Pattern diagnostic agentic workflow

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated June 9, 2026
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Pattern diagnostic agentic workflow

    The Pattern diagnostic agentic workflow is designed to assist Discovery administrators in investigating missing Configuration Item (CI) attributes within ServiceNow's Discovery. It automates the process of identifying gaps, parsing discovery logs, determining root causes, and suggesting remediation actions, eliminating the need for manual log navigation. This workflow specifically supports CIs discovered through pattern-based Discovery methods.

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    Key Features

    • Automated Investigation: Triggered via natural-language queries in the Now Assist panel, the workflow resolves the CI class and identifies attributes managed by Discovery.
    • Root Cause Analysis: The workflow examines affected CI records with missing attributes, parses relevant discovery logs, and determines the underlying cause.
    • Remediation Suggestions: Based on the root cause, the workflow recommends corrective actions using the EF Remediation Agent.
    • Agent Collaboration: Utilizes two agents—a Pattern diagnostic agent to process queries and analyze data, and an EF Remediation Agent to propose fixes.
    • Support Scope: Focused on CIs discovered through default pattern-based Discovery, analyzing pattern metadata and logs for up to five sample CIs.

    Requirements and Configuration

    • Now Assist for IT Operations Management (ITOM) must be installed.
    • The user must have the discoveryadmin role.
    • The property glide.discovery.savepatternlog must be set to true to ensure pattern logs are saved for complete analysis.

    Practical Examples

    • Linux Server (Direct Infrastructure): Investigates missing attributes like cpumanufacturer by querying discovery logs via the CI’s IP address.
    • MySQL Database (Applicative Pattern): Resolves host server IP through "Runs on" relationships and queries logs on the host server to analyze missing attributes.
    • AWS Auto Scaling Group (Cloud Pattern): Uses "Hosted on" relationships to find SA-LDC identifiers and process IDs for log analysis, addressing missing attributes such as clusterconnection.

    Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    This workflow streamlines the troubleshooting of missing CI attributes in pattern-based Discovery, saving time and reducing complexity. By automating log analysis and remediation suggestions within the Now Assist panel, Discovery administrators can quickly identify and resolve data gaps, enhancing CMDB accuracy and operational efficiency.

    The Pattern diagnostic agentic workflow helps Discovery administrators investigate missing CI attributes. It identifies the gap, parses discovery logs, identifies the root cause, and suggests remediation — without manually navigating log files.

    When Discovery runs, it populates CI attributes in the CMDB using both probe-based and pattern-based discovery. The Pattern diagnostic agentic workflow supports investigation into CIs discovered through pattern-based discovery. When an attribute is missing, identifying the cause requires navigating multiple tables and interpreting nested JSON in discovery logs. The Pattern diagnostic agentic workflow automates this investigation and suggests a remediation action, all from the Now Assist panel.

    Requirements

    Now Assist for IT Operations Management (ITOM) must be installed on your instance. For more information, see Install the ServiceNow Otto for IT Operations Management (ITOM) application.

    Role required: discovery_admin.

    Required property configuration

    The glide.discovery.save_pattern_log property controls whether pattern logs are saved after successful pattern execution. By default, this property is set to true, which saves all pattern logs.

    If this property is set to false, successful pattern logs are not saved. This can prevent the Pattern diagnostic agentic workflow from performing missing attribute analysis in cases where the attribute is not failing the pattern. Verify that this property is set to true to enable complete analysis. For information about configuring this property, see Discovery properties.

    Pattern diagnostic agentic workflow overview

    A Discovery administrator triggers the workflow by asking a natural-language question in the Now Assist panel. The workflow resolves the CI class and surfaces the attributes that Discovery is responsible for populating. The administrator selects the attribute to investigate. The workflow then identifies affected CI records with the selected attribute missing, parses the relevant discovery logs to identify the root cause, and suggests a remediation.

    The workflow uses two agents:

    • Pattern diagnostic agent: Receives the administrator's query and runs script tools autonomously to investigate the missing attribute.
    • EF Remediation Agent: Receives the identified root cause and suggests a remediation.

    Scope

    The workflow covers attribute coverage gaps for CI classes discovered through pattern-based Discovery. The following conditions apply:

    • Only CIs discovered through patterns are supported for analysis.
    • Analysis is based on the pattern metadata table (sn_disco_ai_pattern_metadata). This table contains metadata about the patterns populating a CI and its attributes. Only default pattern information is included; customizations made to patterns aren't considered.
    • Log analysis focuses on the first CI in the sample. If issues are found, the workflow reports them and stops. If no issues are found, it checks the next CI in the list, up to the sample limit of five.

    Examples

    The following scenarios illustrate how the workflow handles different CI and pattern types.

    Scenario 1: Direct infrastructure (Linux Server)

    The workflow investigates a missing cpu_manufacturer attribute on Linux Server CIs. The workflow resolves the CIs IP address and queries the discovery logs directly. It returns a full report with sample CIs investigated, link to CIs, root cause and remediation guidance.

    Scenario 2: Applicative pattern (MySQL database)

    The workflow investigates a missing attribute on a MySQL database CI. MySQL CIs are discovered through their host servers. The workflow navigates the Runs on relationship to resolve the host server's IP address and queries the discovery logs on the host, not the MySQL instance. It returns a full report with sample CIs investigated, link to CIs, root cause and remediation guidance.

    Scenario 3: Cloud pattern (AWS Auto Scaling Group)

    The workflow investigates a missing cluster_connection attribute on an AWS Auto Scaling Group CI. Cloud CIs use an SA-LDC identifier instead of a traditional IP address. The workflow navigates the Hosted on relationship to resolve the SA-LDC identifier and searches logs using the identifier and process ID. It returns a full report with sample CIs investigated, link to CIs, root cause and remediation guidance.