Can a product catalog item be created without creating a software model

tracymadeir
Kilo Contributor

10 hours ago

Can a product catalog item be created without creating a software model?  This would be for non-licensable software that there is no entitlement.

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Itallo Brandão
Tera Guru

2 hours ago

Hi @tracymadeir ,

The short answer is: Technically, No. In ServiceNow, a Product Catalog Item (pc_product_cat_item) is explicitly designed to be the "catalog representation" of a Model (cmdb_model). The "Model" field is mandatory on that record because the system needs to know what product is being offered.

However, do not worry! It seems you might be conflating "Software Model" with "Software Entitlement".

  • Software Model: Defines "What is this?" (e.g., Notepad++ v8). This is required for Discovery, Normalization, and the Product Catalog.

  • Software Entitlement: Defines "Do we pay for this?" (e.g., 100 Rights purchased). This is NOT required.

The Best Practice for "Non-Licensable" Software: You should create a Software Model, even for freeware.

  1. Create the Software Model: This allows ServiceNow Discovery to recognize the software when it is installed on a machine and normalize it.

  2. Skip the Entitlement: You simply do not create any Entitlement/License records for that model.

  3. Publish to Catalog: From the Software Model, you click "Publish to Product Catalog". This creates the pc_product_cat_item automatically.

Alternative (The "Quick & Dirty" Way): If you don't care about Asset Management or Discovery normalization and just want a form for users to request it: You can create a standard Service Catalog Item (sc_cat_item) instead of a Product Catalog Item.

  • Pros: No Model required. Just a form with variables.

  • Cons: It won't link back to your CMDB/SAM tables automatically.

Recommendation: Create the Model. It keeps your CMDB clean and allows you to track "Unlicensed" installs vs "Freeware" installs in the future.

If this clarifies the distinction between Models and Entitlements, please mark it as Accepted Solution.

Best regards,
Brandão.