SCCM vs Discovery

[debwinkelman]

I have SCCM integrated with SN and have the hardware assets configured and is working.  I have not touched software yet.  I am researching and getting ready to activate Discovery on our network.  From what I've read we need to use SCCM or Discovery for the software asset managment.  The question I have is do I delete all the software SCCM has found out there and let Discovery run and find all of the software and normalize it from there?  What does this look like in Jakarta with the new SAM.  We haven't upgraded yet but that is also something I am looking to do as well.  Any recommondations out there on how to tackle this?  

[adilrathore]

Well if you delete all the data would ServiceNow discovery be able to scan all the workstations managed through SCCM or you are only discovering Servers in your environment.?

[Aditya Telideva]

Hi Deb,

To answer your question you need not delete all the software SCCM and let Discovery run and find all of the software and normalize it from there. When Discovery and SCCM are both enabled on a system, the software records found through both tools could overwrite each other

The Microsoft SCCM integration is a one direction import of SCCM data into the ServiceNow Configuration Management Database (CMDB). The integration keeps the ServiceNow CMDB up to date with the SCCM SQLServer database. Relevant data is imported from the SCCM database to the CMDB. The SCCM database is considered an authoritative source and is not written to.

Compared to its predecessor, this version better identifies a computer in the CMDB when it coexists with other tools that also populate the CMDB, such as Discovery.A Discovery Identifier called SCCM ID & Class Namereturns the resource ID of a computer from SCCM and stores it in a table called Source [sys_object_source]. When resource IDs are first imported, either from SCCM or Discovery,

Remove the deleted software table records within the SCCM MSSQL database the very first time software is imported to Discovery. This eliminates the need to check against deleted software, and therefore has faster performance.

And for more information specific to Jakarta, please do go through the below link:

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

Best,

Aditya Telidevara (Adi)

PS: Please mark as Helpful if you found so.

[Community Alums]

Hi Deb,

To add on to what Adi says, there is value in both SCCM and SN Discovery as sources. Because SCCM is agent based, you can use it to capture the software details on devices that are not always on the network or available when Discovery runs. Discovery is useful for the data center, where devices will be operational on the network when Discovery runs, and it is agentless, so nothing needs to be installed.

I would definitely take a look at SAM in Jakarta before you do too much work with SAM. At least beyond capturing installations and collecting details on your Software Entitlement purchases.

Ben

[akash_mehta]

Deb:   There is a Discovery Property (glide.discovery.software_sccm_managed) that you should mark as true when running both SCCM and Discovery for software installations.   This is so you don't duplicate your software installs or discovery models coming from two different sources.   So prior to running discovery make sure you have this property set.

-Akash