What do patterns require to find applications running on host machines?

Patterns are used in ServiceNow Discovery to identify applications running on host machines by analyzing their behavior and interactions. To effectively perform this analysis, patterns require access to specific details regarding the applications themselves. This is where applicative credentials come into play.

Applicative credentials enable the discovery process to authenticate against the applications on the host machines. They allow Discovery to gather necessary information about the applications, such as their configurations, states, and dependencies. Without these credentials, the Discovery process would be limited in its ability to accurately identify and classify the applications present on the hosts.

In contrast, while machine credentials might allow access to the underlying operating system, they wouldn’t provide the necessary context or permissions specifically related to the applications. Network access credentials are important for network discovery tasks, and administrative credentials could provide broader access across the system, but it is the applicative credentials that are specifically tailored to gather data from applications. This makes them essential for the accurate functioning of patterns in identifying running applications.