Storage discovery

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Storage discovery

    Storage discovery in ServiceNow collects detailed information on various storage types including Direct Attached Storage (DAS), Storage Area Networks (SAN), and Network Attached Storage (NAS). It discovers storage located on specialized devices such as Storage Arrays, Fibre Channel Switches, iSCSI disks, or directly on host operating systems including Windows, Linux, and Solaris. The discovery process maps storage dependencies and relationships, enabling a comprehensive view of storage infrastructure within your CMDB.

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    Key Features

    • Discovers and maps DAS, NAS, SAN storage, including virtual storage on VMware ESX and Linux KVM environments.
    • Utilizes Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S) and Common Information Model (CIM) to discover NAS or SAN storage.
    • Reconciles storage data via hosts, linking file systems to local storage devices, assuming prior discovery of storage servers.
    • Creates Configuration Items (CIs) in the CMDB for file systems, disks (SAN and DAS), Fibre Channel HBAs and ports, Linux LVM volumes, and Veritas Volume Manager components.
    • Supports discovery through specialized probes and patterns for various operating systems and storage platforms including Windows (2008, 2012), Linux, Solaris, VMware ESX, and NetApp storage clusters.

    Requirements

    • Windows: Supports Windows Server 2008 and 2012 with DAS or NAS using Fibre Channel or iSCSI. Requires installation of fcinfo.exe, Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), PowerShell enabled on the MID Server, and proper credentials. WinRM is recommended for Fibre Channel discovery and is enabled by default on Windows 2012 and newer.
    • Linux and Solaris: Supports Solaris, CentOS, and Ubuntu servers with DAS, NAS, or SAN using iSCSI or Fibre Channel. Requires SSH credentials with root or sudo access and appropriate MID Server credentials.

    Relationships and Mapping

    Discovery establishes key CI relationships, such as:

    • Storage Export to Storage Device
    • Fibre Channel Disk to File System
    • iSCSI Disk to File System

    This facilitates understanding of storage component dependencies and connectivity.

    Additional Capabilities

    • Supports discovery of storage via hosts, including local I/O ports and Host Bus Adapters.
    • Discovers storage devices exposing SMI-S providers, enhancing integration with specialized storage systems.
    • Collects detailed data on Veritas Volume Manager on Linux, mapping file systems to volumes and upstream storage.
    • Enables discovery and service mapping of NetApp servers and clusters using REST-based patterns.
    • Includes configuration considerations to manage large storage payloads on Linux and Solaris to avoid memory issues during discovery.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    By implementing Storage discovery, customers gain an accurate and up-to-date inventory of physical and logical storage components within their IT environment. This enables effective configuration management, impact analysis, and troubleshooting related to storage infrastructure. The discovery process supports multi-vendor and multi-platform environments, ensuring comprehensive storage visibility and better operational decision-making.

    Discovery collects information on Direct Attached Storage (DAS), Storage Area Networks (SAN), and Network Attached Storage (NAS).

    Storage can be located on specialized devices, such as Storage Arrays, Fibre Channel Switches, iSCSI disks, or on host operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and Solaris.

    Discovery finds and maps dependencies for the following types of storage:
    • Direct-attached storage (DAS), network-attached storage (NAS), or storage area network (SAN).
    • NAS or SAN storage that is discovered via a Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S) and Common Information Model (CIM).
    • Virtual storage for VMware ESX servers and Linux Kernel-based Virtual Machines (KVM). Discovery maps this storage to the underlying physical storage.

    Discovery of storage via a host reconciles data and creates relationships between the host's file systems and associated local storage devices. The local storage devices represent the storage available to the host, whether it's directly attached or provided by Fibre Channel or iSCSI. This reconciliation assumes that the storage server has been discovered first.

    Note:
    Tape storage drivers are not discovered.
    Discovery collects and creates CIs in the CMDB for the following information:
    • File systems (local and NAS).
    • Disks (both SAN disks and DAS drives).
    • Fibre Channel (FC) HBAs and ports.
    • Linux Volume Manager (LVM) volumes. LVM volume data resides in the Storage Pool [cmdb_ci_storage_pool] table.
    • Veritas Volume Manager disks, subdisks, disk groups, plexes, and volumes.
    Note:
    For details about the discovery of direct attached or multipath block storage provisioned on a Linux host, see KB0622583.

    Probes, sensors, and patterns

    • KVM - Storage Pools: identifies storage attached to KVM virtual machines.
    • Linux - Storage: identifies storage attached to systems running the Linux operating system.
    • Solaris - Storage: identifies storage attached to systems running the Solaris operating system.
    • Windows - Storage 2008: identifies storage attached to systems running Windows 2008.
      • Windows - Storage 2008 - PS: identifies storage attached to systems running Windows 2008, using the PowerShell.
      • Windows - Storage 2008 - WMI: identifies storage attached to systems running Windows 2008, using WMI Runner.
    • Windows - Storage 2012: identifies storage attached to systems running Windows 2012 and later.
      • Windows - Storage 2012 - PS: identifies storage attached to Windows systems, using PowerShell.
      • Windows - Storage 2012 - WMI: identifies storage attached to Windows systems, using WMI Runner.
    • VMWare - vCenter ESX Hosts Storage: collects information about ESX servers and creates relationships from datastores to underlying disks.
    • Patterns for NetApp storage discovery:
      • NetApp 7-mode: finds NetApp servers via REST with two nodes.
      • NetApp cluster mode: finds NetApp servers via REST when more than two nodes are connected through a cluster interconnect switch.
      Note:
      For information on Probe to Pattern migration see the knowledge article KB0694477.

    Requirements

    Windows
    • Supports the following configurations:
      • Windows Server 2012, DAS or NAS with Fibre Channel (FC) or Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI).
      • Windows Server 2008, DAS or NAS with FC or iSCSI.
    • Install the fcinfo.exe tool on Windows 2008 and 2012 servers that attach to storage via FC.
    • Install Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI).
    • Enable Powershell on the MID Server host server.
    • Provide the instance with the necessary credentials to the host server.
    • Put the MID Server and the target machine in the same domain or add the target machine to the trusted host list on the MID Server machine.
    • Optionally, install Windows Remote Management (WinRM) on the host server to discover Fibre Channel information. WinRM is on by default for Windows 2012 and Windows 2016 machines, but not for Windows 2008.
    Linux
    • Supports the following configurations:
      • Solaris, DAS, NAS, or SAN with iSCSI
      • CentOS, DAS, NAS, or SAN with FC or iSCSI
      • Ubuntu Server, DAS, NAS, or SAN with iSCSI
    • Provide the device with SSH credentials that have root or sudo access.
    • Provide the MID Server with the necessary credentials to the host server.

    Relationships

    Discovery creates the following relationships for storage CIs:
    Parent Component Relationship Child Component
    Storage Export [cmdb_ci_storage_export] Exports to::Imports from Storage Device [cmdb_ci_storage_device]
    Fibre Channel Disk [cmdb_ci_fc_disk] Provides::Provided by File System [cmdb_ci_file_system]
    iSCSI Disk [cmdb_ci_iscsi_disk] Provides::Provided by File System [cmdb_ci_file_system]