NC State ServiceNow

We will assist your organization with the process of scanning your network, discovering relevant assets and capturing that information as Configuration Items (CI).

To start the process send a request to oit_cmdb_mgmt@help.ncsu.edu. Once the CMDB Discovery Prerequisites have been collected, the discovery process will start.

Terminology (links to ServiceNow documentation)

Discovery - ServiceNow Cloud Discovery finds applications and devices on your network, and then updates the Multisource CMDB with the information it finds
MID server - The Management, Instrumentation, and Discovery (MID) Server is a Java application that runs as a Windows service or UNIX daemon on a server in your local network.
Configuration Management Database Server (CMDB) - Video - The Configuration Management database (CMDB) creates and maintains the logical configurations your network infrastructure needs to support a ServiceNow service.
Configuration Item (CI) - Any computer, device, software, or service in the CMDB. A CI's record will include all of the relevant data, such as manufacturer, vendor, location, etc. Configuration items can be created or maintained either using tables, lists, and forms within the platform, or using the Discovery application.

CMDB Discovery Prerequisites

Configure Firewall access setup to Production and Development MID Server(s):
- Reference docs for ServiceNow required ports.
- TCP port access added to SNOW_Discovery_CMDB port group.
- Allow MID servers access to target hosts
  - Production - Snowdismidprod.oit.ncsu.edu - 10.36.1.63
  - Development - Snowdismiddev.oit.ncsu.edu - 10.36.1.64
- New ServiceNow accounts for customers will be added to the credential_admin group in ServiceNow Development and Production.

Credential Requirements for Discovery of a host

Windows
- A Domain User that has local Administrator privileges
- A local administrative account for non-domain machines
- Domain credentials must be used for remote access if User Account Control is active.
- Windows credential requirements
- Naming Convention: OIT Hosted Services Windows Account

Unix/Linux
- Secure Shell (SSH) – SSH credentials require either :
  - A standard SSH user
  - A private key (with an optional pass phrase)
- Individual commands that require SUDO access are outlined on links below.
- Unix/Linux Credential Requirements
- NCSU CLS Config for SSH Key Account Discovery
- Naming Convention: OIT Hosted Services Linux Account

SNMP
- For network based devices (Routers/Switches/Printers/UPS/PDU), the ‘Read only’ string is required
- SNMP Credential Requirements
- Naming Convention sample: OIT ComTech SNMP Account

VMWare
- The vCenter credential is a read only user that queries the vCenter API and identifies
- a running process
- a discovered vCenter appliance.
- VMWare Credential Requirements
- Naming Convention sample: Campus IT - Libraries vCenter Account

Cloud Service accounts - your managed cloud infrastructure.
- Amason Web Services (AWS)
- Microsoft Azure
- Google Cloud Processing (GCP)
- Naming Convention example: OIT Windows Services (WMS) Azure Service Account

Scope of discovery

Types of assets - Servers, VMs, network appliances, network storage and cloud datacenters. As these devices are discovered, configuration items (CI) will be created.

Provide the Configuration Item (CI) Information:
- Host names, IP addresses (preferred) or network ranges for the devices to be discovered
- Linux or Windows
- Owned By - user that is responsible/CI owner?
- Change Group - which group is responsible for change management
- Support Group - group responsible for incidents involving an asset (CI)

These attributes define the business rules for how the assets are managed

The "Managed by" attribute will be assigned a default based on class (linux vs windows) at a particular location. This identifies the group responsible for managing the details of a CI

Excluding test hosts from discovery

You may have assets that do not need to be discovered. These are typically test systems that may only exist for short periods of time or whose configuration may not match that of the corresponding production host(s)

The current way to exclude hosts from CMDB Discovery is through the use of the "CMDBDiscovery" tag category in VMWare.

If a host should not be captured for CMDB Discovery, the "CMDBDiscovery" category should be populated with the tag value "CMDBExclude".

Adding the CMDBExclude tag

Log into vSphere
Right click the VM name and select "Tags and Custom Attributes" OR when viewing the asset, select "Tags and Custom Attributes" from the hamburger (3 line) menu in the upper left corner
Select "Assign Tag"
Click in the "TagName" header to sort by tag name, then navigate to the tag "CMDBExclude"
Click in the checkbox next to "CMDBExclude"Click Assign

Discovery Testing and Verification

Initial Discovery will be conducted in the Development NCSU ServiceNow instance using the Development Mid Server.

Development instance : https://ncsudev.service-now.com/

Signoff/Approval by stakeholders

Once successful discovery is verified on the development instance, the discovery schedules will be re-created on the production instance and re-tested.