Discovery probes - differentiating Linux workstations and servers

[David A2]

We are using the OOTB probes, and our classifier doesn't seem to be able to distinguish between Linux servers and Linux workstations. From the logs it looks like it's gathering the OS information from uname-a, but the output doesn't give any of the unique os version info. The documentation seems to say this information can come from either uname -a or cat /etc/*release, the second being the more promising area. Do I need to customize the classifier to get it to look at cat/etc/*release?

https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/london-it-operations-management/page/product/discovery/reference/...

Data collected

The Linux classifier triggers probes that perform the discovery. Several probes are launched during discovery. See the classifier for a list of the trigger probes.

Label	Table Name	Field Name	Source
Operating System	cmdb_ci_linux_server	os	uname
OS Version	cmdb_ci_computer	os_version	uname -a or cat /etc/*release
Short description	cmdb_ci_linux_server	short_description	uname
Name	cmdb_ci_linux_server	name	DNS, NBT
Hostname	cmdb_ci_linux_server	host_name	DNS, NBT
DNS domain	cmdb_ci_linux_server	dns_domain	DNS
Start date	cmdb_ci_linux_server	start_date	uptime
Manufacturer	cmdb_ci_computer	manufacturer	dmidecode
Serial number	cmdb_ci_computer	serial_number	dmidecode

[Sue L]

I see I have a response in my query on this subject (over a year ago) that ServiceNow only thought of Linux as Servers.  SN can clearly telll us they are either Ubuntu or Red Hat (and in our environment RH are servers, Ubuntu are HP Thin Clients), where they classified to  Thin Client table by OS.  Not sure it anyone else tried this.  Will have to look into this.  But SN should not be generalizing all Linux as servers.       

[David A2]

I agree Susan. In our environment we have Red Hat servers and workstations, but it's pretty easy to tell the difference.

In /etc/redhat-release

               Workstation shows:

                              Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation release 6.10 (Santiago)

               Server shows:

                              Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 7.1 (Maipo)

[doug_schulze]

Likes, enhancement request created and dropped a note to the PM, thank you for the important feedback.

[doug_schulze]

Good news, talked to the powers that be and this distinction will be in the NY release for our pattern-based discovery!

[doug_schulze]

Update, it didn't quite make NY but I have created an update set to do just this..

Custom Probe/Sensor (Linux Laptops)