Operation of device and application discovery for a managed network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10341841-B2
Application number	US-201715815436-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 16, 2017
Priority date	Oct 2, 2017
Publication date	Jul 2, 2019
Grant date	Jul 2, 2019

Abstract

An example embodiment may involve providing for display a discovery schedule creation page for creating a discovery schedule. The embodiment may also involve, in response to receiving user input indicative of creation of a discovery schedule via the discovery schedule creation page, providing for display a discovery process page. Providing the discovery process page for display may involve, while the discovery process is being carried out according to the discovery schedule, dynamically updating the discovery process page to include total numbers of discovery results. The discovery process page may include selectable links for navigating to and displaying three pages: a discovered configuration items page, an error flow page, and a scheduling summary page.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
providing for display, on a graphical user interface, a discovery schedule creation page for creating a discovery schedule, wherein the discovery schedule creation page includes selectable options defining when to carry out a discovery process in which one or more proxy servers on a managed network determine and provide to a remote network management platform discovery information relating to configuration items of the managed network, wherein the configuration items include one or more of computing devices, software applications, and configurational relationships therebetween; and
in response to receiving, by way of the graphical user interface, user input indicative of creation of the discovery schedule via the discovery schedule creation page, providing for display, on the graphical user interface, a discovery process page, wherein providing the discovery process page includes:
(i) while the discovery process is being carried out according to the discovery schedule, dynamically updating the discovery process page to include total numbers of discovery results, the discovery results including (a) discovered configuration items, (b) errors relating to the discovery process, and (c) unidentified network addresses associated with configuration items that are not included in the discovered configuration items, and
(ii) displaying, in the discovery process page, a total number of created discovery schedules according to which the discovery process has been or is being carried out,

wherein the discovered configuration items as displayed include a first selectable link for navigating to and displaying a discovered configuration items page that lists, for each of a plurality of configuration item types, a total number of discovered configuration items,
wherein the errors as displayed include a second selectable link for navigating to and displaying an error flow page that lists, for each of a plurality of error types, a total number of errors relating to the discovery process, and provides selectable links for displaying information indicating causes for each of the errors, and
wherein the created discovery schedules as displayed include a third selectable link for navigating to and displaying a scheduling summary page that includes, for the discovery schedule, total numbers for categories including discovered configuration items, errors, and unidentified network addresses, wherein each of the categories as displayed is selectable for triggering display of a trend graph in the scheduling summary page, the trend graph indicating the total numbers for the category resulting from one or more past occurrences of the discovery process according to the discovery schedule, and wherein the scheduling summary page further includes selectable options for using each of the categories as a basis for sorting the discovery schedule.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the selectable options defining when to carry out the discovery process include options to schedule the discovery process to be carried out one or more of: (i) daily at a specified time each day, or (ii) weekly at a specified time each week.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the specified time each day is limited to a predefined window of off-peak hours.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the error flow page includes, for each of the plurality of error types, a selectable link that, when selected upon receipt of additional user input by way of the graphical user interface, causes display of a distinct error sub-type summary page that lists, for each of a plurality of error sub-types, a total number of sub-type errors relating to the discovery process, wherein the plurality of error sub-types includes sub-types of network errors, sub-types of credentials errors, sub-types of configuration errors, sub-types of performance errors, and sub-types of configuration management database errors.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the distinct error sub-type summary page includes, for each error sub-type of the plurality of error sub-types, a selectable link that, when selected upon receipt of additional user input by way of the graphical user interface, causes display of an error sub-type table page that lists errors of each sub-type relating to the discovery process.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the trend graph includes, for each past occurrence of the one or more past occurrences of the discovery process according to the discovery schedule, a selectable option that, when selected upon receipt of additional user input by way of the graphical user interface, causes display of a pop-up window overlaying at least a portion of the trend graph and including the total numbers resulting from each past occurrence of the discovery process according to the discovery schedule.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the unidentified network addresses include a selectable link that, when selected upon receipt of additional user input by way of the graphical user interface, causes display of, in a region of the discovery process page, characteristics of each of the unidentified network addresses.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the discovered configuration items page includes, for each configuration item type of the plurality of configuration item types, a selectable link that, when selected upon receipt of additional user input by way of the graphical user interface, causes display of a detailed list page including a list of configuration items of each configuration item type.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
before providing for display the discovery schedule creation page, providing for display, on the graphical user interface, a configuration item type selection page including selectable options defining which configuration item types to discover when carrying out the discovery process according to the discovery schedule,
wherein providing for display the discovery schedule creation page is performed in response to receiving, by way of the graphical user interface, additional user input indicative of at least one of the selectable options defining which configuration item types to discover when carrying out the discovery process according to the discovery schedule.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein a particular discovery result of the discovery results and the total number corresponding to the discovery result are displayed in the discovery process page in the form of a respective rectangular box in which (i) a name of the particular discovery result is disposed between a top border and a center of the rectangular box, (ii) the total number is disposed about the center of the rectangular box, and (iii) the selectable link is disposed between a bottom border and the center of the rectangular box.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
performing, by a computational instance of a discovery system operating on the remote network management platform, the discovery process according to the discovery schedule, wherein performing the discovery process according to the discovery schedule includes:
(i) instructing the one or more proxy servers to determine and provide to the computational instance the discovery information relating to the configuration items of the managed network, the discovery information including identifications and classifications of the configuration items,
(ii) receiving the discovery information from the one or more proxy servers, and
(iii) based on the discovery information, determining the discovery results.

12. A method comprising:
performing, by a computational instance of a discovery system operating on a remote network management platform, a discovery process

Assignees

• Servicenow Inc

Inventors

• Owen Bradley
• Gerbasi Joshua
• Dhuleshia Amit Chandulal
• Arom-Zohar Amit
• Grisco Gregory
• Nguyen Chris
• Subayi Oron

Classifications

• H04W8/005 Primary

  Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals · CPC title

• H04L41/22

  comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI] · CPC title

• H04L41/0806

  for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play · CPC title

• H04L41/0853

  by actively collecting configuration information or by backing up configuration information · CPC title

• H04L41/5058

  Service discovery by the service manager · CPC title