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>>SolarWinds Orion platform products
integrate with ServiceNow, allowing you
to automatically open ServceNow tickets
based on critical events defined within
SolarWinds Orion platform software.
With this integraton, you can automatically
create incidents in ServiceNow based on
alerts that trigger in the Orion platform,
synchronize the acknowledgement of Orion alerts
and ServiceNow incidents, automatically
update, close, and re-open ServiceNow incidents.
Make sure to review a few prerequisites
before moving forward.
This integration will require NPM 12.0, SAM 6.2.4,
or any other Orion platform product
running Core Version 2016.1 or later.
The communication between the SolarWinds server
and the ServiceNow instance uses HTTPS port 443.
Be sure to open this port for outbound communication.
After that, download the ServiceNow Integration application
from the ServiceNow App Store.
This can be accessed by going to
https://store.servicenow.com.
In the search bar at the top, simply search on SolarWinds.
You will see the SolarWinds Alert Integration app.
This application enables the communication
between your SolarWinds server and the ServiceNow instance.
After downloading the app from the store,
deploy the application in ServiceNow.
Navigate to your downloaded system applications.
Locate the SolarWinds Alert Integration
application, and click Install.
When the installation is complete, the caption
of the Install button will change to Installed.
SolarWinds then recommends that you create a new
ServiceNow Integration user with web service access only,
to be utilized for communication between the two systems.
First, navigate to the User Administration section
in ServiceNow, and create a new user.
Next, provide a user ID, a password,
and other required information.
Specify that the new user should
have web service access only.
Finally, edit the newly created user, and add the
x_sow_intapp.integration_user role to the role list.
You can search on x_sow and find it quickly on the list.
Click update, and you're all set. Great!
After installing the integration application,
and creating an integration user,
you can now configure the integration with ServiceNow
in your SolarWinds Orion server.
Once these steps are completed,
you will be able to configure the integration
to automatically create, update, and resolve alerts
that were raised in your Orion platform product
from your ServiceNow instance.
First, in the Orion Web Console,
click Settings - All Settings.
In the Alerts and Reports group, click ServiceNow Instances.
Click Add Instance.
Now, enter a name and the URL for the ServiceNow instance.
Enter the ServiceNow credentials.
The username for the account should be the one you just
configured for the SolarWinds Integration role, SWUser.
Enter a password.
Test the connection to your ServiceNow instance.
If the connection is not working,
you will receive a detailed message
to help you resolve the issue.
If you're accessing your ServiceNow
instance through an HTTP proxy,
select "Use an HTTP proxy server"
and click the "Configure your HTTP proxy settings" link
to edit the details.
For more information on how to do this,
please refer to the admin guide
for steps on configuring web proxy settings.
When you're finished, click Save.
Both systems are now integrated,
so let's walk through an incident life cycle.
From the Orion Web Console, you will now have
an additional trigger action available to you.
This alert management action is only available
if the integration with SeviceNow is enabled.
First, navigate to Alerts - Manage Alerts,
and select a specific example.
I have an alert created for a rebooted system.
In order to send information to ServiceNow, I need
to tell the Orion platform to send data to that system.
When editing or adding an alert,
click Add Action in the Trigger Action
or Reset Action section of the Alert Wizard.
Next, select Create ServiceNow Incident,
and click Configure Action.
Under Select ServiceNow Instance,
specify where you want to create the incident.
Under Incident Detail, define the properties
of an incident template that will be used for new incidents.
For example, you could define the Assign To
or Assignment Group fields, Impact,
Short Description, and Urgency.
Text areas can hold macro variables
to add information about alerts and alert objects.
In my example, I want to add a couple
variables to customize the description.
I want to use the node name, of course,
the last boot timestamp, and a couple custom properties
that tell me where this node is.
I use Business Unit and Region.
If you want even more detail, you
can add text to the description.
If the property you want is not displayed
in the Incident Details section,
click Select Properties at the bottom of the section,
and select the property from the list.
This list is automatically populated
from your ServiceNow instance.
Under State Management, you can define the
status of the incident when the incident is reset,
reopened, acknowledged, or closed.
You can also specify notes to be added to the incident.
You can schedule the action by selecting Time of Day,
"Use special time of day schedule for this action".
This schedule will only apply to
the alert action you're editing.
This feature is often used to prevent an action
from occurring during specific windows.
You can then select how frequently this action
will occur for each triggered alert in Execution Settings.
Click Add Action.
You can test the new action using the Simulate button.
When the trigger or reset conditions of the alert are met,
an incident will be created or updated
in the specified ServiceNow instance.
Let's enable this alert and test it from the system.
I can pull up the Node Details page
to se-aus-mgom-o2 and hit Reboot.
From here, you can see that the last boot time changes.
If I log in to my alerts, I'm able to see
that the Orion platform certainly did
trigger an alert, and actually includes
the incident number generated from ServiceNow.
By clicking the incident number,
I'm automatically taken to the
incident view within ServiceNow.
For now, let's go back to the Orion Web Console
and acknowledge from here.
By doing it this way, ServiceNow will validate
that the appropriate state has been
automatically changed to active.
If you scroll down in the notes,
you can also see workflow activity,
and who acknowledged the alert.
I can add notes and resolve incidents,
which will show my incident list again,
and the new state of this particular case.
Integration handles ticket creation, acknowledgement,
update, closure, reopening, and permanent closure.
Reopening is particularly important for flapping issues.
It's much more efficient and easier to understand
a single ticket with a history of flapping,
rather than dozens of tickets opened and closed separately.
Seamless integration allows for fast, reliable
two-way communication between SolarWinds and ServiceNow.
Automatic queue assignment helps ensure that
action items are routed to the correct team right away.
Acknowledgements, changes in behavior,
or issue closures are synced, so you have
the latest status at your fingertips,
regardless of which system you're in.
To learn more about ServiceNow integration
and other features, please go to support.solarwinds.com.