Software asset connections

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 2 minutes to read
    • Summarize
    Summarized using AI
    This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete.

    Summary of Software asset connections

    The Software Asset Connections feature in ServiceNow enables integration of installed software data discovered by third-party sources into the Software Asset Management (SAM) application. This discovery process identifies installed software, device ownership, and location, then consolidates this information in the Configuration Management Database (CMDB). The integrated data supports diverse business applications by providing accurate software asset visibility.

    Show full answer Show less

    ServiceNow’s Identification and Reconciliation Engine (IRE) framework manages data integration, deduplication, and reconciliation from multiple discovery sources to ensure consistency. IRE uses identification and reconciliation rules to process incoming data and insert it into core CMDB tables or SAM-extended tables.

    Key Features

    • Third-party Discovery Integration: Allows external discovery tools to send software installation data to ServiceNow via IRE REST API, updating the SAM tables.
    • Identification Rules: Supports independent and dependent CI identifiers to correctly link software installations to hardware CIs.
    • Data Deduplication: When multiple sources report the same software, SAM deduplication jobs activate a single record and mark duplicates inactive.
    • Publisher-specific Payloads: Supports specialized data ingestion for Oracle, VMware, and Citrix software, capturing additional publisher-specific details.
    • Domain Separation Support: Ensures data integrity across domains by requiring payloads to be sent from the domain where the CIs reside, preventing unintended CI creation across domains.
    • Sample Payloads Provided: Includes examples for generic software installs, Oracle, VMware, Citrix, and BYOL licensing models to guide integration setup.

    Practical Application for ServiceNow Customers

    By configuring third-party discovery sources to feed software installation data into SAM, customers gain a consolidated and accurate view of software assets across their environment. This enables efficient software license management, compliance tracking, and supports broader IT operations through reliable CMDB data.

    Customers should ensure proper identification rules and domain context when integrating discovery data. Running the SAM deduplication job regularly keeps software installation records clean and accurate by activating only one record per unique software installation.

    Additionally, customers can remove software installation records when software is uninstalled from devices, maintaining data currency in the Software Installation [cmdbsamswinstall] table.

    Use third-party discovery sources to discover the installed software data that you can integrate with the Software Asset Management application.

    The discovery process is an integral part of the Software Asset Management application. The discovery process consists of discovering where the installed software in your organization is installed, who the owner of the device is, and where it's located. The discovered information is then merged into a common configuration management database such as the CMDB application.

    The CMDB application enables other business applications to use the discovered information to support various business needs.

    Figure 1. Discovery with Software Asset Management
    Third-party discovery sources

    ServiceNow platform's identification and reconciliation engine (IRE) framework enables all third-party data integrations with the CMDB application.

    IRE provides a centralized framework where you can perform reconciliations and de-duplication of the data when multiple sources are ingesting data at the same time. IRE uses identification rules, reconciliation rules, and IRE data source rules to process the incoming data and then inserts the data into the corresponding CMDB tables. You can extend these rules to insert the data into tables that extend the CMDB core tables such as the Software Asset Management tables. There are two types of identification rules for IRE:
    • Independent: If the Independent check box is selected on a CI identifier, it means that the CI is not dependent on any other CI.
    • Dependent: If the Independent check box is not selected on a CI identifier, it implies that this CI is dependent on other CIs.
    For more information on IRE, see Identification and Reconciliation Engine.

    You should have already configured loading the CIs in the ServiceNow instance. For each CI in your environment, the Hardware [cmdb_ci_hardware] table has a corresponding CI identifier rule. When the third-party discovery application runs, the software is identified on CIs. The third-party application constructs a payload and sends the payload via the IRE REST API endpoint to the ServiceNow instance to insert or update data into the Software Asset Management tables.

    A generic payload is used for creating installed software records. For Oracle, VMware, and Citrix, specific payloads feed additional publisher-specific data apart from software installations.

    If multiple discovery sources are enabled and if the key details of the software, such as the display name and the version for all discovery sources, match, the Installation record is overwritten. If multiple discovery sources identify the same software with different field values, an entry is created in the Software Installation [cmdb_sam_sw_install] table. When the schedule job SAM- Deduplication install table runs and if all the normalized values of these installations match, only one record is set to active. The rest of the records are marked as inactive.

    Domain separation is supported for third-party discovery with SAM with the following considerations:
    • The IRE REST API stamps the domain that you are logged in to when the REST call is made.
    • Log in to the domain where the CI resides and from where you run the payload.
    • Don't log in to the parent domain. Being logged in the parent domain updates the existing CI and also creates a new CI in the parent domain.
    • Send the payload from the same domain where the CIs reside. For example, if you send a payload from Domain A and if the payload has CIs that belong to Domain B, a new CI gets created in Domain A.