Data Manager - ServiceNow Adapter

Introduction

ServiceNow is a tool produced by a company of the same name. that is used for CMDB and Assets and Enterprise Service Management.

ServiceNow Adapter uses an API connection to bring data into Assets Data Manager.

How do I connect this tool to Assets Data Manager?

Follow this procedure to connect this tool to Assets Data Manager using the custom-built Adapter:

1. Gather all of the information listed in the Data Manager Fields section, such as the Name, Object class, Data Source Name, and Data Source Type.

2. Gather all of the information in the ServiceNow Fields section - this may require consultation with the subject matter expert (SME) for ServiceNow.

3. Within Data Manager:

   1. Create a new job by selecting the Adapter that matches your tool.

   2. Configure all of the required fields with the appropriate information.

4. Within ServiceNow:

   1. Follow all of the steps listed in the Authentication and authorization section to properly configure Authentication and authorization.

   2. Review the information in the API Call section.

   3. Review the Fields Retrieved section.

Each time this job is run, the data your have selected will be brought into Data Manager using the configured Adapter and become raw data.

Data Manager Fields

You will need to specify the following information from Assets Data Manager:

1. Name - the name of the Connection, visible as the job name in Adapters.

2. Object - the name of the Object Class you want to the data to be loaded into.

3. Data Source Name - the type of data being created; which is usually the tool name, e.g AD, Qualys etc. Note: This can be the same as Name.

4. Data Source Type - what type of data is the tool providing? For example, Assets, CMDB, user location and more.

ServiceNow Fields

You will need to specify the following information from ServiceNow:

1. Authentication Type - type of Authentication to connect to the ServiceNow API. ServiceNow supports Basic and OAuth methods of authentication.

2. API URL - the ServiceNow instance URL to enable Data Manager to connect to the ServiceNow source

3. Source Table\View Name - name of the table or view as defined in ServiceNow from which to retrieve the records

4. API limit - maximum number of records to return. Allows the enforcement of the amount of request/quantity of data (or records) to be consumed by the Data Manager Adapters. By default, the API limit is set to 0 meaning that there are no restrictions, however if connecting to a ServiceNow source that is heavily populated with data, the best practice is to limit the rate to 1000.

5. API fields - comma-separated list of field names to return in the response. This feature restricts the number of fields returned from the source.

6. API query - an encoded query string used to filter the results. It performs the query on a specific field in the source table and returns the query results to the staging.

If you are using Basic Auth, complete the following fields:

1. Username - name to generate the authorization token.

2. Password - password to generate the authorization token.

3. Basic Authentication Token - encoded base-64 string used in authorization of Service-Now API access.

If you are using OAuth, complete the following fields:

1. Username - name to generate the authorization token.

2. Password - password to generate the authorization token.

3. Client secret - a unique identifier to generate the authorization token.

4. Client-ID - a secret string that the application uses to prove it's identity when requesting a token.

Authentication and Authorization

The connector requires user authentication within the ServiceNow tenancy and must have the following:

• Read only access to the required tables / database views

• rest_api_explorer role

API Call

The API call for ServiceNow is: Get Table API and allows access to a base table or a customised view.

Fields Retrieved

The most common tables consumed for ServiceNow include:

• cmdb_ci_computer

• cmdb_ci_vm_instance

• cmdb_ci_server

• alm_hardware

Each customers implementation of ServiceNow differs so your SME will be critical in assisting in explaining the tables to be consumed.

In addition to the above, you may want to see all ServiceNow data in one view within Assets Data Manager. If this is the case, refer to the Data Aggregator connector for instructions on merging them into one view.