Storage discovery examples

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
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    Summary of Storage discovery examples

    Storage discovery in ServiceNow identifies and creates configuration items (CIs) and their relationships for both physical and logical storage components connected to application and database servers. It supports direct attached storage (DAS) and multipath fibre channel storage area networks (SANs) with switched fabric configurations, enabling accurate mapping of storage infrastructure in complex environments.

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    Direct Attached Storage (DAS) Example

    In DAS scenarios, ServiceNow Discovery detects devices such as SCSI drives with multiple partitions. For example, a Linux host with a SCSI drive (/dev/sda) containing two partitions (/dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2) is discovered. The first partition is bootable and supports system software, while the second contains a logical volume configured as a storage pool mounted using Logical Volume Management (LVM).

    Discovery creates CIs for:

    • Physical storage device (/dev/sda)
    • Partitions (/dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2)
    • Logical volume (/dev/mapper/lvm-root-333-0)
    • File systems mounted at boot and root
    • Storage pools and pool members

    Relationships between these components are established to accurately represent the storage hierarchy and usage.

    Multipath Fibre Channel Storage Example

    For SAN environments using fibre channel switched fabrics, Discovery identifies multiple physical storage devices (e.g., mpatha and mpathb) connected through fibre switches, providing failover and redundancy. It detects partitions on these devices and logical volumes mapped across them, with logical volumes mounted as Ext4 file systems on the Linux root structure.

    Discovery manages CIs for:

    • Physical storage devices and partitions
    • Logical volumes spanning multiple devices
    • File systems and mount points
    • Host Bus Adapters (HBAs)
    • Switched fibre fabric components

    It also creates relationships within the switched fibre fabric to represent redundant paths and failover capabilities between hosts and storage devices.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Provides comprehensive visibility into physical and logical storage infrastructure.
    • Automatically maps relationships between storage components, improving CMDB accuracy.
    • Supports complex environments including multipath SANs with failover paths.
    • Enables better impact analysis and change management by understanding storage dependencies.

    Discovery creates configuration items (CI) and CI relationships for physical and logical storage components attached directly to application and database servers or by fibre channel switched fabric in a multi-path configuration.

    Direct attached storage

    In this example of direct attached storage (DAS), a SCSI drive with two partitions, /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2, is attached to a Linux host. The /dev/sda1 partition is bootable and supports the system software. The /dev/sda2 partition contains a logical volume configured as a storage pool and mounted to the Linux root file system by Logical Volume Management (LVM). The storage pool uses only 1.5GB of the partition, leaving 13GB of storage available for additional logical volumes.
    Table 1. CIs and relationships created for direct attached storage (DAS)
    Configuration item Description Tables Key reference and Relationships
    /dev/sda SCSI physical storage device
    • [cmdb_ci_disk]
    • [cmdb_ci_storage_device]
    • [cmdb_rel_ci]
    		 [cmdb_rel_ci]
    • Provides: /dev/sda
    • Provided by:/dev/sda1
    [cmdb_rel_ci]
    • Provides: /dev/sda
    • Provided by:/dev/mapper/lvm-root-333-0
    /dev/sda1 Partition 1 on the SCSI storage device
    • [cmdb_ci_partition]
    • [cmdb_ci_storage_volume]
    • [cmdb_ci_file_system]
    • [cmdb_rel_ci]
    		 [cmdb_ci_file_system]
    • Mount point: /boot
    • File system: Ext4
    [cmdb_rel_ci]
    • Provides: /dev/sda
    • Provided by:/dev/sda1
    /dev/sda2 Partition 2 on the SCSI storage device
    • [cmdb_ci_partition]
    • [cmdb_ci_storage_pool_member]
    		 [cmdb_ci_storage_pool_member]
    • Pool: /dev/mapper/lvm-root-333-0
    • Storage: /dev/sda2
    /dev/mapper/lvm-root-333-0 Linux logical volume, mapped with LVM to a physical disk storage partition.
    • [cmdb_ci_storage_device]
    • [cmdb_ci_storage_volume]
    • [cmdb_ci_file_system]
    • [cmdb_ci_storage_pool]
    • [cmdb_ci_storage_pool_member]
    • [cmdb_ci_lvm_pool]
    • [cmdb_ci_lvm_pool_member][cmdb_rel_ci]
    		 [cmdb_ci_file_system]
    • Mount point: /
    • File system: Ext4
    [cmdb_rel_ci]
    • Provides: /dev/sda
    • Provided by:/dev/mapper/lvm-root-333-0
    [cmdb_ci_storage_pool_member]
    • Pool: /dev/mapper/lvm-root-333-0
    • Storage: /dev/sda2

    Multipath fibre channel storage

    In this example of a fibre channel storage area network (SAN), two physical storage devices, mpatha and mpathb, are attached to a Linux host through fibre switches, which provide failover capabilities. The mpatha drive contains two partitions, mpatha1 and mpatha2. The first partition is mounted directly to /boot on the Linux host. Three logical volumes are mapped to the mpatha2 partition and to the physical device mpathb. The logical volumes are mounted as Ext4 file systems in folders on the Linux root structure. This example shows the CIs that Discovery manages for each component and the mounting points for the logical volumes on the Linux host.

    Switched fibre fabric details

    Discovery creates CIs for the logical sub-components in NAS and SAN environments, such as fibre channel disks and pool components, as well as for host bus adapters (HBA) and physical block storage. In multipath environments, Discovery creates CI relationships within the switched fibre fabrics that connects the Linux host to the physical storage devices. In this diagram, the fibre fabrics have redundant paths that the SAN environment can use for failover if connections fail.