OnCommand Insight integrates with ServiceNow management software to provide greater value than the products have separately.

Using a Python script, Insight can integrate data with ServiceNow, synchronizing the following information:

• Storage asset data for ServiceNow servers
• Host and VM URLs for ServiceNow servers
• Relationships between Hosts/VMs and Storage

Preparation and prerequisites for Service Now integration

The necessary preparations and prerequisites must be satisfied for ServiceNow, Insight, and the Python middleware connector prior to integration.

Recommended workflow

The following workflow is strongly recommended when integrating ServiceNow with Insight:

1. Deploy the Python middleware connector in your development instance first.
2. Once you have confirmed all faults have been identified and corrected in your development instance, deploy the connector in your test/stage instance.
3. Once you have confirmed correct operation in your staging instance, deploy the connector in your production instance. For more info Servicenow Training

If problems are found during any of these stages, follow your rollback steps and disable the connector, then troubleshoot the problem and re-deploy.

General prerequisites:

• You can use either a standalone host or VM (recommended) or the Insight server host/VM to host the python middleware connector.
• It is highly recommended to backup the production Insight server and deploy it on a development instance.
• ServiceNow must be accurately discovering servers in the CMDB.
• Insight must be accurately discovering your storage and compute environments.
• Port 443 and 80 to the Insight Server and ServiceNow Instance.

ServiceNow prerequisites:

• It is highly recommended to use a development/test instance.
• Permission to load ServiceNow update sets.
• Permission to create users.
• ServiceNow version Jakarta or later

Insight prerequisites:

• It is highly recommended to use a development/test instance.
• Permission to create users (Admin permissions).
• Insight version 7.3.1 or later is supported, but to get the most out of Insight, use the latest version.

Python middleware connector prerequisites:

• Python version 3.6 or greater installed.
• When installing Python, check the box to enable all users. This sets Python for standard application install locations.
• When installing Python, check the box to enable the installer to update the path. Otherwise, you will have to update the path manually.
• Download the Python pysnow and requests libraries. learn from Servicenow Certification

Configuring ServiceNow for integration

Integrating ServiceNow with Insight requires several setup tasks.

About this task

The following tasks must be performed when integrating ServiceNow with Insight:

On the ServiceNow side:

• Elevate Role
• Install Update Sets
• Set up users

On the Insight side:

• Add the ServiceNow user

On the Python connector side:

• Install Python
• Install additional libraries
• Initialize the connector
• Edit the config.ini file
• Test the connector
• Synchronize the connector
• Schedule daily task execution

Configuring ServiceNow for integration

Integrating ServiceNow with Insight requires several setup tasks.

About this task

The following tasks must be performed when integrating ServiceNow with Insight:

On the ServiceNow side:

• Elevate Role
• Install Update Sets
• Set up users

On the Insight side:

• Add the ServiceNow user

On the Python connector side:

• Install Python
• Install additional libraries
• Initialize the connector
• Edit the config.ini file
• Test the connector
• Synchronize the connector
• Schedule daily task execution

Install update set

As part of the integration between ServiceNow and OnCommand Insight you must install an Update Set, which loads pre-configured data into ServiceNow in order to provide the connector with specific fields and tables for extracting and loading data.

Steps

1. Navigate to the remote update sets table in ServiceNow by searching for “Retrieved update sets”.
2. Click on Import Update Set from XML.
3. The update set is in the Python connector .zip file previously downloaded to your local drive (in our example, the C:\OCI2SNOW folder) in the \update_sets sub-folder. Click on Choose File and select the .xml file in this folder. Click Upload.
4. Once the Update Set is loaded, open it and click on Preview Update Set.

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If errors are detected, you must correct them before you can commit the Update Set.

5. If there are no errors, click Commit Update Set.

Once the Update Set has been committed it will show on the System Update Sets > Update Sources page.

ServiceNow integration – Set up user

You must set up a ServiceNow user for Insight to connect with and synchronize data.

About this task

Steps

1. Create a services account in ServiceNow. Login to ServiceNow and navigate to system security > users and groups > users. Click on New.
2. Enter a user name. In this example, we will use “OCI2SNOW” as our integration user. Enter a password for this user.

Note: In this How-to we use a services account user named “OCI2SNOW”” across the documentation. You may use a different services account, but be sure it is consistent across your environment.

3. Right-click on the menu bar and click Save. This will allow you to stay on this user in order to add roles.
4. Click Edit and add the following roles to this user:
   • asset
   • import_transformer
   • rest_service
5. Click Save.
6. This same user must be added to OnCommand Insight. Log in to Insight as a user with Administrator permissions.
7. Navigate to Admin > Setup and click on the Users tab.
8. Click the Actions button and select Add user.
9. For name, enter “OCI2SNOW”. If you used a different user name above, enter that name here. Enter the same password you used for the ServiceNow user above. You may leave the email field blank.
10. Assign this user the User role. Click Save. Get more from Servicenow Online Course

Install Python and libraries

Python can be installed on the Insight server or on a standalone host or VM.

Steps

1. On your VM or host, download Python 3.6 or later.
2. Choose custom installation and choose the following options. These are either necessary for proper connector script operation or are highly recommended.
   • Install launcher for all users
   • Add Python to the PATH
   • Install pip (which allows Python to install other packages)
   • Install tk/tcl and IDLE
   • Install the Python test suite
   • Install py launcher for all users
   • Associate files with Python
   • Create shortcuts for installed applications
   • Add python to environment variables
   • Precompile standard library
3. After Python is installed, install the “requests” and “psnow” Python libraries. Run the following command:python -m pip install requests pysnow

NOTE: This command might fail when you are operating in a proxy environment. To work around this issue, you need to manually download each one of the Python Libraries and run the install requests one by one and in the correct order.

The command will install several files.

4. Verify the Python libraries are installed correctly. Start Python using one of the following methods:
   • Open a cmd prompt and type python
   • On Windows, open Start and choose Python > python-<version>.exe
5. At the Python prompt, typemodules

Python will ask you to wait a moment while it gathers a list of modules, which it will then display.

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