Running discoveries in your network

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Running discoveries in your network

    This guide explains how ServiceNow Discovery enables you to identify configuration items (CIs), subnets, and cloud resources across your network and cloud environments like AWS and Azure. Discoveries can be initiated via schedules or scripts, helping you maintain an accurate and updated configuration management database (CMDB).

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    MID Server Configuration Prerequisites

    • Supported Applications: Specify which applications may use the MID Server; you can allow all applications for broad access.
    • IP Ranges: Define IP address ranges the MID Server can scan. The Discovery schedule’s IP range must align with the MID Server’s configured ranges. To enhance security, limit these ranges to only those you control.
    • Capabilities: Assign capabilities to the MID Server to indicate what types of discoveries it can perform, or use “ALL” for full capability coverage.

    Discovery Configuration Prerequisites

    • Credentials: Configure login credentials on the MID Servers to authenticate and query discovered devices. The MID Server attempts all credentials and creates affinities with successful ones for efficient discovery.
    • Classifications: Use default device and process classifications or create custom ones to cover unique devices or applications not included by default.

    Running Discoveries

    Use the Discovery Configuration Console to select which devices, applications, software files, and software CIs you want Discovery to locate. You can exclude specific CIs to disable related probes or classifiers.

    Choose from several discovery types based on your needs:

    • CI Discovery: The most common method to find devices, computers, and applications on your network. Can be run on-demand or scheduled.
    • Network Discovery: Discovers internal IP networks if you lack complete knowledge of your network's IP address ranges.
    • Serverless Discovery: Finds applications on hosts without discovering the host first, relying on infrastructure patterns. Requires advanced pattern knowledge.

    Monitoring and Troubleshooting

    • Discovery Status: Provides summaries and access to the ECC queue to view probe and sensor activities and exchanged XML payloads.
    • Discovery Admin Workspace: Monitor ongoing discovery operations in real time.
    • Discovery Home Page: Access detailed information on schedules, cloud resources, discovered devices, and errors with suggested remediation steps.

    By following these steps and prerequisites, ServiceNow customers can effectively run and manage network and cloud discoveries to maintain an accurate CMDB and resolve discovery-related issues promptly.

    You can run discoveries from schedules or scripts to create configuration items, define subnets, or to find resources in AWS and Azure clouds.

    MID Server configuration prerequisites

    Ensure that your MID Servers are properly configured prior to creating a Discovery schedule.
    • Supported applications: Select the applications that are allowed to use the MID Server. You can use the ALL application option to allow any application to use the MID Server.
    • IP ranges: Define the ranges of IP address the MID Server can scan. To find a MID Server match, the IP range you configure on the Discovery schedule must fall into the ranges that one or more MID Servers can support.
      Note:
      To improve security, limit the range to IP address you control and exclude unnecessary ranges.
    • Capabilities: Create the capabilities that the MID Server supports. You can use the ALL capability option to allow any application to use the MID Server.

    Discovery configuration prerequisites

    Ensure that your MID Servers can authenticate on the devices they find and classify configuration items (CI) properly.
    • Credentials: Configure the MID Servers with the login credentials they need to query the devices in the network. The MID Server tries all available credentials on each discovered device, then creates an affinity for any successful credentials. For more information, see Credential affinity for Discovery and Orchestration.
    • Classifications: The device and process classifications provided in the base platform are normally sufficient. Create classifications as needed for the devices, processes, and applications in the network not covered by the default classifiers.

    Get started running a discovery

    1. Use the Discovery Configuration Console to get started with Discovery. The console provides configuration options which let you choose the types of devices, applications, software files, and software CIs you want Discovery to find. If you select a CI to exclude from scanning, the instance disables the related probe or classifier that Discovery uses to identify the CI. See Discovery Configuration Console to get started.
    2. Determine what type of discovery to run:
      • Run a Configuration item (CI) discovery to find the devices, computers, and applications on your network. This is the most common type of discovery. Run CI discovery from the Discovery Schedule, where you to set up a recurring schedule or run a discovery on demand. The Discovery Schedule also provides configuration options for MID Servers and the Shazzam port probe.
      • Run a Network Discovery to find the internal IP networks within your organization. If you already know the IP address ranges in your network, it is not necessary to run Network Discovery. It is intended for organizations that do not have complete knowledge of the IP addresses available for Discovery in their networks.
      • Run a Serverless Discovery to find applications on host machines without the need to discover the host first. Serverless Discovery relies on infrastructure patterns to explore CIs on a host. This kind of discovery skips the scanning and classification phases of discovery. You need an advanced knowledge of patterns to use this type of discovery. Refer to Patterns and horizontal discovery to get started with patterns.
    3. After you run a discovery, monitor the results of the discovery and resolve errors if they occurred:
      • Use the Discovery status to see a summary of a Discovery and to access the ECC queue, which shows probe and sensor activity, as well as the actual XML payload that is sent to or from an instance.
      • Use the Discovery Admin Workspace to monitor ongoing Discovery operations.
      • Use the Discovery Home page to access details for all schedules, cloud resources (virtual machines), discovered devices, and related errors that might have occurred. Error details include possible remediation steps.