Software discovery and normalization

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 5 minutes to read
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    Summary of Software discovery and normalization

    After importing software entitlements, ServiceNow customers can use ServiceNow Discovery or Microsoft SCCM to detect software installations across their environments and import this data into the ServiceNow AI Platform. These tools populate theSoftware Installationstable, enabling software normalization and reconciliation for effective Software Asset Management (SAM). Integration with other third-party discovery solutions is also supported, either manually or via downloadable applications.

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    Discovery Integration

    ServiceNow Discovery automatically populates software installation data using predefined or customizable discovery patterns for common enterprise software (e.g., Citrix, VMware, Microsoft SQL Server). Discovered software entries are linked to the Discovery Model table, which supports normalization by verifying unique combinations of publisher, product, and version.

    SCCM Integration

    Microsoft SCCM (versions 2012 v2 and 2016) can be integrated to identify software on devices, particularly in desktop environments. Corresponding SCCM Integration and Software Usage plugins must be installed. Note that these plugins will be deprecated in the Tokyo release; new integrations should use the Service Graph connector for SCCM available from the ServiceNow Store. Migration tools exist to transition from existing SCCM plugins to the Service Graph connector.

    Normalization

    Normalization standardizes discovered software data by matching publishers, products, versions, and editions against a ServiceNow repository of normalized equivalents. This process ensures consistent naming conventions and improves reconciliation accuracy between discovered software and purchased entitlements. Wide-net normalization can standardize similar discovery models to reduce manual rule creation, though it applies only to selected products.

    Normalization content and pattern updates are pulled daily by default, with options to adjust the schedule. When normalization rules change, affected discovery models are reprocessed to reflect updates. The Normalization Suggestions feature helps evaluate and apply updates to manually normalized models, ensuring data accuracy.

    ServiceNow customers can opt into the SAM Content Service to contribute unrecognized software models for ongoing research and receive updated normalization rules, enhancing overall normalization quality.

    Benefits

    • Accurate Inventory: Normalization provides a definitive, standardized software inventory critical for audit readiness and IT operations.
    • Improved Reconciliation: Normalized data allows precise matching of software installations to entitlements, facilitating audit compliance and license management.
    • Multi-Tool Standardization: Consolidates installation data from various discovery sources for consistent reporting.

    Additional Capabilities

    • Normalization Suggestions: Automatically identifies differences between existing normalization and updated content, enabling customers to accept or reject suggested changes.
    • Custom Pattern and File Rules: Customers can create specific normalization rules based on software patterns or manually defined file sets to address software not recognized by default SAM APIs.
    • Machine Learning: Real-time machine learning improves normalization rates by handling unrecognized discovered software automatically.
    • Duplicate Management: Duplicate software installation records may occur when the same software is discovered by multiple sources; managing these duplicates is essential for accurate reporting.

    After you've imported your entitlements, use ServiceNow Discovery or Microsoft SCCM to discover software installations in your environment and transfer that data into the ServiceNow AI Platform.

    Figure 1. Infographic showing setting up of ServiceNow Discovery or Microsoft SCCM
    This graphic provides an overview of how to setup either ServiceNow Discovery or Microsoft SCCM.

    While you may use Discovery Home for datacenters and Microsoft SCCM for desktop environments, you can integrate other third-party discovery solutions with CMDB to support Software Asset Management. To integrate a different discovery solution, add it manually, or you can download an application, from the ServiceNow Store. For more information about integrating a discovery source manually, see the Customer Success Center.

    To learn more about collecting data after you've integrated with both Discovery and SCCM, see Collect software data with either SCCM or Discovery.

    Discovery integration

    ServiceNow Discovery is used to automatically populate the Software Installations table so the software can be normalized and reconciled.

    Note:
    To use Discovery, the Discovery plugin must be activated.
    Discovery uses patterns in the discovery process that can be created or customized. The base system contains a wide range of patterns that cover most industry standard network devices and applications. The following are some of the base system patterns used by Software Asset Management.
    • Citrix XenApp
    • Citrix XenDesktop,
    • VMware vCenter
    • Microsoft SQL Server
    • Microsoft Exchange Server
    • Oracle Database Server

    You can also customize other patterns for Software Asset Management. For more information, see Create or modify patterns.

    Discovered software is stored in the Software Installations [cmdb_sam_sw_install] table.

    When software install records are written to the Software Installations table, a business rule verifies whether the unique combination of the discovered publisher, discovered product, and discovered version exist in the Discovery Model table.
    • If so, the reference to the discovery model is set in the Software Installations table.
    • If not, a new record is created in the Discovery Model table, and that discovery model reference is set in the Software Installations table.

    After discovery, normalization is run.

    For more information on Discovery, see Discovery with Software Asset Management.

    SCCM integration

    You can use SCCM by itself or with Discovery Home to identify software on your devices.

    Note:
    While you may use Microsoft SCCM for discovering software installations in your desktop environments, you can integrate other third-party tools.

    Both Microsoft SCCM 2012 v2 and 2016 plugins are certified with Software Asset Management. The corresponding Microsoft SCCM Integration plugin must be installed to integrate Microsoft SCCM with Software Asset Management.

    Microsoft SCCM Integration plugins:
    • Integration — Microsoft SCCM 2012 v2 (com.snc.integration.sccm2012v2) plugin
    • Integration — Microsoft SCCM 2016 (com.snc.integration.sccm2016) plugin
    Microsoft SCCM Software Usage plugins:
    • Integration — Microsoft SCCM 2012 v2 Software Usage (com.snc.samp_usage_sccm) plugin
    • Integration — Microsoft SCCM 2016 Software Usage (com.snc.samp.usage_sccm_2016) plugin

    The Integration — Microsoft SCCM 2016 plugin is compatible with SCCM versions 1606, 1906, 1910, and 2002.

    Important:
    These Microsoft SCCM plugins will be deprecated in the Tokyo release. If you are integrating with SCCM for the first time, request and install the Service Graph connector for Microsoft SCCM application from theServiceNow Store instead. If you have already activated one of the Microsoft SCCM plugins on your ServiceNow instance, use the Migration Readiness Tool for Service Graph Connector for SCCM store application to prepare your instance for migration from the Microsoft SCCM plugin to the Service Graph connector. See Service Graph connector for Microsoft SCCM for more information on the Service Graph connector.

    For more information on SCCM and how to import your data into your instance, see Microsoft SCCM software usage.

    Normalization

    The normalization process compares the discovered publisher, discovered product, and discovered version and edition values against the ServiceNow repository of normalized equivalents. Matches are added to the corresponding normalized fields (publisher, product, version, and edition) of the Discovery Model table. The normalized fields are then used to reconcile entitlements purchased and to compute license positions.

    For example, the discovered publisher Microsoft Corp could be normalized to Microsoft for the normalized publisher field.

    The normalization process also looks for pattern matches between discovered fields and normalized values, and updates the normalized fields accordingly.

    If certain software discovery models share similar discovered field values, the Software Asset Management application normalizes them using wide-net normalization principles, which reduces the need for the Content Service team to create separate normalization rules for each product.
    Note:
    Only certain software products are eligible for wide-net normalization. These software products are determined by the Content Service team.

    A scheduled job runs to pull in normalized content and pattern updates daily, but you can change the frequency that the schedule job is run. When there are changes to a normalization rule, applicable normalized and partially normalized Discovery models are renormalized with the updated values.

    Evaluate suggestions to normalize discovery models that were manually normalized using the Normalization Suggestions feature. Suggestions are automatically identified if there is a difference between the updated normalization content and your content. Because the content from the updates contains the most up-to-date information, using the content provided helps to keep your software installs accurate.

    You can opt in to the Software Asset Management Content Service that enables you to provide missed and not fully normalized software discovery models to ServiceNow for research. New content and rules created are provided back to customers to continually improve software normalization.

    Benefits of normalization

    • Normalization creates a definitive list of the discovered software in your organization. Organizations need a thorough inventory of its installed software whether for software audit readiness or IT operations. Without normalization, your organization will be challenged with multiple names for the same publisher, which requires a substantial effort to rationalize and dilutes the accuracy and value of the reports you run.
    • Normalization improves the accuracy and efficiency of reconciliation for your software entitlements. By using the normalized values in the discovery models to map against the software entitlements it has acquired, resulting in more accurate reconciliation results. This makes it easier to plan for and complete software audits knowing that the counts are accurate and that they match the entitlement records.
    • The normalization process allows standardizing installation data from multiple discovery tools.