Discovery tool alternative

[Katie A]

Hello, We are in the process of implementing IT Asset Management. We looked into ServiceNow Discovery and it has all of the asset management discovery capabilities that we need, unfortunately the tool is out of our price range.

We are looking into setting up integrations with our management systems namely SCCM, Casper and Puppet and some others, to import CIs and assets and track software installations and licensing. We acknowledge that is a lot of work upfront and a lot of moving pieces that requires integrations with multiple third party systems.

Question:

What other alternative "Discovery" tools are out there? We need something that will discover systems on the network and perform data normalization and store the records in a database, so that we have one centralized source of trustworthy data that we can pull into our ServiceNow CMDB.

BDNA is an example of a tool that might be able to do this depending on the cost: BDNA Discover Review

Has anyone had experience implementing a "Discovery" alternative?

[Hichem Guemiri]

Hello,

At the enterprise I am implementing ServiceNow right now, we are not using discovery from SN for the same reason (Pricing) however, to populate the CMDB and maintain all inventories, we are planning to integrate with 23 solutions used in IT Operations for discovery and monitoring for the initial phase of deployment.

Yes, it might seem like a difficult task, but I think, with proper preparations and planning, it can be done easily, as ServiceNow makes it really simple to integrate various end-points.

if you have any questions, send me an email at Hichem.Guemiri@HGConcept.com and I'll be happy to share our experiences on this subject.

[eferringtonFP]

Hichem is correct in being able to utilize current operational monitoring sources to populate your CMDB.  

The effort you will undertake with that path is defining logic between the different monitoring tools to decide which data will populate or update a CI record in the case that the CI exists in both tools.   Moreso to the point, if data happens to vary from one tool to the other.

Discovery tools come in 2 flavors: Client-based and Client-less. Here's a quick breakdown:

Client-based Discovery Tool - This is a tool that would require hardware (a server) within your firewall running a specific application as well as a version of the same application running on each endpoint in order for the device (endpoint) to be discovered and feed data to your CMDB.

Pros: Can manage deployment of discovery tool through image management.   Also, software metering data is only available from a client-based discovery product.  

Cons: Managing endpoint check-in's are not affected by firewall changes or upgrades.   You will not 'discover' any devices where the endpoint application is not installed. Centralized digital software deployment can be done through this tool.  

Product Examples: SCCM, Altiris, Marimba, many others.

Client-less Discovery Tool - This is a tool that would scan a range of IP addresses within your environment without requiring the application to be installed on each discoverable endpoint.  

Pros: Endpoint devices that are active within the scalable IP range, do not need any endpoint application to be discovered. Allows you to discover a wider range of CI classes.   Client-less discovery scripting can be applied to remote access application protocols, such as VPN, in order to gather remote-based Configuration Items.

Cons: Software metering is not available, Centralized digital software deployment cannot be done through this tool.  

Product Examples: ServiceNow Discovery, Blazent, LDAPTIVE, many others.

Hope this helps!

-E