Discovery of application services on cloud using Service Mapping
Summarize
Summary of Discovery of application services on cloud using Service Mapping
Service Mapping discovery in cloud environments delivers essential visibility into application dependencies and interactions within both Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) models. This insight helps organizations understand how application components connect and operate, enhancing service management and operational efficiency.
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IaaS and PaaS Environments
- IaaS: Provides virtual computing resources where organizations manage applications and operating systems. Service Mapping uses a discovery approach similar to private networks, including host identification and pattern-based recognition of applications and their relationships.
- PaaS: Offers a managed platform for app development and deployment without direct hardware management. Discovery relies on cloud platform tools and dedicated service accounts to access and identify devices and applications.
Discovery Process Details
- IaaS Discovery: Begins with locating hosts using Discovery, then uses patterns to identify applications and their connections. Top-down discovery maps relationships between devices and applications to form a comprehensive service map.
- PaaS Discovery: Starts with configuring a dedicated service account to access cloud-hosted devices and applications. Horizontal discovery employs probes to find infrastructure devices and patterns to detect applications and services. Finally, top-down discovery creates the overall application service map.
Discovery Methods and Capabilities
Service Mapping applies different approaches depending on the cloud environment:
- Top-down service mapping: Supported in IaaS with OS-level access; limited or unsupported in PaaS using cloud metadata alone.
- Tag-based mapping: Supported and useful in both IaaS and PaaS, leveraging cloud-native tags and metadata.
- Machine Learning-based mapping: Available in IaaS with deep discovery capabilities; in PaaS, it requires access to OS/container runtime and is more limited.
Practical Impact for ServiceNow Customers
By using Service Mapping discovery tailored to the cloud environment, customers can achieve detailed and accurate maps of their application services. For example, in an e-commerce application hosted on IaaS, Service Mapping identifies virtual machines, databases, and connections, providing a clear infrastructure view. On PaaS, it maps managed services like databases, uncovering critical dependencies.
This enhanced visibility supports better resource allocation, faster remediation of issues, and optimization of application service performance and reliability, helping customers maintain robust and efficient cloud-based applications.
Service Mapping in cloud environments provides critical visibility into application dependencies and connections. By identifying how different application components interact within IaaS and PaaS environments, your organization can gain better insight into its application services and improve overall service management.
IaaS and PaaS environments
- IaaS - IaaS gives organizations virtual computing resources over the internet, enabling them to manage and deploy their own apps and operating systems. In IaaS, Service Mapping uses a similar discovery process as in private networks, identifying hosts and applications through patterns.
- PaaS - PaaS offers a complete platform for building, launching, and running applications, removing the need for organizations to manage hardware or servers directly. In PaaS, Service Mapping must use cloud platform tools and service accounts to identify devices and applications.
Performing Discovery in IaaS and PaaS Environments
- Locating hosts - Service Mapping starts by using Discovery to locate hosts.
- Identifying applications and connections - Patterns are used to identify applications and the connections between those applications and the discovered hosts.
- Top-down discovery - Service Mapping performs top-down discovery to map the relationships and connections between devices and applications. It then creates a comprehensive map of the application service.
- Using cloud platform tools and service accounts - The process begins with a dedicated service account configured for the cloud environment hosting the application service. Service Mapping and Discovery use this service account to access devices and applications. To learn more about setting up an account, see Setting up a cloud service account.
- Horizontal discovery - Discovery performs horizontal discovery in two steps:
- Probes are used to help identify infrastructure devices. See Horizontal discovery process flow with probes and sensors for detailed information about the four phases of discovery using probes.
- Patterns help find the applications and services running on those devices. See Pattern-based discovery in Service Mapping and Horizontal discovery process flow with patterns to learn more about discovery using patterns.
- Top-down discovery - Service Mapping then performs top-down discovery, creating a comprehensive map of the application service.
Discovery methods for cloud environments
| Service Mapping/Discovery Approach | IaaS (Virtual Machines, Servers) | PaaS (Functions, Databases, Queues) | Key requirement difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top-down service mapping | Supported (Requires OS credentials or deep agent access) | Not supported (or rarely supported) by cloud metadata discovery alone | Access to the OS layer to trace live connections |
| Tag-based mapping | Supported (Using collected tags from the cloud resources and containers) | Supported and highly applicable (Uses cloud-native tagging/metadata) | Availability of organized metadata (tags) |
| Machine Learning (ML)-based mapping | Supported (Requires capturing running processes and network traffic, thus requires deep discovery) | Supported, but requires deep discovery (Only available when using methods that access the underlying OS/container runtime) | Access to application process data |
Consider an e-commerce application hosted on a cloud provider. In an IaaS environment, Service Mapping identifies virtual machines, databases, and their connections, providing a comprehensive view of the application's infrastructure. In a PaaS environment, it uses cloud platform tools to map application components like managed databases, revealing critical dependencies that impact performance and reliability. This visibility enables better resource management, remediation, and optimization of the application service.