ServiceNow

Overview

IT Service Management (ITSM) is an important area of focus for many organizations. Organizations invested in ServiceNow as an ITSM provider will find that HPE Morpheus Enterprise integrates tightly with some of the most-used features. After integrating ServiceNow with HPE Morpheus Enterprise, both environments can be used interchangeably and the results are synced to both places. This guide walks administrators through the process of integrating ServiceNow with HPE Morpheus Enterprise and how HPE Morpheus Enterprise can be used to effectively leverage the best of ServiceNow.

Tip

The ServiceNow integration guide is also available as a PDF download, which includes additional example use cases and screenshots.

Important

Only one HPE Morpheus Enterprise appliance should be integrated with a single ServiceNow instance at any given time. Integrating multiple appliances with the same ServiceNow instance can cause issues with sharing HPE Morpheus Enterprise Catalog Items through to ServiceNow for ordering from the ServiceNow console. Additional details on Catalog Item sharing are included in this guide.

Add ServiceNow Integration

  1. Navigate to Administration > Integrations

  2. Select + NEW INTEGRATION

  3. Select “ServiceNow” from the dropdown list

  4. Add the following:

    NAME

    A friendly name to describe the ServiceNow integration in HPE Morpheus Enterprise.

    ENABLED

    Check “Enabled” to allow consumption of this ServiceNow integration in HPE Morpheus Enterprise.

    SERVICENOW HOST

    URL of the ServiceNow instance (ex: https://your.instance.service-now.com), keep in mind you can create multiple ServiceNow integrations in HPE Morpheus Enterprise if needed.

    API PROXY

    If necessary, select a configured proxy (Infrastructure > Network > Proxies) to route traffic through to the ServiceNow API. If a proxy is not configured here, ServiceNow API traffic will be routed through the global proxy if one is configured on the appliance.

    CREDENTIALS

    Supply credentials for a user in ServiceNow that is able to access the REST interface and create/update/delete incidents, requests, requested items, item options, catalog items, workflows, etc. The list of necessary roles includes x_moda_morpheus_ca.integration (available if the HPE Morpheus Enterprise ServiceNow plugin is installed from the ServiceNow Store), catalog_admin, itil, rest_service, web_service_admin and import_transformer.

    HPE Morpheus Enterprise supports simple and OAuth 2.0 authentication with ServiceNow. See the next section for additional details on configuring the ServiceNow appliance for OAuth 2.0 authentication if you intend to use it. When supplying credentials to HPE Morpheus Enterprise users may opt to integrate with a saved set of username and password credentials, a saved set of OAuth 2.0 credentials, a new set of username and password credentials (not saved), or a new set of credentials (OAuth 2.0 or username/password) which will also be saved to the HPE Morpheus Enterprise credential store for later use. Once the credential type is selected, the fields in the modal will adjust to correspond to the chosen credential type. Once again, see the next section for more details on configuring OAuth 2.0 authentication.

    CMDB CUSTOM MAPPING

    If needed, administrators can opt to populate a specific field in the ServiceNow table and such mapping is identified here with a JSON code snippet. Below is an example that populates the object_id field in the CM database with the HPE Morpheus Enterprise instance name and two other field examples:

    {
"object_id":"<%=instance.name%>",
"SN_field_id2":"<%=morph.varname2%>",
"SN_field_id3":"<%=morph.varname3%>"
}
    CMDB CLASS MAPPING

    Define the mapping between HPE Morpheus Enterprise server types and ServiceNow CI classes. Select a HPE Morpheus Enterprise server type from the dropdown menu and a new field will appear in the list. Enter a ServiceNow CI class into the text field to create the association

    DEFAULT CMDB BUSINESS CLASS

    Allows the user to define the table CMDB records are written to if they prefer this over HPE Morpheus Enterprise default. By default, HPE Morpheus Enterprise writes to the cmdb_ci_vm_instance table.

    CMDB MODE

    Choose “Table Based” or “Identification & Reconciliation API”. Selecting “Table Based” will utilize the older Table-based API mode for CMDB sync. Organizations utilizing IRE should select “Identification & Reconciliation API”.

  5. Save Changes

Important

HPE Morpheus Enterprise supports integration with single-domain and multi-domain ServiceNow appliances. In multi-domain installations, a selected ServiceNow company can be mapped to a selected HPE Morpheus Enterprise Tenant for purposes of exposing HPE Morpheus Enterprise Library items only to users within a certain company. In this configuration, ServiceNow integrations should be added in each relevant HPE Morpheus Enterprise Tenant. Further setup steps for exposing HPE Morpheus Enterprise library items to ServiceNow are included in a later section below.

Configuring ServiceNow for OAuth 2.0 Authentication

Before configuring HPE Morpheus Enterprise to use OAuth 2.0 authentication with ServiceNow, ensure your ServiceNow appliance is configured correctly. OAuth must be set up and activated, you must also create a new endpoint for the client. See the following relevant parts of ServiceNow documentation to properly configure your appliance:

  1. Set up OAuth

  2. Create a new application endpoint for HPE Morpheus Enterprise to access the ServiceNow instance

With ServiceNow correctly configured, we can integrate ServiceNow using either a stored OAuth 2.0 credential set or we can create one on the fly during integration. When creating one on the fly HPE Morpheus Enterprise will save it as a stored credential set for later use. Whether storing one ahead (Infrastructure > Trust > Credentials) or storing one at integration time, configure your credentials as follows. Note that all fields are required for a ServiceNow Integration unless specifically mentioned otherwise:

Note

Some of the fields below may not be present if creating an OAuth credential set on the fly as opposed to the Infrastructure > Trust section of HPE Morpheus Enterprise.

  • CREDENTIAL STORE: Select “Internal” or (if present) an external Cypher store

  • NAME: A name for the stored credential set in HPE Morpheus Enterprise

  • DESCRIPTION: An optional description for the credential set

  • ENABLED: If enabled, this credential set will be selectable for creating various integrations in HPE Morpheus Enterprise

  • GRANT TYPE: Use “Password Credentials”

  • ACCESS TOKEN URL: Should be the appliance domain with the path of “/oauth_token.do”. For example, “https://mydomain.service-now.com/oauth_token.do”

  • CLIENT ID: The client ID (potentially auto-generated) set when the endpoint was created in ServiceNow

  • CLIENT SECRET: The client secret set when the endpoint was created in ServiceNow

  • USERNAME: The username for a ServiceNow service account, note the required permissions this user must have in the section above

  • PASSWORD: The password for the ServiceNow account

  • SCOPE: Left empty

  • CLIENT AUTHENTICATION: Use “Send client credentials in body”

If storing these credentials for later use, click ADD CREDENTIALS. If creating this credential set on the fly at the time of integration, complete the rest of the new integration modal as discussed in the prior section.

../../_images/oauthcreds.png

ServiceNow Configuration Management Database (CMDB)

ServiceNow CMDB is central to maintaining a complete record of IT infrastructure at many organizations. The HPE Morpheus Enterprise ServiceNow integration can create and update configuration item (CIs) records as new services are provisioned or existing services are reconfigured. Once a ServiceNow integration is set as the CMDB for a Cloud or Group, CI records are created and managed by HPE Morpheus Enterprise.

Setting a CMDB on a Group

When adding or editing a HPE Morpheus Enterprise Group, any active ServiceNow integration can be set as the CMDB.

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure > Groups

  2. Select an existing Group name from the list

  3. Click EDIT

  4. Under “Advanced Options”, select an active ServiceNow integration from the CMDB dropdown menu

  5. If desired, select “CMDB DISCOVERY” to create CMDB CI records for discovered (unmanaged) servers that HPE Morpheus Enterprise automatically onboards to this Group

This setting is also available when creating a Group. Rather than selecting an existing Group in step two above, click + CREATE to make a new Group.

Setting a CMDB on a Cloud

When adding or editing a HPE Morpheus Enterprise Cloud, any active ServiceNow integration can be set as the CMDB.

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure > Clouds

  2. Select an existing Cloud name from the list

  3. Click EDIT

  4. Under “Advanced Options”, select an active ServiceNow integration from the CMDB dropdown menu

  5. If desired, select “CMDB DISCOVERY” to create CMDB CI records for discovered (unmanaged) servers that HPE Morpheus Enterprise automatically onboards to this Cloud

This setting is also available when creating a Cloud. Rather than selecting an existing Cloud in step two above, click + ADD to make a new Cloud.

Provisioning and CI Records

With a ServiceNow instance integrated with HPE Morpheus Enterprise and the instance set as the CMDB for a HPE Morpheus Enterprise Group or Cloud, we will see CI records created as new resources are provisioned to the Cloud or Group in HPE Morpheus Enterprise. After the provisioning process has completed, a CI record should exist with a name value equal to the Instance name in HPE Morpheus Enterprise.

Provisioned and active Instances in HPE Morpheus Enterprise will have CI records with an “On” state in ServiceNow. After they are deleted in HPE Morpheus Enterprise, the state value will be rolled to “Terminated” in ServiceNow as expected.

HPE Morpheus Enterprise will also populate a number of additional fields in ServiceNow including IP address, FQDN and more. Custom views can be created in ServiceNow to expose these fields.

ServiceNow Approval Policies

HPE Morpheus Enterprise offers its own approval engine out of the box, but some organizations prefer ServiceNow to be their final approval authority. With a ServiceNow instance integrated with HPE Morpheus Enterprise, administrators can create provision approval policies and tie them to an active ServiceNow integration. With the policy in place, any new provisioning within the policy scope (Global, Group, Cloud, User, or Role) is sent to ServiceNow for approval before provisioning will go ahead in HPE Morpheus Enterprise. Approvals are synced between the two applications every minute.

Add ServiceNow Provision Approval Policy to a Cloud

Note

Any Instance provisioned into a Cloud with an approval policy enabled will not proceed without the required approval.

To add a ServiceNow Approval policy to a Cloud:

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure > Clouds

  2. Select a Cloud by clicking on the desired Cloud name link

  3. Select the POLICIES tab

  4. Click + ADD POLICY

  5. Select Provision Approval from the type dropdown

  6. Optionally enter a description for the Policy

  7. Configure the following:

    APPROVAL INTEGRATION

    Select the ServiceNow Integration already configured in Administration > Integrations to use for the approval policy.

    WORKFLOW

    Select the ServiceNow workflow for the approval in ServiceNow (if desired). These workflows are configured and synced in from the ServiceNow Integration.

    TENANTS (if applicable)

    Only required for multi-tenant permission scoping. For the policy to apply to a Subtenant, type the name of the tenant(s) and select the Tenant(s) from the typeahead list.

  8. Save Changes

Add ServiceNow Provision Approval Policy to a Group

Note

Any Instance provisioned into a Group with an approval policy enabled will not proceed without the required approval.

To add a ServiceNow Approval policy to a Group:

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure > Groups

  2. Select a Group by clicking on the Group name

  3. Select the POLICIES tab

  4. Click + ADD POLICY

  5. Select Provision Approval

  6. Optionally enter a description for the Policy

  7. Configure the following:

    APPROVAL INTEGRATION

    Select the ServiceNow Integration already configured in Administration > Integrations to use for the approval policy.

    WORKFLOW

    Select the ServiceNow workflow for the approval in ServiceNow (if desired). These workflows are configured and synced in from the ServiceNow Integration.

    TENANTS (if applicable)

    Only required for multi-tenant permission scoping. For the policy to apply to a Subtenant, type the name of the tenant(s) and select the Tenant(s) from the typeahead list.

  8. Save Changes

Using ServiceNow Approval Policies

Any Instance provisioned into a Cloud or Group with an approval policy enabled will be in a PENDING state until the request is approved.

Instances pending a ServiceNow approval will show “Waiting for Approval” with the Requested Item number and Request number, ex: Waiting for Approval [RITM0010002 - REQ0010002].

ServiceNow approval requests are displayed in Operations > Approvals. Instances pending a ServiceNow approval must be approved in ServiceNow for provisioning to initiate. Approval requests from a ServiceNow approval policy cannot be approved in HPE Morpheus Enterprise, only approvals originating from HPE Morpheus Enterprise.

ServiceNow approval requests are displayed in HPE Morpheus Enterprise under Operations > Approvals. Pending ServiceNow approval requests can be cancelled in HPE Morpheus Enterprise by selecting the request and then selecting ACTIONS > Cancel.

Once a pending ServiceNow approval request is approved in ServiceNow, the Instance(s) will begin to provision in HPE Morpheus Enterprise within one minute of being approved in ServiceNow.

ServiceNow Monitoring Integration Settings

Note

A ServiceNow integration must be already configured in Administration > Integrations to enable ServiceNow monitoring.

The ServiceNow monitoring integration is enabled and configured in Administration > Settings > Monitoring. As long as the “Enabled” switch is activated, HPE Morpheus Enterprise will report monitoring data to ServiceNow. Configuration selections are described below:

Enabled

Enables the ServiceNow monitoring integration

Integration

Select from an existing ServiceNow integration in |AdmInt|

New Incident Action

The ServiceNow action to take when a HPE Morpheus Enterprise incident is created

Close Incident Action

The Service Now action to take when a HPE Morpheus Enterprise incident is closed

Incident Severity Mapping

HPE Morpheus Enterprise Severity

ServiceNow Impact

Info

Low/Medium/High

Warning

Low/Medium/High

Critical

Low/Medium/High

Once finished working with configuration, click APPLY

../../_images/3monitoringConfig.png

ServiceNow Service Catalog Integration

In addition to integrating with key ServiceNow features, HPE Morpheus Enterprise offers a free plugin directly from the ServiceNow Store. Once the plugin is installed, HPE Morpheus Enterprise Self-Service Catalog Items can be presented as provisioning options in the ServiceNow catalog for ordering.

Note

Surfacing Catalog Items made with Forms to ServiceNow is not yet supported. If planning to use ServiceNow to order Catalog Items you should not use Forms on any Catalog Items until it is supported.

The HPE Morpheus Enterprise plugin supports integration with ServiceNow whether it’s configured for a single tenant or for multiple domains. When both HPE Morpheus Enterprise and ServiceNow are configured for multiple Tenants, we can create ServiceNow integrations in any relevant HPE Morpheus Enterprise Tenant and map those to specific companies in ServiceNow. Any exposed library items would only be shared with users in the relevant ServiceNow company. The HPE Morpheus Enterprise plugin will automatically detect whether the ServiceNow Domain Support–Domain Extensions Installer plugin has been installed and respond accordingly. Additionally, the User Criteria Scoped API plugin must also be enabled on the ServiceNow instance for multi-tenant use.

Depending on the scenario, setup steps for the HPE Morpheus Enterprise plugin will be slightly different. Setup steps for both single and domain-separated ServiceNow environments are included below.

Important

A valid SSL Certificate is required on the HPE Morpheus Enterprise Appliance for the ServiceNow plugin to be able to communicate with the appliance.

Important

As described below, the HPE Morpheus Enterprise ServiceNow plugin requires the use of a HPE Morpheus Enterprise service account to integrate back with the HPE Morpheus Enterprise appliance. Some symbol characters, specifically “%” and “&” are valid for use in HPE Morpheus Enterprise account passwords but aren’t passed correctly when ServiceNow makes its API calls to HPE Morpheus Enterprise. It is best not to use these characters in the password for HPE Morpheus Enterprise accounts which may be used in the ServiceNow plugin to interface back with HPE Morpheus Enterprise. Authentication errors will occur and the plugin will not work. This is a ServiceNow issue which HPE Morpheus Enterprise has no control over.

Single-Domain ServiceNow Configuration

  1. Install the HPE Morpheus Enterprise plugin from the ServiceNow store, refer to the Morpheus Data plugin for ServiceNow installation instructions for additional help with the installation steps

  2. Navigate to HPE Morpheus Enterprise Catalog > Properties

  3. Set the following properties:

    MID Server

    If desired, specify the name of an existing MID server

    HPE Morpheus Enterprise Appliance Endpoint

    The full URL to your HPE Morpheus Enterprise appliance

    Username

    HPE Morpheus Enterprise user that the plugin will connect as to the HPE Morpheus Enterprise API

    Password

    Password to the above HPE Morpheus Enterprise account

    HPE Morpheus Enterprise Manage Workflows?

    Indicate whether HPE Morpheus Enterprise should manage workflows. If this option is checked, HPE Morpheus Enterprise will overwrite the workflow and set it to “Morpheus (Internal) Catalog Item Provision Instance” on sync

Important

The HPE Morpheus Enterprise service account integrated with the plugin interacts with the HPE Morpheus Enterprise appliance through HPE Morpheus Enterprise API and must have the appropriate Role permissions to complete all provisioning requests from the ServiceNow plugin. Often it’s easiest to make a service account with full administrator rights to avoid failed provisioning. If you’d prefer to create a minimal service account for security reasons, ensure the Role for the service account User has the following permissions:

  • Personas: Standard: Full

  • Personas: Service Catalog: Full

  • Features: Provisioning: Instances: Full

  • Features: Provisioning: Apps: Full

  • Groups: Full rights to all Groups containing Clouds you will expose to ServiceNow

  • Instance Types: Full rights to all Instance Types you will expose to ServiceNow

  • Blueprints: Full rights to all Blueprints you will expose to ServiceNow

  • Catalog Item Types: Full rights to all Catalog Item Types you will expose to ServiceNow

Users created from SAML Identity Sources cannot authenticate with the HPE Morpheus Enterprise API and cannot be used for the ServiceNow plugin.

../../_images/4servicenowProperties.png

Multi-Domain ServiceNow Configuration

  1. Install the HPE Morpheus Enterprise plugin from the ServiceNow store, refer to the Morpheus Data plugin for ServiceNow installation instructions for additional help with the installation steps

  2. Navigate to HPE Morpheus Enterprise Catalog > Multi-Tenant Credentials

  3. Set the following properties:

    HPE Morpheus Enterprise Appliance Endpoint

    The full URL to your HPE Morpheus Enterprise appliance

    HPE Morpheus Enterprise Tenant ID

    The integer database ID for the selected Tenant

    Username

    HPE Morpheus Enterprise user that the plugin will connect as to the HPE Morpheus Enterprise API. This user must exist within the HPE Morpheus Enterprise Tenant being linked to the chosen ServiceNow company

    Password

    The password for the above user

    ServiceNow Company

    Select a company from the list to link with the Tenant whose ID was entered above

    MID Server

    If desired, specify the name of an existing MID server. Note that configuring a multi-domain MID server requires the glide.ecc.enable_multidomain_mid property in sys_properties.list be set to true prior to creating the MID server in the global domain. This allows the MID server to explore any domain for which it has the credentials. The ServiceNow user (which the MID server authenticates with) must be in the global domain as well. For more, see this section of ServiceNow documentation.

    HPE Morpheus Enterprise Manage Workflows?

    Indicate whether HPE Morpheus Enterprise should manage workflows. If this option is checked, HPE Morpheus Enterprise will overwrite the workflow and set it to “Morpheus (Internal) Catalog Item Provision Instance” on sync

Important

The HPE Morpheus Enterprise service account integrated with the plugin interacts with the HPE Morpheus Enterprise appliance through HPE Morpheus Enterprise API and must have the appropriate Role permissions to complete all provisioning requests from the ServiceNow plugin. Often it’s easiest to make a service account with full administrator rights to avoid failed provisioning. If you’d prefer to create a minimal service account for security reasons, ensure the Role for the service account User has the following permissions:

  • Personas: Standard: Full

  • Personas: Service Catalog: Full

  • Features: Provisioning: Instances: Full

  • Features: Provisioning: Apps: Full

  • Groups: Full rights to all Groups containing Clouds you will expose to ServiceNow

  • Instance Types: Full rights to all Instance Types you will expose to ServiceNow

  • Blueprints: Full rights to all Blueprints you will expose to ServiceNow

  • Catalog Item Types: Full rights to all Catalog Item Types you will expose to ServiceNow

Users created from SAML Identity Sources cannot authenticate with the HPE Morpheus Enterprise API and cannot be used for the ServiceNow plugin.

Adding to ServiceNow Catalog

Once the ServiceNow plugin is installed and configured, Service Catalog items can be exposed to the ServiceNow catalog from HPE Morpheus Enterprise. Follow the guide below to expose HPE Morpheus Enterprise Clouds, Library Items, and Blueprints to users in the ServiceNow catalog.

  1. Navigate to Administration > Integrations

  2. Select the relevant ServiceNow integration

  3. Within the “EXPOSED CATALOG ITEMS” section is a list of currently-exposed Service Catalog items

  4. To expose a new item, click + ADD CATALOG ITEM

  5. Select an available item from the dropdown menu and click SAVE CHANGES

  6. Back in ServiceNow, access the HPE Morpheus Enterprise plugin from the Service Catalog

  7. Exposed HPE Morpheus Enterprise Service Catalog items are visible here for ServiceNow users with sufficient role permissions

../../_images/addCatalogItemNew.png

Note

When exposing an Operational Workflow-based Catalog Item, ensure the CONTEXT configuration on the Catalog Item is set to “none” or the Catalog Item will not be exposed to ServiceNow.