Tag-based discovery in Service Mapping

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated August 5, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Tag-based discovery in Service Mapping

    Tag-based discovery in Service Mapping enables organizations using tags in their ServiceNow instance to map application services efficiently. Tags are key-value pairs used to categorize assets, improving query and reporting capabilities. This method is particularly useful for virtualized, hyper-converged, and multi-cloud infrastructures, supporting major cloud providers and container ecosystems. Unlike other mapping methods, tag-based mapping does not require credential configuration or elevated user rights, allowing mapping of multiple service instances through tags.

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    Tag-based discovery stages

    • Tag discovery: Discovery and Cloud Provisioning and Governance modules identify tags on cloud and resource CIs and record them in the cmdbkeyvalue table.
    • Tag category and key setup: Administrators create CI tag categories grouping tags with similar purposes and define tag keys within those categories (e.g., "production" and "staging" environments).
    • Service family creation: Administrators create tag-based service families, selecting tag categories and optionally specifying tag values to filter CIs included in application services.
    • Domain considerations: In domain-separated environments, the appropriate leaf domain must be selected to ensure services are populated with CIs from the correct domain.
    • Service candidate creation and mapping: Service Mapping queries the CMDB for CIs matching the tag definitions, creates service candidates, and allows administrators to select and map these services. Resulting services are stored in the cmdbciservicebytags table.
    • CI relationships: Mapping builds connections between tagged CIs based on relationships, including some CIs without tags if they are part of those relationships, as defined in the svctraversalrules table.

    Key considerations

    • CIs without correct tags may be excluded from tag-based services, potentially missing relevant components.
    • CIs with multiple tags can belong to multiple application services.
    • Tag-based mapping streamlines service creation without complex credential configurations or elevated rights.

    Creating tag-based services

    Single tag-based application services can be created using the Common Service Data Model (CSDM) flow. For creating multiple tag-based services, the classic Service Mapping approach applies.

    Practical value for ServiceNow customers

    This capability allows customers to leverage existing tagging strategies to automate and simplify application service mapping across complex infrastructures. It enhances accuracy and efficiency in service modeling, supports multi-cloud and container environments, and reduces administrative overhead by eliminating the need for elevated permissions during discovery and mapping.

    If your organization uses tags, or establishes them in a local ServiceNow instance, you can use these tags to map application services.

    A tag is a label that consists of a key-value pair. Your organization might use tags to categorize its assets and to enhance query and reporting capabilities. Discovery and Cloud Provisioning and Governance can discover tags used by all major cloud providers and container ecosystems. Once the tags are discovered, Service Mapping can create application services based on these tags. Typically organizations use tagging in virtualized, hyper-converged, or multi-cloud infrastructures.

    Table 1. Example of using tagging in organization infrastructure
    Segment Technology providers What is tagged
    Cloud Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), IBM Cloud Platform IaaS, PaaS, FaaS, CaaS resources
    Hyper-converged Nutanix Virtual machines
    Containers Kubernetes, OpenShift Container Platform, AWS ECS Containers
    Virtualization VMware vCenter Virtual machines

    Unlike other mapping methods, tag-based mapping does not require configuring credentials or providing users with elevated rights. You can effectively use tags to map multiple service instances.

    Tag-based discovery stages

    The tag-based discovery and mapping process consists of the following stages:
    1. Discovery and Cloud Provisioning and Governance discover tags for cloud and resource configuration items (CIs) and then populate data for discovered tags into the Key Value [cmdb_key_value] table.
    2. The administrator creates CI tag categories and defines tag keys that the categories contain. Tag categories contain tags with similar use. For example, if your organization has production and staging environments, you could create "production" and "staging" tag values.
    3. The administrator creates a tag-based service family and selects tag categories to use for its mapping. CIs that have more than one tags assigned to them, can be part of multiple services.
      • Only CIs with discovered tag keys for the selected tag categories become part of application services.
      • The administrator can narrow the criteria by defining specific tag values in addition to tag categories.
      • Service Mapping uses only CIs that have the matching values to create application services.
      • CIs that have more than one tag assigned to them can be a part of multiple services.
      Note:
      When creating a service family for mapping services based on tags in domain-separated environment, you must pick the relevant leaf domain.
    4. Service Mapping queries the CMDB for CIs with tag values that match the tag definitions for this tag-based service family.
    5. Service Mapping creates service candidates based on the defined tags.

      Service Mapping populates tag-based services based on this service family only with CIs belonging to the leaf domain to which the service family belongs.

    6. The administrator selects the service candidates to map and starts the mapping process.
    7. Service Mapping adds new application services to the Tag-Based Application Service [cmdb_ci_service_by_tags] table.
      Important:
      Service instances mapped using tags might not include relevant CIs if those CIs do not have the correct tags.

    8. Service Mapping maps application services by creating connections between tagged CIs based on CI relationships. The Traversal Rules for Application Services [svc_traversal_rules] table contains information used for creating tag-based application services.

      Note:
      Service Mapping includes CIs that are part of these relationships even if these CIs do not have tags assigned to them.

    Creating tag-based services

    You can create single tag-based application services using the Common Service Data Model (CSDM) flow as described in populate application services using tags.

    For information about how to create multiple tag-based services, see Map application services using tags with classic Service Mapping.