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Configure the ServiceNow Discovery connector

The Snow Integration Connector for ServiceNow Discovery is configured in the Snow Integration Manager (SIM). For more information on SIM, see Snow Integration Manager.

The ServiceNow Discovery connector uses an API connection.

Prerequisites​

  • A user account with read-only access to the ServiceNow CMDB tables is required to configure the connector.

  • You require the grant type of Client Credentials Grant for secure machine-to-machine authentication without user interaction. It authenticates applications using client credentials and grants controlled API access with scoped permissions.

  • You are recommended to validate the following checks before you set up the authentication with OAuth client credentials:

    1. Navigate to Admin > Application Manager in your ServiceNow instance and check if the plugins listed below are installed:

      • OAuth 2.0 (com.snc.platform.security.oauth)

      • REST API Provider (com.glide.rest)

      • Authentication scope (com.glide.auth.scope)

      • REST API Scope (com.glide.rest.auth.sope)

    tip

    You can also navigate to the sys_plugins.list using the Filter Navigator or the Next Experience header menus, to see the plugins installed.

    1. Navigate to the System Properties table and create or update the properties below with their corresponding values listed. You can navigate to this table by entering sys_properties.list in the navigation filter.

      • Name:glide.oauth.inbound.client.credential.grant_type.enabled

      • Value: Set to true to enable the client credentials grant type.

      • Type: true | false

For more information, see the section Steps for setting up OAuth 2.0 for Inbound REST in the ServiceNow community developer blog.

Configure OAuth 2.0 authentication​

Follow the steps below to configure an OAuth 2.0 integration with ServiceNow.

  1. Sign in to ServiceNow with an admin account.

    Your ServiceNow instance has the URI: https://{your-company-name}.service-now.com

  2. Navigate to Machine Identity Console > Inbound Integrations > New Integration.

  3. Select the application connection type OAuth - Client credentials grant. The OAuth Client credential configuration page appears.

  4. Enter a Name for the OAuth entity and the Provider name.

  5. Select the Active check box.

  6. Expand the Advanced options (optional) and change the Access token lifespan to 14400 seconds.

  7. Select Submit and then select the newly created application registry in the list.

  8. Unlock the Client Secret.

  9. Copy and save Client ID and Client Secret. They are used when configuring the ServiceNow Discovery connector.

Set up the Data connection​

In Snow Integration Manager, add the ServiceNow Discovery connector, select the Data connection tab, and configure the settings:

  1. In the Endpoint URL box, enter the URL to the ServiceNow web API.

    EXAMPLE

    https://myCompany.service-now.com

  2. If a port other than the default port of 80 is configured in ServiceNow, in the Port, enter a port number.

  3. In Time out, select the time frame, in seconds, before the connection to ServiceNow will time out. The default value is 30 seconds.

    A value other than the default value should be entered if the connection to ServiceNow times out before all data is collected. To determine a reasonable timeout period:

    In ServiceNow, navigate to System Logs, open the Transactions page, and adjust the timeout period based on the API call response times displayed in column Response time.

  4. Paste the Client id and Client Secret values, as saved according to Configure OAuth 2.0 authentication.

  5. To verify the connection, select Test connection.

  6. In the Initial aggregation length (months), select the number of months that the initial aggregation of inventory data will be based upon.

  7. To reset an ongoing incremental aggregation, select Clear Last Aggregation Date.

  8. Optional: Enter a Site name for this connector, which will override the global site name.

  9. To save the configured settings and close the window, select OK.

Set up the Filtering​

Introduced with Snow Integration Manager 5.17 is the ability to filter i.e., exclude devices by ServiceNow system class.

FilterServiceNow CMDB sys_class_name
AIX serverscmdb_ci_aix_server
ESX serverscmdb_ci_esx_server
HP-UX serverscmdb_ci_hpux_server
Hyper-V serverscmdb_ci_hyper_v_server
IBM z/OS serverscmdb_ci_ibm_zos_server
Linux serverscmdb_ci_linux_server
Netware serverscmdb_ci_netware_server
OSX servercmdb_ci_osx_server
Solaris serverscmdb_ci_solaris_server
Unix serverscmdb_ci_unix_server
Windows serverscmdb_ci_win_server
storage serverscmdb_ci_storage_server
computerscmdb_ci_computer

All data is retrieved and aggregated by default. Select devices to filter out during aggregation.

  1. Select the Filtering tab.

  2. To select devices to filter out during aggregation, clear the Retrieve all devices checkbox.

  3. Select the checkboxes for all devices to exclude from aggregation.

  4. To save the filtering, select OK.