Find a CI by name or IP address

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Chrome Extension

Sourdough: ServiceNow Monitoring and Analytics

A Chrome extension for ServiceNow Admins and Developers with essential tools, analytics, graphs and monitoring features.

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Overview

Tasks

CMDB

API

Metrics

Monitor

Internals

Instance:sourdoughdev·Version:Yokohama

Instance StateONLINE

System StatusFully Operational

Session Timeout90 minutes

Logged-In Sessions2 (20 active)

Build Nameyokohama-12-18-2024_p1

IP Address10.159.128.43

Instance HealthHealth Score: 90%

🔥 5dSourdough (Chrome Plugin)Dark Mode

Look up a Configuration Item by its name or IP address

Script Include

var CIFinder = Class.create();
CIFinder.prototype = {
    initialize: function() {},
    
    findByName: function(name) {
        if (!name) return null;
        
        var gr = new GlideRecord('cmdb_ci');
        gr.addQuery('name', name);
        gr.setLimit(1);
        gr.query();
        
        if (gr.next()) {
            return gr.getUniqueValue();
        }
        return null;
    },
    
    findByIP: function(ipAddress) {
        if (!ipAddress) return null;
        
        // IPs are stored in cmdb_ci_ip, not cmdb_ci
        var ipGR = new GlideRecord('cmdb_ci_ip');
        ipGR.addQuery('ip_address', ipAddress);
        ipGR.setLimit(1);
        ipGR.query();
        
        if (ipGR.next()) {
            var ciSysId = ipGR.getValue('ci');
            if (ciSysId) {
                return ciSysId;
            }
        }
        return null;
    },
    
    findByNameOrIP: function(searchTerm) {
        if (!searchTerm) return null;
        
        // Try name first (cheaper query)
        var ciSysId = this.findByName(searchTerm);
        if (ciSysId) return ciSysId;
        
        // Fall back to IP lookup
        return this.findByIP(searchTerm);
    },
    
    type: 'CIFinder'
};

The CMDB's data model splits CI identity across multiple tables. While CI names live directly on cmdb_ci, IP addresses are stored in the related cmdb_ci_ip table with a reference back to the CI. Most developers instinctively query cmdb_ci for everything, but IP lookups require the two-step dance: find the IP record first, then get its ci reference. This separation exists because CIs can have multiple IP addresses, and ServiceNow needs to track each one individually with its own discovery metadata.

When to use this

Business Rules that need to correlate incidents or changes with specific CIs
Discovery integrations where you have hostnames or IP addresses from external tools
Scheduled jobs processing CSV imports with mixed identifier types
Fix scripts cleaning up CMDB data where you need to verify CI existence first

When NOT to use this

Client scripts — use GlideAjax to call this Script Include instead
Inside loops over large datasets — you'll create N+1 query problems
When you need fuzzy matching — use CONTAINS or STARTSWITH queries instead
When processing discovery queue items — use the built-in CMDB APIs for better performance

Key behaviors and gotchas

IP addresses in cmdb_ci_ip are stored as strings, not parsed — '192.168.1.01' != '192.168.1.1'
CIs can have multiple IP records — setLimit(1) prevents accidentally returning arrays
Name searches are case-sensitive by default unless your instance has case-insensitive collation
Domain separation applies to both tables — cross-domain CI lookups may fail silently
The name field on cmdb_ci is indexed, but ip_address on cmdb_ci_ip may not be — check your table indexes

⚠️

Never query cmdb_ci with addQuery('ip_address', ...) — that field doesn't exist on the CI table. You'll get zero results and no error message. Always use the two-step lookup through cmdb_ci_ip first.

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Alternative Approaches

Direct GlideRecord approach

function findCIByNameOrIP(searchTerm) {
    if (!searchTerm) return null;
    
    // Try name lookup first
    var ciGR = new GlideRecord('cmdb_ci');
    ciGR.addQuery('name', searchTerm);
    ciGR.setLimit(1);
    ciGR.query();
    
    if (ciGR.next()) {
        return ciGR.getUniqueValue();
    }
    
    // Try IP lookup
    var ipGR = new GlideRecord('cmdb_ci_ip');
    ipGR.addQuery('ip_address', searchTerm);
    ipGR.setLimit(1);
    ipGR.query();
    
    if (ipGR.next()) {
        return ipGR.getValue('ci');
    }
    
    return null;
}

Use this for one-off scripts where you don't need the reusable class structure.

Trade-offs: Simpler but less maintainable — can't easily extend or mock for testing.

API Methods Used

GlideRecord.addQuery()GlideRecord.setLimit()GlideRecord.getValue()GlideRecord.getUniqueValue()

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