ITOM-CMDB Licences

[asalas]

Hi all, 

I have some questions about the CMDB and licensing, and I hope someone can help:

1. Do only devices discovered by ServiceNow consume a license? Can I register and maintain additional servers, routers, switches, databases, etc. without needing subscription units? Is this correct?
2. Other CIs discovered by a 3 party software integration need license?
3. For licensing purposes, is there any difference between agent-based and agentless server discovery?

Thanks in advance. 

Regards,

[Mannapuram · Accepted solution]

@asalas Answers as per my knowledge but contact the Servicenow Contact person from HI portal for exact cost. 

1. Do only devices discovered by ServiceNow consume a license? ->Yes. Only discovered by Servicenow. 
   1. Can I register and maintain additional servers, routers, switches, databases, etc. without needing subscription units? Is this correct? -> If they are manually entered into CMDB and not discovered, then YES. 
2. Other CIs discovered by a 3 party software integration need license? -> 3rd party software are used for discovering and populating CMDB or Service Graph Connectors from Servicenow. Service Graph connectors will cost you but just CMDB population might not. 
3. For licensing purposes, is there any difference between agent-based and agentless server discovery? ->No. Agent is installed in your organization's infrastructure, to make the discovery easy. This should not govern license.

[Mannapuram · Accepted solution]

@asalas Answers as per my knowledge but contact the Servicenow Contact person from HI portal for exact cost. 

1. Do only devices discovered by ServiceNow consume a license? ->Yes. Only discovered by Servicenow. 
   1. Can I register and maintain additional servers, routers, switches, databases, etc. without needing subscription units? Is this correct? -> If they are manually entered into CMDB and not discovered, then YES. 
2. Other CIs discovered by a 3 party software integration need license? -> 3rd party software are used for discovering and populating CMDB or Service Graph Connectors from Servicenow. Service Graph connectors will cost you but just CMDB population might not. 
3. For licensing purposes, is there any difference between agent-based and agentless server discovery? ->No. Agent is installed in your organization's infrastructure, to make the discovery easy. This should not govern license.

[asalas]

Thanks for your response!

[Pratiksha · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Yes, Discovery licenses are usually allocated based on a ratio. For example, servers are generally licensed at a 1:1 ratio, while end-user computing (EUC) devices are often at a 1:4 ratio.

Whenever you discover a device using ServiceNow (whether through agent-based, agentless methods, or a ServiceNow-provided Service Graph Connector), the license will be consumed.

I would highly recommend checking with your ServiceNow account manager to confirm what has been agreed for your specific environment. In many cases, the licensing model can vary depending on the setup and contractual agreements.

Hope this helps!