18BC03_Discovery_Enables_Accurate_CMDB_Hinkle_DiscoverFinancial

© 2016 ServiceNow All Rights Reserved
How Discovery Enables Accurate & Usable CMDB
TIM HINKLE
ITSM CMDB ARCHITECTURE
Discover Financial Services

© 2016 ServiceNow All Rights Reserved 2Confidential© 2016 ServiceNow All Rights Reserved
Agenda
Discovery
CMDB
ServiceWatch
IT Service Management
SACM Critical Success Factors

Discovery

Discovery Challenges

What Is ServiceNow Discovery?
5

Overview of Data Collected by Discovery

Discovery
• ServiceNow is normally hosted
in a ServiceNow datacenter, and
it does not have the ability to access
the enterprise’s network directly.
Many enterprises have multiple
networks, often separated by slow
WAN links or security barriers and
Discovery needs access to all
of them. MID Server can be
installed behind the company
firewall allowing for communication
between ServiceNow and the rest
of the company network.
MID Servers
Configuring Discovery

Discovery
Credentials are encrypted
automatically with a fixed instance
key when they are submitted or
updated in the Credentials table.
When Credentials are requested
by the MID Server, the platform
decrypts the credentials.

How Does Discovery Extract Information?

Discovery
• Discovery Behaviors
– A Discovery Behavior determines what probes Shazzam launches and from which MID Servers these
probes are launched
• Probes & Sensors
– Probes are launched by the MID Server to collect all the information that you want returned from a
device.
– If the probe has a post-processing script defined, that script processes the information collected on
the MID Server. Otherwise the sensor performs this post processing. The sensor updates the CMDB.
• Administration
– Making sure your MID Servers are up and running
– Reviewing your Scheduled Scan jobs and ensuring that they complete successfully
– Review the Scan logs for un-authorized devices

Discovery
• Troubleshooting
– Reviewing un-authorized devices by CI Class with each Platform owner.
– Set up working sessions with each of the Platform owners and the Network team to run discovery test.
Then review the discovery logs, ECC Queue entries and the Probe XML Payloads.
• Professional Services
– Partnering up with ServiceNow to custom create Probes or Sensors if needed
• IBM SAN Volume Controllers
• Tomcat & Apache Probes to pull back Application Name

CMDB

ServiceNow CMDB Overview
• The ServiceNow Enterprise Configuration Management Database (ECMDB) Allows
us to identify, control, record, report, audit and verify services assets and
configuration items, including versions, baselines, constituent components,
their attributes, and relationships.
• The ECMDB makes it easy to either manually enter the relationships or have them
populated automatically by discovery tools. In addition to the hardware, software,
network, database, and storage areas, it is beneficial to know which individuals or
groups are responsible for the service from both a business perspective as well as
an IT perspective.
13

CMDB Configuration Item Navigation Dashboard
Configuration Item Dashboard:
Dashboards are divided into
tabs to logically group widgets
that belong together.

CMDB
• CMDB Configuration Items
– Define your company’s Configuration Item Categories so as you discover
Devices, they go into the correct tablespace.
• ApplicationBusiness Software
• Support Software
• Hardware
• Data
• Network
• CMDB Configuration Items Coverage
– Leverage a source of truth from each Platform owner
to identify Coverage
• Process
• Standards
• Documents
• Facilities

CMDB
• Future CMDB Configuration Items
– Future Asset Management Product Categories
– Identify areas that you will expand into. An example for us would be the Data Center (Nlyte).
CI Examples – Air Conditioning, Cabinets, Chassis, Commandos PDUs, Power Strips, UPSs
• CMDB Integration
– Sources of Truth
– 3rd Party Tools
– IT Service Management
• Change Management
• Event Management
• Incident Management
• Problem Management

ServiceWatch

ServiceWatch – Service Dependency Mapping
• Only needs service entry point
• Fully automated
• Updated in real time
• Cross-technology
• No expert inputs needed
• Built for virtualized environments
• Agentless
Vertical Discovery
Across Domains
Top-Down Approach

ServiceWatch Application Discovery
• ServiceWatch Discovery
– Agentless
– Credentials required on all infrastructure
– Identification patterns have been created for each infrastructure component for the following
purposes:
• Determine what the server is used for
• Identify key data points that can be utilized for support and Change Management
• Read configuration files to find next step in the application
• ServiceWatch maps are rescanned daily for updates
• Identifies application level information:
– JVMs, EAR Files, Connection level information for each step (URLs, connection ports, etc), operating system

Traditional Application Dependency Mapping Vs ServiceWatch
Load Balancers
Web Servers
App Servers
Databases
Virtual Servers
Servers
Horizontal Discovery
Two Weeks Per Service
100s of Services
Load Balancers
Web Servers
App Servers
Databases
Virtual Servers
Servers

Business Service Map
• Enter an entry point for a top down discovery
of a Business Service
• Discovers all the underlying Configuration
Items that underpin the ServiceApplication
Creating a Business Service Map

Dashboard Screenshots

CMDB
Discovery
CMDB Benefits
DescriptionValue tree
Minimize change risks & outages by empowering CAB with
trusted dependency data to evaluate change impact
Service Mgmt
Incident & Problem
Mgmt
Change Mgmt
Restore service faster by replacing dependence on tribal
knowledge with reliable configuration & relationship
information
Reduce audit prep time & related costs; easily prove inventory
accuracy to vendors
Identify inefficient hardware (Green IT); ensure retired HW &
SW is properly decommissioned
Software Audits
Optimize Assets
Asset Mgmt
Leverage configuration/dependency data & application maps
in capacity analysis
Identify unauthorized processes & open ports; standardize
HW and SW versions & patch levels
Identify candidates for consolidation, cloud & virtualization
projects; eliminate risks when moving assets
Leverage dependency data & application maps in DR planning
Identify critical assets for monitoring; link events to business
services
Infrastructure
& Operations
Mgmt
Capacity Optimization
Secure & Compliant
Operations
Disaster Recovery
Data Center
Transformation
Availability &
Performance Mgmt

Change Management
• UI Action
– We added a UI Action labeled
“Refresh Impacted Services”
that will review both the
Primary CI field as well as the
Affected CI table against the
Related Business Services
naxtest1

Change Management
naxtest2
naxtest3
naxtest4
naxtest5
naxtest6
naxtest7
naxtest1Network Services
Application ABC
Accounts Services
Loan Services
Loan Web Services
Database Services

Operational Usage – Change
• Service Desk
– Understand what changes are coming that may have outages associated to be better prepared for
incident calls.
• Support Teams
– Understand
• What application(s) are potentially impacted by a server change
• Whom to reach out to for approval or notification for a outage
• What servers are impacted with a SAN Change
• Business
– What changes may effect your services and/or applications
27

Incident Management
• UI Action
– We added a UI Action labeled
“Refresh Impacted Services - Incidents”
that will review both the Primary CI
field as well as the Affected CI table
against the Related Business Services
naxtest13

Incident Management
naxtest1
naxtest13
Micrograohics
Credit Card Services
Disputes
Account Services
Loan Services
Internet Services
Acquisitions

Business Service CI
• Under the Related Links section:
We have made several changes
to the Business Service CIs.
• We wanted to be able to visually
correlate between incidents/
changes that are associated with
the master business service CI
and details (like alerts/incidents/
changes) that are associated with
all CIs of the business service.
Business Service Name BSN

Business Service CI
naxtest3.yourdomain.com
Impacting Incidents: All incidents that are
associated with the master business
service CI
Impacting Changes: All changes that are
associated with the master business
service CI
Failovers: All changes that are associated
with the master business service CI
Outages: Records the outage times for the
master business Service CI
Configuration Items: All Configuration
Items that are associated with the master
business service CI
Load balancer 1
Load balancer 2
Load balancer 3
Load balancer 4
Load balancer 5
Load balancer 6
Load balancer 7

Business Service Modeling Example
32
Shows open Changes:
CHG0030001
Shows open incidents:
INC0010001
Server
Websphere Apps
Business Services
Application
BSM View
Application Name@naxtest1
Name@naxtest1 Name@naxtest1 Name@naxtest1 Name@naxtest1 naxtest1 Name@naxtest1 Application Name
naxtest13naxtest003Websphere@naxtest1 Websphere@naxtest1 Websphere@naxtest1 Websphere@naxtest1
Application Name

Operational Usage – Incident
• Service Desk
– When a particular service, application or device has an outage, they can quickly get contact
information and better understand impact
• Support Teams
– Understand
• What application(s) are running on a server
• What servers are connected to a switch or storage devices
• Whom to contact in the business
• Business
– Quicker communication regarding incidents & outages
33

Operational Usage – Problem
• Problem Team
– Support the root cause investigations
• Reactive & proactive
• Help with data investigation as to exposure to cause (firmware, hardware, software, etc.)
• Support Teams
– Understand
• What application(s) are impacted by a server
• Whom to reach out to for approval for an outage
• Business
– Understand what problems may effect your services and/or applications
34

• Senior Management commitment and visible participation
• Get and constantly validate buy-in from all stakeholders
• Clear and well defined roles and responsibilities
• Assigned accountability and ownership
• Elimination of private data repositories with extreme prejudice – SACM means ONE
DEFINITIVE SOURCE
• Clear understanding: SACM is a process, CMDB is a tool
• Process team commitment, understanding and participation at an early stage in the
program/project
• Realistic implementation timetable and management of scope
• Communicate, communicate, and communicate some more

Top Takeaways
1. Understand what CI Classes are being discovered and ensure you have proper
discovery credentials
2. Understand what CIs are supporting your business services
3. Senior management commitment

Appendix

ServiceNow Discovery Resources
39
• Key Concepts
• Discovery Made Easy
• Discovery FAQ
• Computers
• Storage
• Software
• More..
• Setting up Discovery
• MID Server Information
• Credentials
• Discovery Schedules
• Discovery Behaviors
• Probes and Sensors
• Discovery Troubleshooting

Business Service Mapping Resources
40
Product Guides:
• ServiceNow ServiceWatch Customization
• ServiceWatch User Guide version 3.62, January 2015
Discovery Credentials and Connectivity Reference:
• ServiceWatch Discovery & Connectivity
Support Tools, Systems, and Applications:
• ServiceWatch Supported Systems and Applications
• ServiceWatch Monitoring Tools
Geneva Release Notes for Service Mapping:
• New Features and Changes
• Upgrade to Geneva
• Plugin name changes
• Plugin Activation information
• Generally supported browsers
• Available Versions (hot fixes)

Tim Hinkle
ITSM CMDB Architecture
Discover Financial Services
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