• Overview
• Configuring ServiceNow Connection
• Managing Record Attributes
  • Create and Update (_patch) Record
    • Attribute
  • Get and Delete Record
  • Get All Records
• Use Cases
  • Provisioning a Virtual Machine from a Template
  • Virtual Machine Retirement
  • Virtual Machine Reconfiguration (VMware Only)

Overview

Infrastructure Automation integration with ServiceNow enables authentication with an existing ServiceNow database and add/amend items in the ServiceNow database during state machine processing, such as the virtual machine provisioning state machine. Note that information in this guide assumes you have credentials and access to a ServiceNow database instance.

The following new namespace and class delivers support for the management of ServiceNow Configuration Management Database (CMDB) records using ServiceNow’s RESTful web service.

/Integration/ServiceNow/CMDB

You can manage records in the CMDB_CI_SERVER table, including create, update, and/or delete. The following methods are included:

Note:

Configuration item (CI) and record are used interchangeably and refer to items in a ServiceNow database table.

Configuring ServiceNow Connection

Configure the connection to the ServiceNow database by specifying the credentials in the CMDB schema or instances within.

The following methods are included:

The table name cannot be changed unless there is a specific requirement to manage records elsewhere. Entries in this table appear in the Configuration > Base Items > Servers menu in the ServiceNow web user interface.

Managing Record Attributes

You can specify any attribute via the URI or CMDB class instance. If neither exists, the value is determined from the Infrastructure Automation VM or miq_provision objects.

The attributes can be reduced or extended as required by amending the Ruby methods.

Note:

Some attributes are not free-text (variable) fields, that is, they must be specific values. For example, the vendor value must already exist in the ServiceNow Vendor table beforehand.

Create and Update (_patch) Record

You can use the following attributes when creating and/or updating a record.

Attribute

Get and Delete Record

You can use the following attribute for getting or deleting a record.

Get All Records

There are no attributes required to get all records. This method gets all records in the specified ServiceNow table and writes their attributes to automation.log.

1. sys_id attribute is not required during create. Its value is returned from the create request and the Infrastructure Automation object custom attribute servicenow_sys_id is created and updated.

Use Cases

The following examples show how ServiceNow can be integrated with automation workflows.

Provisioning a Virtual Machine from a Template

The Cloud and Infrastructure Provision VM from Template State Machines contain RegisterCMDB and ActivateCMDB states.

To create a new ServiceNow record during virtual machine provisioning, amend the ActiveCMDB state to call the create method, for example:

/Integration/ServiceNow/CMDB/create

Virtual Machine Retirement

The Cloud and Infrastructure default Retirement State Machines contain the DeactivateCMDB state.

To update a virtual machine’s ServiceNow record during virtual machine retirement, amend the DeactivateCMDB state to call the update_patch method, for example:

Integration/ServiceNow/CMDB/update_patch?description=VM%20${/#vm.guid}%20retired%20from%20{productname_short}

Virtual Machine Reconfiguration (VMware Only)

Create a new System Event instance to update the ServiceNow record after a virtual machine reconfiguration request has been approved and completed.

Create a new /System/Event/ReconfigVM_Task_Complete instance with a relationship value:

/Integration/ServiceNow/CMDB/update_patch