AWS IAM Policy pattern-based discovery

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated May 13, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of AWS IAM Policy pattern-based discovery

    The AWS IAM Policy pattern-based discovery in ServiceNow enables you to find and map AWS IAM Policies within your cloud environment. This discovery is part of the Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns application, which populates data in both CMDB and non-CMDB tables to provide comprehensive visibility of IAM Policies. To leverage this capability, you need to meet AWS discovery prerequisites, remove any duplicate entries from the Resource Inclusion List, and enable the relevant discovery pattern, which is disabled by default.

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    Key Features

    • Pattern Activation: Starting with Visibility Content version 6.28.0, enabling or disabling patterns does not count as customization, and patterns reset to the latest version after upgrades while preserving their active status.
    • Data Storage:
      • Non-CMDB data is stored when running the Amazon AWS - IAM Policy - Extended Inventory (LP) pattern and can be reviewed under the AWS section in ServiceNow.
      • CMDB data includes detailed IAM Policy records and cloud resource entries with fields such as name, ARN, policy ID, and management status.
    • CI Relationships and References: The discovery pattern creates relationships between IAM Policies and cloud service accounts, hosting information, and references that connect CI records across tables to enrich the CMDB.
    • AWS Tag Discovery: Tags associated with IAM Policies are collected and stored in the Key Value [cmdbkeyvalue] table, linking tags to the corresponding cloud resources for better resource categorization and management.

    Practical Application for ServiceNow Customers

    By implementing the AWS IAM Policy pattern-based discovery, you can automate the identification and mapping of AWS IAM Policies in your CMDB, ensuring accurate and up-to-date policy information. This supports enhanced governance, compliance, and security management by providing visibility into whether policies are customer-managed or AWS-managed, their operational status, and associated tags. Proper setup requires verifying prerequisites, managing resource inclusion lists to avoid duplicates, and enabling the pattern for continuous updates and integration with other discovery data.

    Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns finds AWS IAM Policies on your cloud environment. Discovering some of these resources may require updating to the latest version of the Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns application from the ServiceNow Store.

    Pattern-based discovery and mapping requirements

    Verify the AWS discovery prerequisites
    For more information, see the prerequisites section in AWS discovery using patterns.
    Remove resources from the Resource Inclusion List table
    Verify that the relevant resource isn't listed in the Resource Inclusion List [sa_cloud_inventory_resource_whitelist] table to avoid duplicate discovery. For more information on removing resources from the Resource Inclusion List, see AWS Resource Inventory discovery with Patterns.
    Enable the relevant pattern
    The pattern for this service is disabled by default. Starting with Visibility Content version 6.28.0, activating or deactivating a pattern won't be considered a customization, and it will continue to receive updates. Patterns that were previously activated or deactivated will reset to the latest predefined version after upgrading while retaining the last active field value. For more information on enabling patterns, see Activate a disabled pattern.

    Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns application populates data in both CMDB and non-CMDB tables.

    Data stored in non-CMDB tables

    Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns application populates data in the non-CMDB table when running the Amazon AWS - IAM Policy - Extended Inventory (LP) pattern.

    You can review the non-CMDB AWS tables by navigating to All > Configuration > AWS. You can also search the navigation filter for the specific pattern name.

    Table 1. AWS IAM Policy [cmdb_aws_iam_policy]
    Field Description
    Name [name] Name of the IAM policy.
    Object ID [object_id] The Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the IAM policy.
    Policy ID [policy_id] The stable and unique string identifying the policy.
    Is Customer Managed [is_customer_managed] Indicates whether the policy is customer-managed.
    • Policies managed by customers: the value is true
    • Policies managed by AWS: the value is false
    Configuration Item [configuration_item] References the Cloud Resource [cmdb_ci_cmp_resource] table.

    Data stored in CMDB tables

    Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns application populates data in the CMDB when running the Amazon AWS - IAM Policy - Extended Inventory (LP) pattern.

    Table 2. Cloud Resource [cmdb_ci_cmp_resource]
    Field Description
    Name [name] Name of the IAM policy.
    Object ID [object_id] The ARN of the IAM policy.
    Resource type [resource_type] Type of resource. The value is set to AWS::IAM::Policy.
    Install Status [install_status] Install status of the resource. Default value is Installed.
    Operational status [operational_status] Operational status of the resource. Default value is Operational.

    CI relationships

    The Amazon AWS - IAM Policy - Extended Inventory (LP) pattern creates the following relationships and references to support AWS IAM Policy discovery. References link to records in other tables and don't appear in the CI Relationship [cmdb_rel_ci] table.

    Table 3. CI relationships
    CI Relationship CI
    Cloud Resource [cmdb_ci_cmp_resource] Hosted on::Hosts Cloud Service Account [cmdb_ci_cloud_service_account]
    Table 4. CI references
    CI Field Referenced CI
    AWS IAM Policy [cmdb_aws_iam_policy] Configuration Item [configuration_item] Cloud Resource [cmdb_ci_cmp_resource]
    Key Value [cmdb_key_value] Configuration item [configuration_item] Cloud Resource [cmdb_ci_cmp_resource]

    AWS Tag discovery

    The Amazon AWS - IAM Policy - Extended Inventory (LP) pattern collects tags and populates them in the Key Value [cmdb_key_value] table.

    Table 5. Key Value [cmdb_key_value]
    Field Description
    Key [key] Tag name.
    Value [value] Tag value.
    Configuration item [configuration_item] References the Cloud Resource [cmdb_ci_cmp_resource] table.