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 ...

Do Your Own Thing: Setting the IOS Version Number...

If you're managing a bunch of switches and routers, there's a good chance that most of them are made by Cisco. In that case, one of the things you'll likely care about is the IOS version. Out-of-the-b...

How She Got What She Wanted...

In a conversation a few days ago, one of our customers said to me, a little wistfully, "I really like Service-now, but I sure wish there was a way for me to see the exact things I want to see..."Well,...

Diving Into Discovery Devices and History...

If you've used Discovery at all, you're familiar with the Discovery Status form — but you may not realize that there's another, deeper layer of information available to you. This layer gives you the h...

Service-now

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Diving Into ECC Queue Attachments...

I've discussed the ECC Queue before; it's the way that messages are sent from the Service-now instance to MID servers, and vice versa. Today I'm going to talk about a detail concerning these ECC Queue...

ECC Queue Tales: With Power Comes Responsibility...

Hopefully you're very careful when you start up a chainsaw, get behind the controls of a fighter jet, or pick up your shotgun. It's obvious in all those cases that you're controlling something very po...

New Feature: A Serious Surfeit of Serials...

A serial number is such a simple concept. If you didn't know any better, you'd think that each computer or other device would have a unique number assigned to it — one that you could use to unambiguou...

ECC Queue Tales: Good Credentials Gone Bad...

Yesterday I was on a call with a customer who had a tough problem: Discovery was working fine except for network gear, and even with heroic efforts they'd been unable to find the problem. They'd ident...

New Feature: Mac Support...

In recent months we've started hearing about Macs from our customers. Macs are starting to appear in the corporate world in larger numbers, and no longer just in marketing and graphics departments. Th...

New Feature: Probe Report...

The next release includes a spiffy new report that serves several purposes — watching the progress of a discovery, troubleshooting any problems, and analyzing discovery performance. It's called the Pr...

Diving Into SNMP System OID Classifiers...

I've mentioned before that you can use the SNMP system OID for a device to classify it more accurately. Today I'll run through an actual example. At right is a screen shot of a printer in the CMDB, as...

What Does "Agentless" Mean?

You've probably heard that our Discovery product is "agentless" — but what does that actually mean? What sort of agent doesn't Discovery have?Well, it's certainly true that there is no secret agent ma...

What Exactly IS a MID Server, Anyway?

Yesterday I was talking with a long-time customer who was just starting to think about using the CMDB, and because of that they were also looking at Discovery. One of the first questions asked was whe...