Sample payload for BYOL
Summarize
Summary of Sample payload for BYOL
This documentation explains how to create a sample payload for populating theSoftware Installation [cmdbsamswinstall]table in ServiceNow using discovery data collected via the BYOL (Bring Your Own License) licensing model. It is designed to help ServiceNow customers integrate third-party discovery sources with the Software Asset Management (SAM) module for BYOL scenarios.
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The payload must include specific entities and their relationships to enable smooth operation of BYOL licensing model with Software Asset Connection. The example highlights differences in required values depending on cloud providers (AWS vs Azure) and stresses the importance of including parent and dependent entities within the same payload.
Key Entities and Their Required Fields
- Cloud Service Account [cmdbcicloudserviceaccount]: Requires a unique accountid.
- AWS Datacenters [cmdbciawsdatacenter] and Azure Datacenters [cmdbciazuredatacenter]: Require a unique objectid.
- Cloud Hosts [cmdbcicloudhost]: Needed except for shared VMs; requires objectid, name; plus cpucorecount for AWS or hosttype for Azure.
- Virtual Machine Instances [cmdbcivminstance]: Requires objectid.
- Computers [cmdbcicomputer]: Requires name, CPU details (cpucount, cpucorecount, cpucorethread), and must have virtual set to true.
- Software Installations [cmdbsamswinstall]: Related to Computers; requires publisher, version, displayname, cloudlicensetype (BYOL or License Included), and cloudlicensetypesource (set to thirdpartyintegration for software asset connections).
Entity Relationships
The payload must define relationships between entities to reflect the infrastructure hierarchy:
- AWS/Azure Datacenters are hosted on Cloud Service Account (Hosted on::Hosts)
- Cloud Hosts are hosted on AWS/Azure Datacenters (Hosted on::Hosts)
- Virtual Machine Instances are hosted on AWS/Azure Datacenters and run on Cloud Hosts (Hosted on::Hosts and Runs on::Runs)
- Computers virtualize Virtual Machine Instances (Virtualized by::Virtualizes)
Practical Usage of the Sample Payload
The provided sample payload demonstrates how to represent a dedicated virtual machine in AWS, including its computer record and related software installations, VM instance, cloud host, AWS datacenter, and cloud service account.
Key practical notes for ServiceNow customers:
- Each dedicated VM requires a separate REST API call with a similar payload structure.
- All software installations for a single dedicated VM can be included in the related array of the computer record.
- Parent and dependent entities must all be included in the same payload to maintain referential integrity, even if some entities already exist in the system.
Expected Outcome
Using this payload format enables seamless ingestion of third-party discovery data for BYOL licensing into ServiceNow's SAM tables, ensuring accurate representation of software installations and their associated cloud infrastructure components. This supports compliance, license tracking, and software asset management processes within your ServiceNow instance.
A sample payload that populates the Software Installation [cmdb_sam_sw_install] table in the ServiceNow instance with discovery data collected by the BYOL licensing model.
Certain entities need to be populated for BYOL to work with software asset connection as a third party discovery source. The relationship between these entities is crucial for BYOL to work smoothly with software asset connections. For example, some values required for populating Cloud Hosts is different for AWS and Azure. Though the object ID and the name of the host is required for both AWS and Azure, for AWS, the CPU core count is required and for Azure, the host type value is required. For details on entities and their relationships, refer to Entities for BYOL and Relationships between the entities for BYOL.
In this example, Cloud Service Account is the topmost entity. All the other entities listed in the Entities for BYOL table are dependent entities of Cloud Service Account. If an entity is marked as a dependent entity, then the parent entity and the relationship between that entity and it's parent needs to be mentioned in the same payload. For example, if you want to create an AWS data center on Cloud Service Account, you need to include the Cloud Service Account entity in the same payload; even if Cloud Service Account already exists in your instance. Similarly, when you create software installations, you need to include all the dependent entities for software installations all through the hierarchy in the same payload.
Entities for BYOL
| Entities | Required fields |
|---|---|
| Cloud Service Account [cmdb_ci_cloud_service_account] | account_id – Unique identifier |
| AWS Datacenters [cmdb_ci_aws_datacenter] | object_id – Unique identifier |
| Azure Datacenters [cmdb_ci_azure_datacenter] | object_id – Unique identifier |
| Cloud Hosts [cmdb_ci_cloud_host] Note: Not needed for shared
VMs. |
|
| Virtual Machine Instances [cmdb_ci_vm_instance] | object_id – Unique identifier |
| Computers [cmdb_ci_computer] |
|
Software Installations [cmdb_sam_sw_install] Note: Software Installations [cmdb_sam_sw_install] is a related entry for
Computers [cmdb_ci_computer] |
|
Relationships between the entities for BYOL
| Entity relationships | Type | Parent | Child |
|---|---|---|---|
| AWS/Azure Datacenters – Cloud Service Account | Hosted on::Hosts | AWS/Azure Datacenters | Cloud Service Account |
| AWS/Azure Datacenters – Cloud Hosts | Hosted on::Hosts | Cloud Hosts | AWS/Azure Datacenters |
| AWS/Azure Datacenters – Virtual Machine Instances | Hosted on::Hosts | Virtual Machine Instances | AWS/Azure Datacenters |
| Cloud Hosts - Virtual Machine Instances | Runs on::Runs | Virtual Machine Instances | Cloud Hosts |
| Computers - Virtual Machine Instances | Virtualized by::Virtualizes | Computers | Virtual Machine Instances |
Sample payload for Computer and Installations for dedicated VM (similar for AWS and Azure)
In this sample payload, a dedicated computer record is being passed. This computer record has a related array that contains all the software installations. A VM instance corresponds to the computer record. Cloud host is the dedicated host on which the virtual machine resides and the AWS datacenter is to be created on the Cloud Service Account. If you have multiple dedicated virtual machines, you can send one REST API for each dedicated virtual machine. For example, if you have 50 dedicated VMs, you need to send 50 REST API calls each having the same payload. All the software installations on a dedicated VM can be sent in a single payload in the related array.
var payload = {
'items': [{
'className': 'cmdb_ci_computer',
'values': {
'name': 'Comp - Dedicated AWS - 1',
'cpu_count': 1,
'cpu_core_count': 4,
'cpu_core_thread': 1,
'virtual': true
},
'related': [{
'className': 'cmdb_sam_sw_install',
'values': {
'publisher': 'Microsoft',
'display_name': 'SQL Server',
'version': '2017',
'cloud_license_type': 'BYOL',
'cloud_license_type_source': 'third_party_integration'
}
}]
}, {
'className': 'cmdb_ci_vm_instance',
'values': {
'object_id': 'sample_object_id_aws_vm_dedicated',
'name': 'VM Dedicated AWS - 1',
}
}, {
'className': 'cmdb_ci_cloud_host',
'values': {
'object_id': 'sample_object_id_aws_host',
'name': 'AWS Dedicated Host - 1',
'cpu_core_count': 32
}
}, {
'className': 'cmdb_ci_aws_datacenter',
'values': {
'object_id': 'sample_object_id_aws_dc',
'name': 'AWS DataCenter - 1'
}
}, {
'className': 'cmdb_ci_cloud_service_account',
'values': {
'account_id': 'sample_account_id_aws_service_account',
'name': 'Cloud Service Account AWS - 1'
}
}],
'relations': [{
'type': 'Virtualized by::Virtualizes',
'parent': 0,
'child': 1
}, {
'type': 'Runs on::Runs',
'parent': 1,
'child': 2
},
{
'type': 'Hosted on::Hosts',
'parent': 2,
'child': 3
}, {
'type': 'Hosted on::Hosts',
'parent': 3,
'child': 4
}
]
}
var jsonUntil = new JSON();
var input = jsonUntil.encode(payload);
gs.info("Input: " + input.toString());
var options = {
"partial_payloads": false,
"deduplicate_payloads": true
};
var output = SNC.IdentificationEngineScriptableApi.createOrUpdateCIEnhanced('ServiceNow', input, options);
gs.print("Output:" + output);