ServiceNow mid-less discovery

Hanumant Madan1 · 3 weeks ago

Hi Experts,

Has anyone worked on mid-less discovery of windows, linux servers?

I assume since agent based discovery works for windows and linux , it won't discover the Azure cloud resources and to discover cloud resource we will still need MID server. please help to understand if this is correct understanding.

what are the pro's and cons of this approach.

In case of mid server less agent based discovery does the agent sends data to ServiceNow instance via some other cloud and will it have data protection impact as data will passthrough some shared cloud as per documentation and needed more clarity on this.

Regards,

Hanumant

DaveHertel · 3 weeks ago

Hello - without a MID and because you mentioned "agent based", presumably you are referring to the ACC (agent client collector) agent approach. You mentioned several technologies, each with somewhat differing requirements. To discover Windows & Linux, the ACC agent can be installed on these hosts without a MID. The agent collects data and send it to SN instance using the ITOM Cloud Services Core (sn_itom_cloud_svc) app (a pre-requiste). This has nothing to do with the cloud or its metadata, instead the ACC agent is getting machine OS, Apps, machine config details to update Cis in the CMDB. Yes data is protected, encrypted, etc when sent to SN instance (which is of course hosted in the cloud) from the ACC agents.

ServiceNow enforces TLS for data in transit for customer-to-instance comms. I believe you can also layer platform encryption options. ACC also uses mutual TLS (mTLS) when operating MID-less so both sides authenticate; agents are tied to the target instance via registration and certificates

To discover cloud metadata details, there are a many other options which can be bewildering. For a review of the various cloud providers and approaches to inventory/collect data into a CMDB, I recommend watching this SN ITOM academy from Aug 2025

Hope this helps?

Hanumant Madan1 · 3 weeks ago

Hello Dave, Thanks a lot for the reply.

Yes, I am referring to ACC, here is the detailed requirement.

We got 5 different Azure regions to discover with merely 10 servers each.

Since we need to discover only 10 servers, I am bit hesitant to use 2 MID servers in each location respectively (prod and non-prod hence 2 MIDs) as total MIDs needed will be 10.

1. If I am able to discover the windows and Linux servers without MID using (ITOM Cloud Services Core (sn_itom_cloud_svc) app), my work is done for servers discovery atleast > does this need extra licenses as such?

2. Then I will also need to do cloud resources discovery for those 5 regions where the servers in point 1 are hosted. can we do cloud resource discovery without MID servers?

If point 2 is not possible then I think going with (ITOM Cloud Services Core (sn_itom_cloud_svc) app) is also not going to be useful as I will need both cloud resources and server discovery.

Can you throw some light in this scenario and best way out.

Regards,

HM

SP22 · 3 weeks ago

Hello @Hanumant Madan1,

Could please find the below link and let me know it is useful.

Without mid server, you cannot discover the hosts in cloud environment.

https://www.servicenow.com/community/service-management-forum/cloud-discovery-aws-and-azure/m-p/3820...

For ACC:
https://noderegister.service-now.com/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0815247

If this helped to answer your query, please mark it helpful & accept the solution.

Thanks
Santosh.p

Harish Bainsla · 3 weeks ago

Hi @Hanumant Madan1 please go through below document about ACC

https://www.servicenow.com/community/itom-articles/itom-agent-client-collector-acc-knowledge-amp-tro...