Amazon EC2 Amazon EBS Snapshot pattern-based discovery

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated June 16, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Amazon EC2 Amazon EBS Snapshot pattern-based discovery

    The Amazon EC2 Amazon EBS Snapshot pattern-based discovery leverages the Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns application to identify AWS Elastic Block Store (EBS) snapshots in your cloud environment. This capability helps ServiceNow customers keep their Configuration Management Database (CMDB) updated with detailed information about EBS snapshots, including attributes and relationships, enabling accurate cloud resource management.

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    Key Features

    • Pattern Activation: The EBS Snapshot discovery pattern is disabled by default. Starting from Visibility Content version 6.28.0, enabling or disabling patterns is not considered customization and patterns receive automatic updates while retaining activation status after upgrades.
    • Prerequisites: AWS discovery prerequisites must be verified before running the pattern. Resources should be removed from the Resource Inclusion List to avoid duplicate discovery.
    • GovCloud Support: Discovering AWS GovCloud (US) accounts requires configuring the discovery schedule with the appropriate datacenter URL and AWS service account.
    • CMDB Data Population: The pattern populates the cmdbcistoragevolsnapshot table with snapshot details such as Amazon Resource Name (ARN), name, state, encryption status, size, and description.
    • Relationship Mapping: Relationships are created between EBS snapshots and AWS datacenters to reflect infrastructure dependencies.
    • Tag Collection: AWS tags for snapshots are collected and stored in the cmdbkeyvalue table, capturing tag names and values for better categorization and filtering.

    What ServiceNow Customers Can Expect

    By enabling and running this discovery pattern, ServiceNow customers will gain automated, accurate, and up-to-date visibility into their AWS EBS snapshots within the CMDB. This includes detailed attributes and operational status, encryption information, and relationships to AWS infrastructure. Such comprehensive data supports improved asset management, compliance tracking, and operational decision-making in cloud environments.

    Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns finds AWS services on your cloud environment. Discovering some of these resources may require updating to the latest version of the Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns application from the ServiceNow Store.

    Pattern-based discovery and mapping requirements

    Verify the AWS discovery prerequisites
    For more information, see the prerequisites section in AWS discovery using patterns.
    Remove resources from the Resource Inclusion List table
    Verify that the relevant resource isn't listed in the Resource Inclusion List [sa_cloud_inventory_resource_whitelist] table to avoid duplicate discovery. For more information on removing resources from the Resource Inclusion List, see AWS Resource Inventory discovery with Patterns.
    Enable the relevant pattern
    The pattern for this service is disabled by default. Starting with Visibility Content version 6.28.0, activating or deactivating a pattern won't be considered a customization, and it will continue to receive updates. Patterns that were previously activated or deactivated will reset to the latest predefined version after upgrading while retaining the last active field value. For more information on enabling patterns, see Activate a disabled pattern.
    Configure the Discovery schedule to support GovCloud
    Discovering AWS GovCloud (US) accounts requires using a datacenter URL when setting up an AWS service account. For more information, see Create AWS service accounts.

    Data stored in CMDB tables

    Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns application populates data in the CMDB when running the Amazon AWS - Elastic Compute Cloud EBS Snapshot - Extended Inventory (LP) pattern.

    Table 1. Storage Volume Snapshot [cmdb_ci_storage_vol_snapshot]
    Field Description
    Object ID [object_id] The Amazon Resource Name (ARN) uniquely identifying the EBS Snapshot.

    The ARN consists of the AWS region, account ID, and snapshot ID in the following format: arn:aws:ec2:<region>:<accountId>:snapshot/<snapshot_id>.
    Name [name] The unique identifier for the EC2 snapshot.
    State [state] The current state of the snapshot. For example: pending or completed.
    Install Status [install_status] Install status of the resource. Default value is Installed.
    Encrypted [is_encrypted] Indicates whether the snapshot is encrypted.
    Operational status [operational_status] Operational status of the resource. Default value is Operational.
    Description [short_description] Type of resource. The value is set to AWS::Elastic Compute Cloud::EBS Snapshot.
    Size (GB) [size] The size of the resource expressed in gigabytes (GB).
    Size bytes [size_bytes] The size of the snapshot in bytes.
    Volume Name [volume_name] The identifier of the volume associated with the snapshot.

    CI relationships

    The Amazon AWS - Elastic Compute Cloud EBS Snapshot - Extended Inventory (LP) pattern creates these relationships to support Amazon EC2 Amazon EBS Snapshot discovery.

    CI Relationship CI
    Storage Volume Snapshot [cmdb_ci_storage_vol_snapshot] Hosted on::Hosts AWS Datacenter [cmdb_ci_aws_datacenter]

    AWS tag discovery

    The pattern collects tags and populates them in the Key Value [cmdb_key_value] table.
    Table 2. Key Value [cmdb_key_value]
    Field Description
    Key [key] Tag name.
    Value [value] Tag value.