Indicators used in the CMDB success advisor for SAM dashboard

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 22, 2026
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Indicators used in the CMDB success advisor for SAM dashboard

    The CMDB Success Advisor for SAM dashboard provides high-level indicators that help ServiceNow customers monitor data quality, completeness, and licensing compliance related to software installations and their associated configuration items (CIs). These indicators use data primarily from the Software Install [cmdbsamswinstall] table and related tables to surface critical insights into the state and health of software and infrastructure assets.

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    Key Indicators and Their Purpose

    • Software installs: Counts total software installs within the selected scope linked to normalized software products, grouped by discovery source.
    • Installs by dimension: Breaks down software installs by selectable dimensions such as software publisher (default), normalized product, CI class hosting the install, or discovery source, enabling detailed analysis.
    • Software installs by normalization status: Groups installs by normalized product, CI class, and normalization status to assess data standardization.
    • Missing edition and version: Identifies installs where the Software Discovery Model lacks edition or version information, highlighting data gaps.
    • Server installs missing cloud license: Counts installs on CIs with cloud providers but missing cloud license types, relevant for compliance tracking of qualifying products.
    • Installs by CI install status (or lifecycle stage): Groups installs by the CI’s install status or, if the CSDM Activation plugin is enabled, by lifecycle stage to assess asset readiness and state.
    • CIs missing environment or assigned user: Flags CIs with software installs that lack environment classification or assigned user, essential for accountability and environment mapping.
    • Server CIs missing CPU attributes: Highlights CIs missing key CPU data needed for accurate software license calculations.
    • CIs not updated in last 30, 60, or 90 days: Tracks CIs with software installs that have not been updated recently, indicating potential stale or outdated data.
    • Duplicate CIs: Shows installs on CIs identified as duplicates with active de-duplication tasks, helping to improve CMDB accuracy.
    • Virtual machines without host server CI relationships: Identifies virtual server CIs lacking proper "Virtualized by::Virtualizes" relationships to their host servers, which can cause licensing compliance gaps.
    • Incorrect virtual server infrastructure relationships: Flags virtual server relationships that health analysis indicates are incorrect or suggested for removal, improving infrastructure data integrity.
    • Install status distribution matched/mismatched: Compares install status or lifecycle stages between virtual servers and their hosts to detect alignment or discrepancies.

    Important Considerations

    Relationship-based indicators depend on the CMDB Health Dashboard - Relationship Compliance Processor scheduled job running properly. If inactive, the dashboard alerts users with a “Relationship data incomplete” warning and some metrics may be incomplete. This ensures customers are aware of potential data gaps affecting virtual CI relationship insights.

    What This Enables ServiceNow Customers to Do

    By leveraging these indicators, ServiceNow customers can quickly identify and address data quality issues in their CMDB related to software installations, improve license compliance tracking, and maintain accurate infrastructure relationships. This supports more reliable software asset management, accurate compliance reporting, and effective remediation of CMDB data gaps that impact SAM processes.

    Indicators enable viewing of high-level metrics that highlight data quality, completeness, and licensing compliance issues across software installs and their related configuration items (CIs).

    CMDB success advisor for SAM dashboard indicators

    Software installs
    Total number of software installs from the Software Install [cmdb_sam_sw_install] table that are in the selected scope and associated with a normalized software product, grouped by discovery source.
    Installs by
    Software installs from the Software Install [cmdb_sam_sw_install] table, grouped by a selectable dimension: software publisher (default), normalized software product, the CI class of the CI hosting the install, or discovery source.
    Software installs by normalization status
    Software installs from the Software Install [cmdb_sam_sw_install] table, grouped by normalized software product, the CI class of the CI hosting the install, and the normalization status recorded on the associated Software Discovery Model.
    Software installs missing edition
    Total number of software installs from the Software Install [cmdb_sam_sw_install] table where the associated Software Discovery Model doesn't have an edition value populated.
    Software installs missing version
    Total number of software installs from the Software Install [cmdb_sam_sw_install] table where the associated Software Discovery Model doesn't have a version value populated.
    Server installs missing cloud license
    Total number of software installs on CIs where a cloud provider is populated and a cloud license type isn't populated, limited to a defined set of qualifying software products that require cloud license tracking.
    Installs by CI install status
    Software installs from the Software Install [cmdb_sam_sw_install] table, grouped by the install status of the CI hosting the install. On instances where the CSDM Activation plugin (com.snc.cmdb.csdm.activation) is active, this card is named Installs by lifecycle stages, and installs are grouped by life cycle stage instead.
    CIs missing environment
    Total number of CIs with a software install in the selected scope that don't have an environment value populated.
    CIs missing assigned to
    Total number of CIs with a software install in the selected scope that aren't assigned to a specific user.
    Server CIs missing CPU attributes
    Total number of CIs with a software install in the selected scope that are missing key CPU attributes needed for accurate license calculations.
    CIs not updated in the last 30 days
    Total number of CIs with a software install in the selected scope that haven't been updated in the last 30 days.
    CIs not updated in the last 60 days
    Total number of CIs with a software install in the selected scope that haven't been updated in the last 60 days.
    CIs not updated in the last 90 days
    Total number of CIs with a software install in the selected scope that haven't been updated in the last 90 days.
    Duplicate CIs
    Total number of software installs on CIs identified as duplicates, where the CI has a follow-on de-duplication task in the Reconcile Duplicate Task [reconcile_duplicate_task] table that is still active, limited to installs of selected software products.
    Virtual machines without host server CI relationships
    Total number of software installs, scoped to the selected SAM products, on Windows Server or Linux Server virtual CIs that don't have a Virtualized by::Virtualizes relationship to a host CI, limited to VMware ESX Server and Microsoft Hyper-V virtual infrastructure, resulting in gaps in licensing compliance tracking.
    Incorrect virtual server infrastructure relationships
    Total number of Virtualized by or Member of relationships for virtual server CIs, limited to VMware ESX Server and Microsoft Hyper-V virtual infrastructure, that relationship health analysis flags as incorrect or suggested for removal. On the KPI Details page, this indicator appears under the heading Incorrect infrastructure relationships.
    Install status distribution matched
    Virtual server software installs where the install status, or life cycle stage, of the virtual server CI matches the install status, or life cycle stage, of its related host CI.
    Install status distribution mismatched
    Virtual server software installs where the install status, or life cycle stage, of the virtual server CI doesn't match the install status, or life cycle stage, of its related host CI.
    Note:
    Relationship-based indicators require the CMDB Health Dashboard - Relationship Compliance Processor scheduled job to have run. If the job is inactive, the dashboard displays a Relationship data incomplete alert with a Run job action, and metrics in the Virtual CI relationships section may be incomplete.