ServiceNow Events SyncPack Release Notes, version 1.1.0

The "ServiceNow Events" SyncPack version 1.1.0 gives you the option of syncing SL1 events with ServiceNow alerts without using a ServiceNow Management, Instrumentation, and Discovery (MID) Server.

The "ServiceNow Events" SyncPack contains a set of PowerFlow applications, steps, and other utilities that you can use with the ServiceNow Events Module. This SyncPack provides a bi-directional sync of SL1 Events with ServiceNow Alerts, including event creation, acknowledgment, and resolution.

You should not use the "ServiceNow Events" SyncPack and the "ServiceNow Incident" SyncPack on the same PowerFlow system. Also, do not use the "ServiceNow Cases" and "ServiceNow Events: SyncPacks on the same PowerFlowsystem.

Features Included in this Release

This section covers the features that were included in this version of the "ServiceNow Events" SyncPack.

  • Updated the SyncPack to send SL1 Events to ServiceNow without the use of a ServiceNow MID Server. The SyncPack uses the new REST steps in the "Base Steps" SyncPack version 1.5.0 for the following new PowerFlow applications:

    • Process and Cache SL1 Events. The "ServiceNow: Add/Update/Clear Event" run book action triggers this application whenever an SL1 event is created, updated, or cleared. This application processes the SL1 event and caches it to PowerFlow to allow for bulk processing for ServiceNow by the "Sync Cached SL1 Events to ServiceNow" application.
    • Sync Cached SL1 Events to ServiceNow. Bulk processes all of the cached SL1 events and posts them to ServiceNow. Sends a "Sync Success" or "Sync Failed" status update to PowerFlow based on the result of the post. ScienceLogic suggests that you schedule this application to run every 60 seconds.
    • Sync Alert Details from ServiceNow to SL1 Events. Acknowledges or clears SL1 Events from ServiceNow, updates the user note, and populates the alert number in the external ticket reference. This application also include the user_note_template field that accepts a Jinja2 template to generate custom user notes. ScienceLogic suggests that you schedule this application to run every 60 seconds. If you are not using a MID Server, the events_mid_server parameter on the Configuration pane for this application should not be selected. In addition, this application depends on the "Cache SL1 Users" application, so ScienceLogic recommends that you schedule the "Cache SL1 Users" application to run at least weekly.

    You still have the option of using a MID Server with Event Sync by using the existing PowerFlow applications in this SyncPack:

    • Create Event in ServiceNow from SL1 Event
    • Update SL1 Event from ServiceNow Trigger

    To view the steps for setting up this SyncPack with a MID Server or without a MID Server, see the "Configuring Applications" chapter in the ServiceNow Events SyncPack manual.

  • Added the following parameters to the Input Parameters section of the "ServiceNow: Add/Update/Clear Event" run book action in the "ServiceNow Base Pack" PowerPack version 107:
    • events_mid_server. Set this field to true if you are using a ServiceNow MID Server with the Event Sync, or set it to false if you are not using a MID Server.
    • message_key_template. This field lets you customize the message key used by PowerFlow to correlate SL1 events with ServiceNow alerts.
      • By default the value is "{{'{}'.format(event.event_id)}}", which creates a ServiceNow alert for each SL1 event; this is the existing MID Server flow behavior.
      • A suggested alternative value is "{{'{}+EVENT+{}'.format(event.node_id,event.event_policy_id)}}", which groups the events by parent entity, such as device or interface, and event policy ID. The SL1 region used in the aligned configuration object in PowerFlow will be prepended to this value to ensure it is unique across stacks.

    If you are using a MID Server and you use the message_key_template field to configure a message key with a one-to-many correlation between a single ServiceNow alert and multiple SL1 events, you should schedule the "Sync Alert Details from ServiceNow to SL1 Events" PowerFlow application to run, with the events_mid_server parameter selected on the Configuration pane for the "Sync Alert Details" application. These settings ensure that the ext_ticket_ref is populated when the ServiceNow alert re-opens. If you are using a message key with a one-to-one relationship between alerts and events, you do not need to schedule the "Sync Alert Details from ServiceNow to SL1 Events" application.

  • Added the "ServiceNow Events SyncPack" configuration object, which you can use to create an event-specific configuration object for your PowerFlow system.

  • You can now add an IP address using either http or https for the mid_server_host field in the configuration object for Event Sync.

  • Syncing events to ServiceNow no longer depends on the device cache being populated.

This SyncPack requires you to download and install the new "ScienceLogic SL1: Event Integration" application. For more information, see Installing the "ScienceLogic SL1: Event Integration" Application in ServiceNow.

This SyncPack also requires you to download and install the "ServiceNow Base Pack" PowerPack version 107 or later. For more information, see Installing the ServiceNow Base Pack PowerPack in SL1.

To view release notes and manuals for all versions of the SL1 PowerFlow Platform, see SL1 PowerFlow Platform Documentation. To view release notes and manuals for PowerFlow SyncPacks, see SL1 PowerFlow SyncPack Documentation.

Issues Addressed in this Release

The following features were included in this release of the SyncPack:

  • Addressed an issue where the payload sent to a ServiceNow MID server when creating events had a dictionary instead of a string for the cmdb_ci entry.

Known Issues

The "ServiceNow Events" SyncPack does not contain any known issues.

System Requirements

The "ServiceNow Events" SyncPack requires:

  • SL1 PowerFlow platform version: 2.4.0 or later.
  • "Base Steps" SyncPack version 1.5.0 or later.
  • "ServiceNow Base" SyncPack version: 3.6.0 or later.
  • "ServiceNow Base Pack" PowerPack version: 107 or later.
  • SL1 version: 11.2.0 or later. For details on upgrading SL1, see the appropriate SL1 Release Notes.
  • ServiceNow version: Tokyo or later with Web Services enabled.
  • "ScienceLogic SL1: Event Integration" application version: 1.0.4.

You should always use the most recent version of a SyncPack and its certified application.

The following table lists the port access required by PowerFlow for this SyncPack:

Source IP PowerFlow Destination PowerFlow Source Port Destination Port Requirement
PowerFlow SL1 API Any TCP 443 SL1 API Access
PowerFlow ServiceNow API Any TCP 443 ServiceNow API Access

Prerequisites for the SyncPack

To install this SyncPack, you must have administrator access to both SL1 and ServiceNow. Specifically, you will need:

  • ScienceLogic administrator access to the Administration Portal
  • ServiceNow administrator access

ScienceLogic highly recommends that you disable all firewall session-limiting policies. Firewalls will drop HTTPS requests, which results in data loss.

Installing or Upgrading the SyncPack

If you are upgrading to this version of the SyncPack from a previous version, make a note of any settings you made on the various applications in this SyncPack, as these settings are not retained when you upgrade.

If you are installing the SyncPack in an offline deployment, see Installing in an Offline Environment.

A SyncPack file has the .whl file extension type. You can download the SyncPack file from the ScienceLogic Support site.

To locate and download the SyncPack:

  1. Go to the ScienceLogic Support site at https://support.sciencelogic.com/s/.
  2. Click the Product Downloads tab and select PowerPacks.
  3. In the Search PowerPacks field, search for this SyncPack and select it from the search results. The Release Version page appears.
  4. On the Files tab, click the down arrow next to the SyncPack version that you want to install, and select Show File Details. The Release File Details page appears.
  5. Click the Download File button to download the .zip file containing the SyncPack.

After you download a SyncPack, you can import it to the PowerFlow platform using the PowerFlow user interface.

To import a SyncPack in the PowerFlow user interface:

  1. On the SyncPacks page, click Import SyncPack. The Import SyncPack page appears.
  2. Click Browse and select the .whl file for the SyncPack you want to install. You can also drag and drop a .whl file to the Import SyncPack page.
  3. Click Import. PowerFlow registers and uploads the SyncPack. The SyncPack is added to the SyncPacks page.

You cannot edit the content package in a SyncPack published by ScienceLogic. You must make a copy of a ScienceLogic SyncPack and save your changes to the new SyncPack to prevent overwriting any information in the original SyncPack when upgrading.

To activate and install a SyncPack in the PowerFlow user interface:

  1. On the SyncPacks page, click the Actions button () for the SyncPack you want to install and select Activate & Install. The Activate & Install SyncPack modal appears.

    If you try to activate and install a SyncPack that is already activated and installed, you can choose to "force" installation across all the nodes in the PowerFlow system.

    If you do not see the PowerPack that you want to install, click the Filter icon () on the SyncPacks page and select Toggle Inactive SyncPacks to see a list of the imported PowerPacks.

  1. Click Yes to confirm the activation and installation. When the SyncPack is activated, the SyncPacks page displays a green check mark icon for that SyncPack. If the activation or installation failed, then a red exclamation mark icon appears.

  2. For more information about the activation and installation process, click the check mark icon or the exclamation mark icon in the Activated column for that SyncPack. For a successful installation, the "Activate & Install SyncPack" PowerFlow application appears, and you can view the Step Log for the steps. For a failed installation, the Error Logs window appears.
  3. If you have other versions of the same SyncPack on your PowerFlow system, you can click the Actions button () for that SyncPack and select Change active version to activate a different version other than the version that is currently running.

Installing in an Offline Deployment

Use the following procedure if you are installing or upgrading to version 1.1.0 of this SyncPack in an offline deployment.

This release of the SyncPack requires the following external files for an offline deployment:

  • Jinja2-2.11.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl, available at this location at pypi.org.
  • MarkupSafe-1.1.1-cp37-cp37m-manylinux1_x86_64.whl, available at this location at pypi.org.

To upload the required external files:

  1. After downloading the two required external files, SCP the files to the master node.

  2. Run the following commands on the host:

    devpi use 'https://<is_username>:<is_password>@<is_hostip>:3141/isadmin/dependencies'

    devpi login <is_username> --password=<is_password>

    cd /tmp/

    devpi upload Jinja2-2.11.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl

    devpi upload MarkupSafe-1.1.1-cp37-cp37m-manylinux1_x86_64.whl –force

    If you cannot run these commands on the host, you can instead run them on the pypiserver container.

  3. Perform a docker copy to both files (if you are running commands in the pypiserver container):

    docker cp <file1-location> $(docker ps -q -f name=iservices_pypiserver):/tmp

    docker cp <file2-location> $(docker ps -q -f name=iservices_pypiserver):/tmp

  1. Follow the steps in Installing or Upgrading the SyncPack to install and activate this SyncPack.

Installing the "ScienceLogic SL1: Event Integration" Application in ServiceNow

You must install the "ScienceLogic SL1: Event Integration" application on the ServiceNow instance to enable this SyncPack. You must first request the "ScienceLogic SL1: Event Integration" application from the ServiceNow Store, and then you can install it.

The "ScienceLogic SL1: Event Integration" application requires that you have already installed the ServiceNow Event Management plugin on the target ServiceNow instance. You can request this plugin directly from ServiceNow. Also, the MID Server must be configured before you can install this application. For more information, see the ServiceNow Events SyncPack manual.

You must have a ServiceNow HI Service Account to request this application and download it onto your ServiceNow instance.

To request and install the "ScienceLogic SL1: Event Integration" application:

  1. Go to the ServiceNow Store at https://store.servicenow.com and search for "ScienceLogic SL1".
  2. Select the "ScienceLogic SL1: Event Integration" application. The detail page for the application appears.
  3. Click Get and log in with your HI credentials.

  1. After the request is approved, log in to ServiceNow as an administrator and navigate to Application Manager (System Applications > Applications).
  2. Click Downloads in the menu header or search for "ScienceLogic".
  3. Click the version drop-down for the "ScienceLogic SL1: Event Integration" application listing to make sure you are using the correct version of the application that is compatible with your version of the ServiceNow Events SyncPack.
  4. Click Install for the "ScienceLogic SL1: Event Integration" application. The installation is complete when the button changes to Installed.

  5. In the filter navigator, search for "ScienceLogic" and locate the application in the navigation menu in the left pane. You might need to log out of ServiceNow and log in again to see the updated left-hand navigation menu.

For more information about configuring the "ScienceLogic SL1: Event Integration" Application in ServiceNow and enabling Event Sync, see the ServiceNow Events SyncPack manual.

Installing the ServiceNow Base Pack PowerPack in SL1

The "ServiceNow Base Pack" PowerPack version or later contains Run Book Automations that you use to integrate with the ServiceNow Events module.

By default, installing a new version of a PowerPack will overwrite all content in that PowerPack that has already been installed on the target system. You can use the Enable Selective PowerPack Field Protection setting in the Behavior Settings page (System > Settings > Behavior) in SL1 to prevent the new version of the PowerPack from overwriting local changes for some commonly customized fields.

To install the latest "ServiceNow Base Pack" PowerPack in SL1:

  1. If you have not done so already, upgrade your system to the 10.2.0 or later release of SL1.
  2. Search for and download the "ServiceNow Base Pack" PowerPack from the PowerPacks page at the ScienceLogic Support site at https://support.sciencelogic.com/s/.
  3. In SL1, go to the PowerPack Manager page (System > Manage > PowerPacks).
  4. Click the Actions button and choose Import PowerPack. The Import PowerPack modal appears.
  5. Click Browse and navigate to the "ServiceNow Base Pack" PowerPack file from step 1.
  6. Select the PowerPack file and click Import. The PowerPack Installer modal page displays a list of the PowerPack contents.
  7. Click Install. After the installation is complete, the "ServiceNow Base Pack" PowerPack appears on the PowerPack Manager page.

For more information about using the PowerPack, see the ServiceNow Events SyncPack manual.