AWS Auto Scaling groups discovery with Patterns

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated November 9, 2025
  • 3 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 AWS Auto Scaling groups discovery with Patterns

    The Discovery application in ServiceNow utilizes the Amazon AWS - AutoScaling Groups (LP) pattern along with Auto Scaling extensions to detect AWS Auto Scaling groups automatically. This process helps populate and maintain accurate data in the Configuration Management Database (CMDB) regarding Auto Scaling groups and their associated virtual machine instances. To leverage this feature fully, customers must ensure they have the latest Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns application installed, starting from version 1.0.95, which supports automatic collection of Auto Scaling tags.

    Show full answer Show less

    Prerequisites

    • AWS Credentials Configuration: Configure AWS Credentials of type “AWS Credentials” on your ServiceNow instance and set them to Active for authentication.
    • AWS Service Account Setup: Create and configure a valid AWS service account within ServiceNow.
    • User Permissions: Assign permissions to execute the AWS API call DescribeAutoScalingGroups to enable discovery of Auto Scaling groups.
    • Cloud Discovery Schedule: Create and configure a Cloud application schedule specifically to discover AWS Auto Scaling groups.
    • Verify Instance Scale Set Table: Ensure relevant fields like desired capacity, min/max size, and health check type are properly configured in the cmdbciinstancescaleset table.
    • REST API Permissions: Reference the Cloud Discovery patterns spreadsheet to grant necessary user permissions and stay updated with quarterly pattern releases.

    Key Features

    • Data Collection: The discovery process populates key fields in the CMDB, including Auto Scaling group names (ARNs), install and operational statuses, and size configurations (desired, min, max capacity) in the Instance Scale Set [cmdbciinstancescaleset] table.
    • Virtual Machine Instances: Captures VM instance IDs and associates them with Auto Scaling groups.
    • Relationship Mapping: Automatically creates and updates relationships between AWS Datacenter, Service Accounts, Instance Scale Sets, and VM Instances to reflect management and hosting structures accurately. Notably, starting in version 1.29.0, the relationship between Instance Scale Set and VM Instance changed from “Members::Member of” to “Managed by::Manages.”
    • Tag Discovery: Auto Scaling group tags are collected and stored in the Key Value [cmdbkeyvalue] table, linking tag keys and values back to the respective Instance Scale Set CIs for enhanced metadata tracking.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Automates discovery and CMDB population of AWS Auto Scaling groups and their instances, improving asset visibility and management.
    • Ensures accurate operational and capacity data is available for cloud infrastructure planning and monitoring.
    • Facilitates relationship mapping between cloud resources, enhancing dependency tracking and impact analysis.
    • Supports tag-based metadata collection, enabling better categorization and filtering of cloud resources in ServiceNow.
    • Integrates with Cloud Discovery scheduling, allowing flexible and regular updates to cloud environment data.

    The ® Discovery application uses the Amazon AWS - AutoScaling Groups (LP) pattern and Auto Scaling extensions to find AWS Auto Scaling groups. Discovering some of these resources may require updating to the latest version of the Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns application from the ServiceNow Store.

    Starting with Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns version 1.0.95, the pattern extension is automatically displayed and collects the Auto Scaling tags.

    Request apps on the Store

    Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.

    Prerequisites

    Configure AWS Credentials
    On your instance, configure credentials of type AWS Credentials and set them to Active. For more information, see Access setup for AWS service accounts.
    Configure a Cloud service account
    Configure the AWS service account valid in the ServiceNow instance. For more information, see Set up AWS service accounts.
    Configure user permissions to execute the list AWS Auto Scaling groups API call
    Provide the user permission to run the following API: https://autoscaling.amazonaws.com/?Action=DescribeAutoScalingGroups&Version=2011-01-01
    For more information, see Amazon AWS Cloud components discovery using patterns.
    Configure Cloud Discovery schedule
    Create a cloud application schedule for discovering AWS Auto Scaling groups and configure the attributes. Set Discovery to Cloud application. For more information, see Create schedules for discovering cloud resources in Cloud Discovery Workspace
    Configure AWS Auto Scaling groups
    Navigate to the Instance Scale Set table and verify that the configurations are set as follows:
    Table 1. Verify fields for table- [cmdb_ci_instance_scale_set]
    Element Name Type Label Max Length
    desired_capacity integer Desired Capacity 32
    min_size integer Minimum Size 32
    max_size integer Maximum Size 32
    health_check_type string Health Check Type 128

    Verify the REST API Permissions

    Download the Cloud Discovery patterns spreadsheet so you can grant user permissions required for running the Discovery patterns. In addition to permissions, the spreadsheet also includes useful information such as pattern names, types, CI Classes, and links to vendor documentation. New patterns are available quarterly, so check periodically to be sure you have the latest version of the spreadsheet.

    Note:
    You can test the AWS REST APIs using Postman API platform. For more information, see the How to test AWS REST API using POSTMAN [KB0782183] article in the Now Support Knowledge Base.

    Data collected by Discovery during horizontal discovery

    Discovery populates the data in the CMDB when running the Amazon AWS - AutoScaling Groups (LP) pattern.

    Table 2. Instance Scale Set [cmdb_ci_instance_scale_set]
    Field Description
    Name [name] The Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the Auto Scaling group.
    Object ID [object_id] The ARN of the Auto Scaling group.
    Install Status [install_status] The install status of Auto Scaling group. Default value is Installed.
    Operational status [operational_status] The operational status of Auto Scaling group. Default value is Operational.
    Desired Capacity [desired_capacity] The desired size of the group.
    Maximum Size [max_size] The maximum size of the group.
    Minimum Size [min_size] The minimum size of the group.
    Table 3. Virtual Machine Instance [cmdb_ci_vm_instance]
    Field Description
    Object ID [object_id] The Instance ID of the Virtual Machine.
    Figure 1. AWS EC2 Auto Scaling– Class model
    cmdb ci instance scale set and cmdb ci vm instance hosted on cmdb ci aws datacenter which is hosted on cmdb ci cloud service account

    Relationships

    Discovery creates these relationships to support the AWS Auto Scaling groups discovery.

    CI Relationship CI
    AWS Datacenter [cmdb_ci_aws_datacenter] Hosted on::Hosts Service Account [cmdb_ci_cloud_service_account]
    Instance Scale Set [cmdb_ci_instance_scale_set] Hosted on::Hosts AWS Datacenter [cmdb_ci_aws_datacenter]
    Instance Scale Set [cmdb_ci_instance_scale_set] *Managed by::Manages VM Instance [cmdb_ci_vm_instance]
    Note:
    EC2 VM
    Key Value [cmdb_key_value] References Instance Scale Set [cmdb_ci_instance_scale_set]
    *Starting with Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns version 1.29.0, the relationship between Instance Scale Set and VM Instance has changed from Members::Member of to Managed by::Manages.

    Tag discovery

    The Amazon AWS - AutoScaling Groups (LP) pattern collects tags and populates them in the Key Value [cmdb_key_value] table.

    Table 4. Key Value [cmdb_key_value]
    Field Description
    Key [key] The key of the resource tag.
    Value [value] The value of the resource tag.
    Configuration item [configuration_item] References the Instance Scale Set [cmdb_ci_instance_scale_set] table.