Amazon EC2 Reserved Instance pattern-based discovery

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Amazon EC2 Reserved Instance pattern-based discovery

    The Amazon EC2 Reserved Instance pattern-based discovery is part of the Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns application in ServiceNow, designed to detect and map AWS Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) Reserved Instances within your cloud environment. This capability helps ServiceNow customers maintain accurate Configuration Management Database (CMDB) data by automatically discovering EC2 Reserved Instances and their associated attributes and relationships.

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    Key Features

    • Pattern Activation: The EC2 Reserved Instance discovery pattern is disabled by default and must be enabled manually. Starting with Visibility Content version 6.28.0, enabling or disabling patterns no longer counts as customization, ensuring easier upgrades and updates.
    • AWS Prerequisites: Proper AWS discovery prerequisites must be met, including verifying the Resource Inclusion List to prevent duplicate discovery of resources.
    • GovCloud Support: For AWS GovCloud (US) accounts, discovery requires configuring the AWS service account with a datacenter URL.
    • Data Population: The pattern populates data into both CMDB and non-CMDB tables, allowing comprehensive tracking of Reserved Instances and related resources.
    • CMDB and Non-CMDB Tables:
      • The non-CMDB table cmdbawselasticcloudcomputereservedinstance stores Reserved Instance details such as ARN, name, state, instance type, and scope.
      • The CMDB table cmdbcivminstance holds Virtual Machine Instance data, including install status, operational status, and description.
      • Tags discovered on EC2 Reserved Instances are stored in the cmdbkeyvalue table.
    • CI Relationships: The pattern establishes relationships between the Reserved Instance and its Virtual Machine Instance and the hosting AWS Datacenter, supporting an accurate service map.

    Practical Implications for ServiceNow Customers

    By enabling and configuring this discovery pattern, customers can automate the detection and mapping of EC2 Reserved Instances, ensuring their CMDB reflects up-to-date AWS resource information. This supports better cloud cost management, compliance, and operational visibility. Customers should verify AWS prerequisites and resource inclusion settings, activate the pattern, and configure discovery schedules, especially when using GovCloud. The resulting data and relationships in CMDB and non-CMDB tables enable comprehensive asset management and service mapping for AWS EC2 Reserved Instances.

    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.

    Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns application populates data in both CMDB and non-CMDB tables.

    Data stored in non-CMDB tables

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

    You can review the non-CMDB AWS tables by navigating to All > Configuration > AWS. You can also search the navigation filter for the specific pattern name.

    Table 1. AWS Elastic Compute Cloud - Reserved Instance [cmdb_aws_elastic_cloud_compute_reserved_instance]
    Field Description
    Object Id [object_id] The Amazon Resource Name (ARN) uniquely identifying the Reserved Instance.

    The ARN consists of the region, account ID, and instance ID in the following format: arn:aws:ec2:<region>:<accountId>:reserved-instances/<instance_id>.
    Name [name] The unique identifier assigned to the EC2 instance.
    State [state] The current status or lifecycle state of the EC2 instance.
    Configuration Item [configuration_item] References the Virtual Machine Instance [cmdb_ci_vm_instance] table.
    Instance Type [instance_type] The type of EC2 instance. For example: t2.micro or m5.large.
    Scope [scope] The reservation scope. For example: Regional or Availability Zone.

    Data stored in CMDB tables

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

    Table 2. Virtual Machine Instance [cmdb_ci_vm_instance]
    Field Description
    Object ID [object_id] The ARN uniquely identifying the Reserved Instance.

    The ARN consists of the region, account ID, and instance ID in the following format: arn:aws:ec2:<region>:<accountId>:reserved-instances/<instance_id>.
    Name [name] The unique identifier assigned to the EC2 instance.
    Install Status [install_status] Install status of the resource. Default value is Installed.
    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::Reserved Instance.

    CI relationships

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

    CI Relationship CI
    Virtual Machine Instance [cmdb_ci_vm_instance] Hosted on::Hosts AWS Datacenter [cmdb_ci_aws_datacenter]
    AWS Elastic Compute Cloud - Reserved Instance [cmdb_aws_elastic_cloud_compute_reserved_instance] References Virtual Machine Instance [cmdb_ci_vm_instance]

    AWS tag discovery

    The pattern collects tags and populates them in the Key Value [cmdb_key_value] table.
    Table 3. Key Value [cmdb_key_value]
    Field Description
    Key [key] Tag name.
    Value [value] Tag value.