Software model relationship to software installation

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Software model relationship to software installation

    In ServiceNow, associating each software installation with a software model enables effective audit reporting for both licensable and non-licensable software. Software models can be automatically created based on system properties that control whether licensable or non-licensable products are modeled.

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    When these system properties are enabled, and a discovery model match exists (even if generic), a software model is not automatically created. If the properties are disabled, software models are not created but matched to discovery models instead.

    The system attempts to match the discovery model to the most specific software model available. If no specific software model exists, it matches to the most generic one. Software models with install conditions are excluded from matches and cause a new software model to be created without install conditions.

    Key Features

    • Automatic software model creation: Controlled by system properties for licensable (com.snc.samp.automaticsmrcreation) and non-licensable (com.snc.samp.automaticsmcreation) products.
    • Matching process: Scheduled job "SAM – Discovery Model to Software Model matching" compares normalized fields (publisher, product, edition, version) between discovery models and software models to establish associations.
    • Manual override: Users can manually set a software model on the Software Discovery Model form, which disables automatic matching for that record. This prevents the scheduled job from overwriting the manual selection.
    • Install conditions consideration: Software models with install conditions are not matched automatically, prompting creation of new models without install conditions.

    Practical Application

    This functionality allows ServiceNow customers to:

    • Maintain accurate and auditable software records by linking installations to appropriate software models.
    • Customize software model assignments manually when automatic matching does not meet organizational requirements.
    • Ensure that software models reflect correct editions and versions to support licensing compliance and reporting.

    Examples of Matching Behavior

    • A discovery model for "SQL Server 2019 Enterprise" matches a software model named "SQL Server 2019 Enterprise" or a more generic "SQL Server 2019" model.
    • If a software model has install conditions that do not match the discovery model, no match occurs and a new software model is created automatically (e.g., "SQL Server Enterprise (Version is anything)").

    Associating each software installation with a software model lets you perform audit reporting of licensable and non-licensable software.

    Overview

    Software models are automatically created for licensable and non-licensable products if the following system properties are enabled:
    • com.snc.samp.automaticsmrcreation: for licensable products
    • com.snc.samp.automaticsmcreation: for non-licensable products

    If the system properties are enabled and a discovery model match exists, even if the match is generic, a software model will not be created. If the system properties are not enabled, the software model is just matched to a discovery model; no software models are created.

    A match is made to the most specific software model. If no specific software model exists for the discovery model, then the match is made to the most generic software model.

    During the matching process, if a matching software model is found, but it has an install condition on it then it's not considered to be a match. In such a scenario, a software model is automatically created without an install condition.

    For each normalized publisher and normalized product pair in the Software Discovery Model (cmdb_sam_sw_discovery_model) table, the scheduled job, SAM – Discovery Model to Software Model matching, gets all software models with matching publisher and product. If the software model has no install condition, subscription condition, or DB option, the system gets matching discovery models with normalized publisher, normalized product, normalized edition, and normalized version values. Once a match is found, the software model reference is put on the software model column in the Software Discovery Model [cmdb_sam_sw_discovery_model] table.

    Manually set software model

    If you choose to match on a more generic software model than what the scheduled job SAM – Discovery Model to Software Model matching sets, you can manually set the desired software model in the form view on the Software Discovery Model (cmdb_sam_sw_discovery_model) table. The Automatically matched column becomes unchecked.

    If a software model is set and the Automatically matched column's value is false, the scheduled job will not override the software model value on subsequent executions.

    Sample matches

    The following are some sample scenarios of software model and discovery model matches.

    Discovery model Software models Matches with
    SQL Server 2019 Enterprise
    • SQL Server 2019 Enterprise
    • SQL Server 2019
    		 SQL Server 2019 Enterprise software model
    SQL Server 2019 Enterprise
    • SQL Server 2019 Enterprise with install conditions
    • SQL Server 2019 (Edition is anything)
    		 SQL Server 2019 software model​​
    SQL Server 2019 SQL Server 2019 with install conditions (Edition is anything)​

    No match found.

    If the system property is enabled, a new software model will be created: SQL Server Enterprise (Version is anything)​.