Some JavaScript Pointers...

Continuing yesterday's theme — several folks have asked me where they can go to learn more about JavaScript, which the Service-now product uses extensively, both on the instance and on the web browser...

Some SNMP Pointers...

Several folks have asked me where they can go to learn more about SNMP — and most especially about MIBs, OIDs, and other SNMP exotica. You could consult with the SNMP Guru (at right). Or you could do ...

How Does Discovery Find CI Names?

Plus a question for y'all, at the end of this post...A few days ago I posted about controlling host names, and this led to another question: How exactly is Discovery finding the names of configuration...

Some Details About Credentials...

A security-minded customer asked a very good question the other day: how exactly are credentials stored on the Service-now instance and on MID servers, and how are they transmitted from one to the oth...

Controlling Host Names...

Discovery automatically names your CIs by using the host name. Ordinarily, Discovery finds the host name by a reverse lookup of a CI's IP address in DNS. However, if a CI has no DNS name and it happen...

Diving Into CI Relationships...

The other day I was on the phone with a customer who wanted to write a business rule that understood CI relationships. In particular, he was trying to make a business rule that could tell if a CI had ...

Here a Table, There a Table...

"Why does a list of computers show servers?" Have you asked yourself a question like that? I've heard several variations of this from our customers, and when I've poked at it a bit, it generally turns...

Nominate Service-now.com for SDI vendor of the year

Please take a a couple of minutes to nominate Service-now.com for the Service Desk Institute vendor of the year. The nomination form can be found here (nominations now closed).[flickr-photo:id=3194869...

Estimate Your Geekitude...

How geeky are you? A friend passed along this little test, the intent of which is to estimate just how much of an IT and programming geek you are. For each of the web sites below, give yourself three ...

It's Out!

Our Winter 2009 release is out — woo hoo! It's got all sorts of spiffy new things, but here I'm going to focus on the Discovery enhancements and changes. Read the change notes for the entire release, ...

Diving Into WMI...

The other day, one of our customers asked me "What the heck is this WMI stuff you keep blathering about?" To someone like me who's been working in the dark and dusty recesses of major operating system...

MID Server Capacity...

How much Discovery work can a single MID server do? This is one of the questions people frequently ask when implementing Discovery, and what they really want is an answer like this: "13,214 devices". ...

Diving Into System Identifiers...

If you've done any scripting to customize your Service-now instance, you've probably run into a system identifier (sys_id) or two — those funny-looking values like "46e2fee9a9fe19810049b49dee0daf58". ...

Diving Into Invalid Serial Numbers...

I've written about serial numbers before, and even mentioned the invalid serial number table (Discovery Definition → Invalid Serial Numbers). Like the soldiers at right take care of the bad guys to ...

Diving Into Process Classifier Criteria...

You've probably heard that astronomers have changed Pluto's classification from "planet" to a mere "solar system body". Though this happened a couple years ago, there's still considerable debate about...

New Feature: CI Consolidation...

Many folks use Discovery as the sole means of populating their CMDB in Service-now. But if you're one of those who also imports items into your CMDB, or who manually enters CIs into your CMDB, CI Cons...

The Way Things Work: Detecting Related Systems...

Have you wondered how Discovery can figure out that one system (perhaps an accounting application) is related to another (such as the database used by the accounting application)? I've been asked this...

Diving Into MID/CI Relations...

There's an old saying with several variations, most of which are about like this:You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your relations.For instance, I'm pretty certain the fellow at right is re...

Diving Into Port Probes...

Port probes… Doesn't this sound like something unpleasant, possibly involving rectal thermometers? Don't worry, they're not as bad as all that. In fact, they're pretty darned useful — and quite fundam...

New Feature: NetWare Support...

Frankly, we've been quite surprised just how much NetWare is still running around enterprises. Quite a few of you have asked if it might be possible for us to support NetWare — even if all we did was ...