Service mapping when application load-balancing is via CDN services

[Paul Ciarfella]

The entry point for an application that we are building service maps for is provided through a CDN, where we use the CDN services for global load balancing, content delivery and caching.    

Can the CDN be used as the entry point?     I'm thinking no and that our entry point starts within our infrastructure at the interface that the CDN load-balancer points to ... but have seen nothing in the documentation or community that says yes or no.

And if not, how have others modeled the use of an external CDN in front of their applications?

We are envisioning a model where the CDN services are in the application service map, and then events from the CDN could be pushed into ServiceNow where we update availability on the service map to show outages or impact to service availability around the globe.

[bernyalvarado]

Hi Paul,

The entry point of your service should be the same one that it's used by your users to access the application/service. In other words, the url that defines the application.

In regards the CDN, just as ServiceNow has patterns to understand how an a given ip is load balanced through a F5, you can also define your patterns so that you can take a look within your CDN service an understand how a given ip should be resolved to other ones according to the regions you have defined. Of course, that will imply that you have the right security credentials for your CDN Service to interact with it and understand internally how it resolves each ip.

Thanks,

Berny

[bernyalvarado]

I hope this helps!

[saadit]

Hi Paul,

Without a MID server in or access into the CDN environment you would not be able to use map out a service using the CDN entry point at the beginning. For example, say that you're using Akamai for your CDN an https://something.company.com is the URL that end users go to but that actually hits the CDN before coming into your companies network - that wouldn't work. What I've had to do in the past instead, is find out what the entry point is coming into the LB's on your network from the CDN is and use that as the entry point in service mapping.

If you're already discovering all the LB's on your network, you can use Service Map Planner to find entry points.

Hope that helps.

Regards,

Saadi Tahmid

Global ITOM Practice Head

ProV International

[skycry1011]

Hi Saadi,

I am currently trying to use the Akamai CDN as the entry point (like a LB) and try to read the Properties to find out the routing to link up with the backend LB / Domain to complete the Discovery and Service Mapping. May I know will this work (I guess will need to have a customized patterns?)?

Thanks,
Stanley Or