ServiceNow ITSM app alert channel

The ServiceNow application is now available at the ServiceNow store. You can download and install the IBM Instana application from the ServiceNow application store.

You must create a user that the ServiceNow ITSM app alert channel in the Instana instance uses for accessing the IBM Instana application in ServiceNow.

1. Click All and search User Administration. Click User Administration > Users.
2. Click New to create a new user.
3. Enter the User ID. This is the username when the user signs in to this ServiceNow instance.
4. Fill the other fields based on the user information and click Submit to create the user.
5. Go to the newly-created user page and click Set Password. In the pop-up window, click Generate that creates a password for the user. Copy and save the password, since it is needed for when the user logs in for the first time.
6. By default, the Password needs reset checkbox is checked after the password is created and saved successfully. Uncheck this checkbox.
7. Check the checkbox Web service access only.
8. Authorize the application access to the user by clicking the Role tab.
9. Click Edit. In the search tab, search and select x_ibm_instana.user, sn_incident_write, data_lookup_admin, personalize_dictionary, and sn_cmdb_user. Then, add them into the Roles list. Alternatively create and assign a role which can access the tables listed above.
10. Click Save to save the changes.
11. Click Update to save the updates. On the user page, the roles are added to the role list. There are more than 3 roles in the list because multiple subroles are included in the sn_incident_write and data_lookup_admin.

1. To create a ServiceNow alert channel, on the left navigation bar of the Instana UI, click Settings > Global Settings > Events & Alerts > Alert Channels.

2. Click Add Alert Channel and select ServiceNow ITSM app.

3. Enter the name for the new channel.

4. The integration uses the basic authorization method to interact with ServiceNow application scripted REST API.

   • The URL field must point to the endpoint of the ServiceNow instance that Instana communicates with. For example, https://example.service-now.com.

   • The Username field must be the name of an existing ServiceNow user who has the roles to access the ServiceNow application, which is mentioned and set up in the previous section. Use the user ID of the user that is created in ServiceNow as the username.

   • The Password field must contain the password of the ServiceNow user whose user ID was entered in the Username field.

5. Click Advanced. Use the following two radio button options to enable the two-way communication feature between Instana and ServiceNow.

   • Allow Instana to send events to the ServiceNow incident table (Default): If this radio button is selected after you propagate events to the IBM Instana intermediate tables, IBM Instana application updates the incident table in ServiceNow. This opens and closes ServiceNow incidents in sync with Instana's incidents, syncing notes and activity between Instana and ServiceNow. Any existing business rules to modify your incident table in ServiceNow also function normally. All the ServiceNow users who can access the ServiceNow incident table must have the following 5 roles:

     • x_ibm_instana.ibm_instana_for_tenants_user
     • x_ibm_instana.ibm_instana_for_incidents_user
     • x_ibm_instana.ibm_instana_for_change_user
     • x_ibm_instana.ibm_instana_for_issue_user
     • x_ibm_instana.ibm_instana_for_monitoring_issue_user

   • Restrict Instana to intermediate table propagation only: If this radio button is selected, Instana propagates only events data to the IBM Instana intermediate tables without any further updates to the ServiceNow incident table. Your ServiceNow business rules can access these IBM Instana intermediate tables.

6. Click Create to create the ServiceNow alert channel.

Several UI pages in the ServiceNow app show information about Instana events.

See the following example of the Description field of an incident that corresponds to the event with the incident type:

If you selected the Allow Instana to send events to the ServiceNow incident table radio button on the Instana ServiceNow ITSM app alert channel, the notes you add at an open Instana incident emit and synchronize to the corresponding incident at ServiceNow incident table. In addition, the work notes, additional comments and activities you add or operate at ServiceNow incident table synchronize to the corresponding Instana incidents.

The following scenarios describe the notes and activities synchronizing feature:

The note added at Instana incident emits and synchronizes to ServiceNow

1. An incident is created at Instana and a note Note Test (NB Event #3) is added by user "Kevin Wu" in the Notes and activity window.
2. You can see this note at the "Notes" tab on the corresponding ServiceNow incident table UI, including the note content, IBM Instana instance information, IBM Instana username, and the timestamp.

The work notes and activities added or generated at ServiceNow emits and synchronizes to Instana

1. This is the ServiceNow incident that is created by Instana.
2. Change the Impact fields from 1 - High to 2 - Medium and reassign this incident from Antony Alldis to Tash Dubrovska. The Priority field also changes based on the Impact field from 3 - Moderate to 2 - High.
3. Add a single work note Work Notes Test by System admin (From ServiceNow) and one more work note for the updates we made in step 2 by user System Administrator. Then, click Update button.
4. You can see the following prompt after your update complete.
5. Go to the corresponding incident page at Instana. In the Notes and activity window, you can see the synchronized work notes and activities.

If you select the Allow Instana to send events to the ServiceNow incident table radio button on the Instana ServiceNow ITSM app alert channel, ServiceNow incidents are closed automatically when corresponding events are closed in Instana. In addition, Instana incidents or issues are closed when corresponding incidents are manually resolved or closed in the ServiceNow incident table.

The following scenarios describe the incident closing feature:

An incident that is closed in Instana is reflected in ServiceNow

1. An incident is created in Instana, and the state of the incident is active.

   

2. You can find this incident with the New state in the ServiceNow incident table.

   

3. When the incident is closed in the Instana, the incident status is synchronized in the ServiceNow incident table.

   

4. The same Instana incident closes in ServiceNow with its resolution information populated.

   

You can choose the closure state you want to set for ServiceNow incident when corresponding events are closed in Instana. Currently, the following closure states are supported: 6 - Resolved, 7 - Closed, and 8 - Canceled. You can configure the mapping closure state in IBM Instana for Tenants table.

Go to IBM Instana for Tenants, find the corresponding record in the table via Instana ID column, which is using {tenant unit}-{tenant} format (for example, if the Instana tenant is instana and tenant unit is test, the Instana ID should be test-instana). There is a column called Map Instana Closure Event. You can set the ServiceNow incident closure state by using the state number: 6 for Resolved, 7 for Closed, and 8 for Canceled. The default value is 7 - Closed.

For example, if you change the Map Instana Closure Event value from default 7 - Closed to 6 - Resolved and when the incident is closed in Instana, the ServiceNow incident state is updated from New to Resolved.

You can see detailed information about the state update in the Notes section.

An incident that is closed in ServiceNow is reflected in Instana

1. An incident is created at Instana, and the state of the incident is Active.

   

2. You can find this incident with New state in the ServiceNow incident table.

   

3. A user in ServiceNow changes the state of incident to Closed or Resolved with the resolution information and updates the incident.

   

4. The incident is closed in the ServiceNow instance and the Instana instance is made aware of this incident close call, as you can see in following prompts:

   

5. The state of the incident is changed to closed.

   

6. The resolution information of the closed incident that the user entered in the ServiceNow incident table is sent back to Instana.

   

See the following example of the Description field of an incident that corresponds to the event with the change type:

Message:

Failed to save: failed to send message to ServiceNow ITSM Application Integration {{ServiceNow instance URL}} with status code: 503. Reason: Service Unavailable

Cause: This error occurs when an HTTP request from Instana to the configured ServiceNow instance fails. It usually happens due to an updated ServiceNow instance URL and the original instance was deleted or deactivated.

Resolution:

• If the ServiceNow instance URL was recently updated, you can ignore this error.
• Try saving the updated configuration again.

Message:

Error: /api/x_ibm_instana/instana_manager, Unable to create incident JavaException: com.glide.script.fencing.CrossScopeAccessNotAllowedException: Access to ScopedGlideRecordSecure from scope x_ibm_instana not allowed

Resolution steps:

1. In the ServiceNow console, switch the scope from Global to IBM Instana.
2. Open the Application Cross-Scope Access table (sys_scope_privilege.list).
3. Add a new entry with the following details:
   • Source Scope: IBM Instana (not editable)
   • Target Scope: Global
   • Target Name: ScopedGlideRecordSecure
   • Target Type: Scriptable
   • Application: IBM Instana (not editable)
   • Operation: Execute API
   • Status: Allowed