Difference between horizontal discovery and vertical discovery

[Sathwik1]

Can somebody please explain me the difference between horizontal discovery and vertical discovery with real time examples...I am very confused with the definitions which are provided in docs and community...

so please provide me some real time examples and which need to use when...

@Ashutosh Munot 

[Jeff Currier]

Horizontal discovery is scanning a range of IP addresses to see what answers, identifying which it is and seeing what it is related to.  Vertical discovery is starting at a particular point (i.e. the URL for an application) and seeing what that point is related to, then seeing what those points are related to.

Horizontal discovery is good for finding all the Configuration items within your infrastructure.

Vertical discovery is good for defining application services or technical services like all the infrastructure components which are required for a particular application (load balancer, web servers, apps servers, DB server(s), etc).

[Rahul Priyadars]

Vertical Discovery- When you have an entry Point and you start traversing down from Pyramid Top. This way you start discovering all Components a given Application/URL/entry point has and its connected relationships.

Horizontal --> is an IP Sweep for a given Range x.x.x.0 to x.x.x.254 . It works for infra components and processes running on those components like VMs, Databases , N/W components etc.

Regards

RP

[Gaurav Shirsat]

Hi

Basically, horizontal discovery is CI discovery using the Discovery module.

Vertical discovery is service mapping.

Horizontal Discovery:-

1. You point it at a range of IP addresses, for example, and say "Go discovery everything you can about the devices in that range!" It comes back with software, servers, database instances, printers, etc. and their relationships to each other.
2. Very Much Concentrated IP Address Scanning
3. It is a very 'broad' way to discover your CIs and their relationships.
4. If a CI such as a web server happens to be talking to a database that is not in that IP range, the connection won't be defined.
5. for the Hunting of your Services, go for this approach

https://hi.service-now.com/kb_view.do?sysparm_article=KB0694477

Vertical Discovery:-

Service Mapping is a vertical

1. top down approach where you give it a starting point and it asks two questions.
2. URL hit Approach.
3. It does this to build a business service out of the CIs and connections specific to that service.
4. It's very 'surgical' in it's approach.
5. When Needed to Define Services, for this approach.

https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/helsinki-it-operations-management/page/product/discovery/concept/...

Check this Nice Article by Michael Skov Thomsen

 https://syspeople.dk/blog/demystifying-horizontal-vs-vertical-discovery-in-servicenow/#:~:text=Verti...

Please Mark Correct and Helpful

Thanks and Regards

Gaurav Shirsat

[Ashutosh Munot1]

Hi,

Lets walk through it.

1) Horizontal Discovery : Also known as Bottom up discovery where we start from lowest level and then start discovery is connected applications and DBs. Ex: Windows Server. Now on windows server we have DB Instances and software installed which we discover as a part of horizontal discovery. But we cant discover the Web Servers or Load balancer details connected to this windows server. This CI is just one contributing component to the whole business service in your orgnaisation example payroll application hosted in your organisation can have 10 different Servers interconnected and some other CIs required to run this service.

2) Vertical Discovery: Also know as Top Down which means we start from Highest level entry point meaning https url can be your entry point on specific port. Now based on technique which you follow for SM like traffic based, pattern based,tag based,etc it will discover all underlying CI which runs this business service. Here you will get whole holistic relationship view of that service which enables impact analysis and improves your CMDB.

Thanks,
Ashutosh