What is Discovery within the ServiceNow ITOM Module?

Discovery is a submodule of ITOM. The main job of Discovery is to crawl the company's network, find all connected devices (like computers, laptops, routers, printers, anything else connected to the network) and record their data in the ServiceNow database (the CMDB. We'll discuss this in future). 

So, what type of information is recorded? It can record a lot of structured and even unstructured information depending upon the device type. For example, for computers, it can record what operating system is on each one, how much RAM and CPU they have, how much HDD space is free and how much is used up, all installed software on each system, open ports, and most importantly, which devices are connected to each other on the network etc. For other devices on the network, their respective data is recorded.

But what is the purpose of recording this "bunk" (Lol)?

This information becomes very useful for many of the other modules. We'll talk about this in future posts.

To summarize, the main purpose of Discovery is to crawl the company network, find all devices on the network and record their data in a database.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What are HAM and HAM Pro within ServiceNow ITAM module?

HAM stands for Hardware Asset Management. It is a sub-module of ITAM. The main purpose of HAM is to track a piece of hardware (laptop, computer etc.) throughout its entire lifecycle from procurement to retirement. The main reason for this tracking is to maximize return on investment. What does tracking mean? Tracking can involve things like, making sure that a leased piece of hardware is returned to the vendor on the due date because getting late, even by one day can give the leaser, the right to extend the lease at any price of his choice, costing the company, a lot of money. Tracking can also include making sure that a piece of hardware is retired as soon as its warranty ends because hardware failure would not only include repair/replacement cost for the company but could also cause huge data losses etc. In short, HAM is there to make sure that you're getting your money's worth. What is the difference between HAM and HAM Pro? HAM Pro is AI powered, supports mobile tools and s...
Read more

What is ServiceNow ITOM module? What are its submodules?

ITOM stands for IT Operations Management. The main purpose of ITOM is to keep an eye on the IT assets (e.g. servers, network and cloud services etc.) of a company and make sure that they remain operational by taking preventive measures to keep them from breaking down. For example, let's say, a company has a server, hosting their official website. And let's say, this server is about to run out of HDD space. ITOM is automatically going to take steps (like automatically deleting temporary files, junk files, old and out of date log file etc.) to free up space on the HDD before the server runs out of space and breaks down. ITOM would also automatically notify the concerned staff to take necessary steps from their end and solve the problem (perhaps by installing a second HDD or a newer, bigger one). In short, ITOM is there to keep an automatic eye on the IT assets of the company to make sure that they do not break down by taking preventive steps. You can think of ITOM as a problem-pr...
Read more

What are SAM and SAM Pro within the ServiceNow ITAM Module?

SAM stands for Software Asset Management. Again, the main purpose of SAM is to track the usage of Software assets to make sure that the company is getting its money's worth. Since software cost a lot of money. SAM is there to ensure that the company does not overspend on software licenses and in fact, saves money according to their software usage. For example, SAM might track a piece of software on a user's computer and finds out that it has not been used in more than 90 days. This would mean that the software is under-utilized. SAM would automatically revoke the user's license and mark it in the database as an unassigned license. So, in case some other user needs the same software, the company could simply assign that software license to this new user instead of buying a new license, thus saving money. In small companies, this might not seem like much but with companies with thousands of users, this sort of cost can add up really quick. How often does SAM check if a softwa...
Read more