Can you share your experience-how frequently were you discovering the CIs using Horizontal Discovery

[Suggy]

Can you share your experience - how frequently were you discovering the CIs using Horizontal Discovery?

Hourly

Daily

Weekly

Biweekly

Monthly

Others?

And why so?

This helps others to think broadly when one implements Discovery in future! 

Happy learning!

[Shubham_Jain]

@Suggy  it is completely depends on client environment whether how frequently changes are being performed on the infrastructure components. 

however, as per me, we should go Daily for Windows, Weekly once for Network devices etc… 

Totally depends on clients infrastructure. 

[Suggy]

@Shubham_Jain  I know the answer is "it depends" 🙂

My question was more about hearing your experience in the Discovery projects that you have implemented, how frequently were you running the schedules.

[Shubham_Jain]

@Suggy  Hope you were able to see both answer in my response. I have provided for Major CI class like Server and Network Gear classes 

[AJ-TechTrek]

Hi @Suggy ,

here is my experience for the discovery schedule.

CI Type / Scope	Frequency (most common)	Why
Core Infrastructure (servers, network devices, storage)	Daily (most common)	Keeps CMDB fresh, detects new/removed assets promptly
Cloud resources (AWS, Azure, GCP)	Daily or even every 4–6 hours	Cloud changes fast: auto-scaling, ephemeral VMs
End user devices / desktops	Weekly or bi-weekly	Lower criticality, less churn, and to reduce load
Printers, thin clients, non-critical assets	Weekly or monthly	Rarely change; reduce discovery load
Non-production / test environments	Daily or weekly	Depends on how dynamic these environments are

Whats i configured most often :-

• Core server discovery → daily (night time, off-peak hours).

• Cloud → multiple times per day (because instances can appear and disappear quickly).

• Desktops → weekly.

• Network → daily, sometimes bi-weekly if stable

• It balances:

  • CMDB accuracy and freshness

  • Discovery load on network & MID servers

  • Licensing considerations (number of CIs / discovery runs)

• Daily discovery at night ensures:

  • Minimal impact on network

  • Captures daily changes (e.g., VMs created, IP address changes, new servers)

Best practices from ServiceNow & field experience:

1.Start with daily for all important infrastructure → adjust after observing:

• CI churn rate

• Network / MID Server performance

• CMDB accuracy needs

2. Use targeted schedules:

• Separate discovery schedules per device type / business criticality.

• E.g., daily for production servers, weekly for training lab.

3. Use schedules smartly:

• Avoid discovering everything at once.

• Use staggered discovery windows to reduce load.

4. Monitor discovery performance:

• Use Discovery Dashboards → look for gaps, long-running jobs, frequent errors.

5. Use patterns & probes efficiently:

• Avoid discovering low-value devices too frequently.

• Tune patterns for efficiency.

Please appreciate the efforts of community contributors by marking appropriate response as Mark my Answer Helpful or Accept Solution this may help other community users to follow correct solution in future.
 
Thank You
AJ - TechTrek with AJ
LinkedIn:- https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajay-kumar-66a91385/
YouTube:- https://www.youtube.com/@learnitomwithaj
ServiceNow Community MVP 2025

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