How CIM Discovery works

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of How CIM Discovery works

    Common Information Model (CIM) Discovery in ServiceNow Australia release automates the classification of CIM storage systems on the network. It uses a coordinated process involving the Shazzam probe, wbem port probe, and CIM Classify probe to detect and gather detailed information from CIM servers, enabling accurate discovery and mapping of storage components.

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    Processing Flow

    • The Shazzam probe launches the wbem port probe during network discovery to detect activity on key ports (SLP 427, CIM 5989 and 5988).
    • The wbem port probe uses the Service Registry Queries to perform an SLP query that detects the service:wbem service type, indicating an SLP server presence.
    • The Shazzam probe then launches a scanner for the WBEM service type, which retrieves service attributes and interop namespaces from CIM servers.
    • The wbem port probe appends this namespace data to the port probe results and passes SLP data to the CIM Classify probe.
    • The CIM Classify probe explores CIM servers further, extracting key details such as VMware ESX serial numbers and SAN/NAS connector relationships.
    • Data retrieved by the wbem probe is stored in the CIM Classification [discoveryclassycim] table for reference.

    Configuration and Customization

    • The system property mid.cim.interop.namespace defines four default storage namespaces for discovery.
    • If using multiple storage vendors with custom namespaces, customers must add these namespaces to the comma-separated list in this property to ensure they are included in discovery.
    • Including default namespaces alongside custom ones ensures complete discovery coverage.

    SMI-S and CIM Probes and Sensors

    ServiceNow includes a suite of specialized probes and sensors to gather detailed information from storage systems via CIM and SMI-S protocols, including:

    • CIM - Identity: Identifies systems via CIM per SMI-S standard.
    • SMI - Array probes: Retrieve information about controllers, disks, file shares, storage pools, ports, and volumes.
    • SMI - Fabric: Discovers SAN fabrics, zone sets, zones, aliases, endpoints, and connections.
    • SMI - Fibre Channel Switch: Retrieves Fibre Channel switch details.
    • SMI - NAS Head probes: Discover NAS virtual file servers, IPs, file servers (e.g., CIFS, NFS), and file shares.
    • SMI - Storage Server: Identifies SAN and NAS arrays and servers.
    • SMI - WBEM Service: Collects WBEM service information including profiles and SMI-S version.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    This discovery process enables customers to automatically and accurately classify a wide range of storage infrastructure components across diverse vendors and protocols. It enhances the completeness and reliability of the CMDB by capturing detailed relationships and attributes, helping optimize storage management, troubleshooting, and compliance.

    This is the processing flow for classifying Common Information Model (CIM) storage systems.

    Processing flow

    1. The Shazzam probe launches the wbem port probe as part of network discovery.
    2. The wbem port probe detects activity on target ports SLP 427, CIM 5989 and 5988, and then examines the Service Registry Queries related list, at Discovery Definition > Port Probes, for the SLP query. The base system provides this query to detect the service:wbem service type, which indicates the presence of an SLP server.
    3. The Shazzam probe launches a scanner for the WBEM service type. The scanner retrieves:
      • The attributes of the service from the SLP server.
      • The interop namespaces of CIM servers in the network.
    4. The scanner appends the namespace values it finds to the port probe results.
    5. The wbem port probe appends the SLP data it carries to the CIM Classify probes.
    6. The CIM Classify probe uses that information to explore the CIM servers.

    The wbem port Probe

    The wbem probe stores the data it retrieves in the CIM Classification [discovery_classy_cim] table. To view the wbem port probe, navigate to Discovery Definition > Port Probes.

    SLP query

    The SLP query detects the wbem service (service:wbem) on an SLP server and gathers the attributes of the service. To view the SLP Query record, open the wbem port probe record and select SLP Query from the Service Registry Queries related list.

    CIM - Classify probe

    The wbem port probe appends the SLP data it carries, including namespaces, to the CIM - Classify probe before launching it. The CIM classification probe extracts VMware ESX serial numbers and connector relationships between the SAN and NAS components from CIM Servers in the network.

    To access the CIM classification probe, navigate to Discovery Definition > Probes and select CIM - Classify from the list of probes.
    Note:
    The mid.cim.interop.namespace system property defines four default storage namespaces:
    • interop
    • root/interop
    • root/pg_interop
    • pg_interop
    If you’re using multiple storage vendors with custom namespaces not specified as one of the defaults, add the new namespaces to the comma-separated list in this property. If you intend to continue using any of the default namespaces, make sure to include them in the property.

    SMI-S and CIM probes and sensors

    Table 1. SMI-S and CIM probes and sensors
    Probe/Sensor Description
    CIM - Identity Identifies a system via CIM per SMI-S.
    SMI - Array - Controllers Retrieves controller information.
    SMI - Array - Disks Retrieves storage disk information.
    SMI - Array - File Shares Enumerates NAS file shares from a storage server.
    SMI - Array - Pools Retrieves storage pools.
    SMI - Array - Ports Retrieves storage ports.
    SMI - Array - Volumes Retrieves storage volumes.
    SMI - Fabric Retrieves SANs, fabrics, zone sets, zones, zone aliases, endpoints, and connections.
    SMI - Fibre Channel Switch Retrieves FC switches.
    SMI - NAS Head - Component Systems Retrieves all virtual file servers in a NAS head profile.
    SMI - NAS Head - File Server IPs Retrieves IP addresses for each NAS file server.
    SMI - NAS Head - File Servers Retrieves NAS file servers such as Common Internet File System (CIFS) and Network File System (NFS).
    SMI - NAS Head - File Shares Retrieves file shares for each NAS file server.
    SMI - Storage Server Retrieves SAN and NAS arrays and servers.
    SMI - WBEM Service Retrieves WBEM Service information such as profiles and SMI-S version.