At the base of it all is ACC-F, the foundational layer installed on every device.
- ACC-F is the core framework that all other modules depend on.
- When a "new version of ACC is available", we are specifically referring to ACC-F.
- ACC-F is managed and updated quarterly by ServiceNow's ACC team.
DEX and ACC-V/VC
- DEX relies on ACC-VC, which runs checks and enforce policies to collect device specific information from Windows and Mac systems.
- ACC-VC is primarily used for DEX but does share some functionality with ACC-V.
- ACC-V/VC is regularly updated as new DEX content becomes available.
Installing ACC on a Device (.MSI/.PKG)
When installing the ACC agent using a Windows (.MSI) or Mac (.PKG) you're installing a bundle that includes the following:
- ACC-F (the core framework)
- ACC-VC (for DEX-specific content)
- ACC-L (ITOM, not used by DEX)
- ACC-V (ITOM, not used by DEX)
These components exist both locally and as scoped applications on the ServiceNow instance which allows for configuration and control through the platform.
- After ACC installation for DEX, the ACC is registered on your organizations ServiceNow instance through certificate exchange
- After the ACC registration, a connection with the ServiceNow shared services is established.
- The agent uses downloaded certificates to authenticate with shared services.
- The ACC uses a secure, encrypted gRPC connection with ServiceNow shared services for bi-directional communication, protected by mutual TLS (mTLS).
- The ACC transmits device and application performance metrics to the shared services.
- Raw metrics from endpoints are processed using shared services (Hermes Messaging & Stream Connect) and then pushed to your ServiceNow instance.
- In addition, some of the configuration device metrics and agent heartbeats are directly pushed to the ServiceNow instance. The operation is performed over a secured HTTPs channel via a REST endpoint.
- The instance also pushes data, such as DEX policies, to the agent via this bi-directional channel.
For more information on Digital End-user Experience ACC and architecture, please visit our product docs page HERE.
