Serverless Discovery

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated June 16, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Serverless Discovery

    Serverless Discovery in ServiceNow enables discovering application Configuration Items (CIs) on host machines without first discovering the host itself. It streamlines the Discovery process by skipping scanning and classification phases, relying instead on infrastructure patterns to explore CIs. There are two types of serverless Discovery: standard and host-based, both requiring infrastructure patterns.

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    Key Features

    • Standard Serverless Discovery: Discovers remote application CIs on unknown hosts using protocols like REST or HTTP. It does not require the IP address of the host and uses input parameters defined in infrastructure patterns. This is ideal for discovering web-based applications.
    • Host-based Serverless Discovery: Discovers CIs residing on an already discovered host machine, with the host acting as a proxy. Suitable when CI IP addresses are unknown or CIs do not have IP addresses. It uses operations such as WMI queries executed on the host, leveraging the host’s credentials without needing additional credentials. Patterns can include API calls from the host to discover CIs.
    • Discovery Scheduling: Serverless Discovery is triggered by Discovery schedules, not classifiers, and ignores classifiers altogether. A special serverless schedule type is used for both standard and host-based serverless Discovery, allowing specification of input parameters for standard or a host CI for host-based Discovery.

    Practical Application for ServiceNow Customers

    By using serverless Discovery, customers can efficiently discover application CIs without the overhead of full host discovery, which is beneficial in environments where host details are unknown or when dealing with web-based or non-IP-addressable CIs. Infrastructure patterns and serverless schedules give customers the flexibility to customize and automate discovery tailored to their environment, improving discovery accuracy and reducing manual effort.

    Discovery can find applications on host machines without the need to discover the host first. This type of Discovery is referred to as serverless Discovery.

    Serverless Discovery relies on infrastructure patterns to explore CIs on a host. This kind of Discovery skips the scanning and classification phases of Discovery. There are two types of serverless Discovery: standard and host-based. Both types require an infrastructure pattern.

    Standard serverless Discovery

    Standard serverless Discovery finds remote application CIs that reside on an unknown host. This type of serverless Discovery uses protocols, such as REST or HTTP, to find the CIs. The IP address of the host machine is not required. You define input parameters in an infrastructure pattern to connect to a remote resource. Use this type of Discovery when you want to discover web-based applications.

    Host-based serverless Discovery

    Host-based serverless Discovery finds CIs that reside on a host machine that you already discovered. The host acts as a proxy through which you find other CIs. You do not actually run Discovery on the host. Use this type of Discovery when:
    • You do not know the IP address of the CIs you want to discover, or the CIs do not actually have IP addresses.
    • The CIs reside on an already discovered host CI.

    For this type of Discovery, you also need an infrastructure pattern, but you do not need to define input parameters like you do for standard serverless Discovery. The pattern can specify operations, such as a WMI Query, which executes queries on a host. After Discovery connects to the host, it uses the credentials of the host to perform the Discovery of CIs you are exploring in the pattern. You do not need to specify additional credentials. When you run debug mode on the pattern, you can see the details under Temporary Variables on the pattern. You can then create pattern operations that make API calls from the host to the CIs you are trying to discover.

    Serverless Discovery schedules

    The infrastructure patterns that serverless Discovery uses are triggered from a Discovery schedule, rather than from a classifier. Serverless Discovery ignores classifiers. Use a serverless schedule type for both types of serverless Discovery. The serverless schedule allows you to specify: