What is a significant factor that can lead to duplicate application associations in ServiceNow Discovery?

One significant factor that can lead to duplicate application associations in ServiceNow Discovery is the use of changeable port values during application restarts. When an application is restarted, it may bind to different port numbers than it was initially using. This inconsistency can cause the Discovery process to identify the same application multiple times because it may appear as a separate instance depending on the port it is using at the time of the scan. This results in the same application being associated with different records in the system, leading to duplication.

Moreover, when an application does not have a consistent way to identify itself through a stable port configuration, it complicates the Discovery process's ability to unify its results under a single application entity. It is essential to maintain predictable configurations in application services to ensure accurate and effective mapping within the ServiceNow database.