Discovery resource utilization

Standard transactions on Windows and UNIX generate various amounts of network traffic, depending on what is being discovered.

These tables show the bandwidth consumption for each data flow segment of a typical discovery using probes and patterns over different operating systems.

Device Type	MID > Instance	Instance > MID	MID > Target	Target > MID	Total
Windows 2016	0.104966	0.101271	0.77739	2.364353	3.34798
Windows 2012	0.126327	0.07928	1.177146	3.70751	5.089804
Windows 2008	0.141816	0.104674	1.032673	3.594784	4.873947
Windows 10	0.091466	0.075601	0.642313	2.221103	3.030483
Linux CentOS	0.164232	0.111376	0.148742	0.690117	1.114467
Mac OSX	0.103707	0.068302	0.021681	0.461365	0.655055
HP-UX	0.120358	0.106676	0.042669	0.101149	0.370852
Solaris	0.130551	0.099414	0.060243	0.346605	0.636813
Cisco UCS Switch	0.029655	0.027465	0.094918	0.097444	0.249492
F5 Load Balancer	0.043935	0.03689	0.017179	0.012132	0.110136
A10 Load Balancer	0.046631	0.032266	0.018313	0.03182	0.12903
EMC Storage	0.4776	0.373828	1.215954	4.741926	6.809308

The following table shows the bandwidth comparison between an initial discovery for three-tier applications and for each subsequent discovery. Bandwidth is broken up into the three tiers: UI (Apache), application (Websphere), and data (Oracle). This measures the total data transfer for each discovery run once for a device class.

Device Type	MID > Instance	Instance > MID	MID > Target	Target > MID	Total
Three-tier application - Initial discovery	0.712829	0.678862	7.084678	9.430181	17.90655
F5 Load Balancer				0.017179	0.012132
Apache on Linux				0.540161	1.107108
Websphere on Linux				0.729403	1.165112
Oracle on Windows				5.797935	7.145829

Three-tier application - subsequent discovery	0.150882	0.107409	2.536535	0.560122	3.354948
F5 load balancer				0.001347	0.012132
Apache on Linux				0.136366	0.79392
Websphere on Linux				0.341042	0.11365
Oracle on Windows				2.05778	0.354948

This table shows discovery of different OS types using patterns. This measures, in megabytes, the total amount of data created and the total amount of data in subsequent scans for each device.

Device		MID > Instance	Instance > MID	MID > Target	Target > MID	Total
Linux	Create	0.39	0.486	0.098	0.273	1.247
	Update	0.382	0.499	0.093	0.264	1.238
Windows Server	Create	0.289	0.316	5.628	8.508	14.741
	Update	0.273	0.306	5.621	8.458	14.658
Solaris	Create	1.222	1.4	0.383	0.917	3.922
	Update	1.24	1.42	.399	.675	3.734
HP-UX	Create	0.176	0.222	0.063	0.13	0.591
	Update	0.178	0.247	0.062	0.128	0.615
Citrix Netscaler	Create	0.424	1.919	0.019	0.042	2.404
	Update	0.355	0.619	0.016	0.041	1.031
F5	Create	0.087	0.135	0.026	0.047	0.295
	Update	0.132	0.171	0.026	0.047	0.376
L3 Switch	Create	0.172	0.125	0.282	0.478	1.057
	Update	0.178	0.126	0.282	0.479	1.065

Note: These measurements were taken with base operating configurations. Your local system results may vary.

CPU Usage examples

Examples from CPU Usage will vary among the matrix of thousands of combinations of Operating Systems, chip sets and specific loads for each system.

Your mix of these variables will determine your unique level of CPU consumption.

Use internal templates to identify unique builds. Monitor the performance impact that Discovery has on your system.

title	Discovery resource utilization
description	Standard transactions on Windows and UNIX generate various amounts of network traffic, depending on what is being discovered.
locale	en-US
canonical_url	https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/it-operations-management/discovery/discovery-resource-utilization.html
release	australia
product	Discovery
classification	discovery
topic_type	reference
last_updated	2026-09-10
reading_time_minutes	2
breadcrumb	Using DiscoveryDiscoveryITOM VisibilityIT Operations Management