IMPORTANT: No additional bug fixes or documentation updates will be released for this version. For the latest information, see the current release documentation.
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Elastic ServiceNow connector reference

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Elastic ServiceNow connector reference

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The Elastic ServiceNow connector is a connector for ServiceNow.

Availability and prerequisites

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The ServiceNow connector was introduced in Elastic version 8.9.0. This connector is available as a connector client from the Elastic connector framework. To use this connector as a connector client, satisfy all connector client requirements.

This connector is in beta and is subject to change. The design and code is less mature than official GA features and is being provided as-is with no warranties. Beta features are not subject to the support SLA of official GA features.

Usage

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To use this connector as a connector client, use the Customized connector workflow.

Compatibility

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The ServiceNow connector is compatible with the following versions of ServiceNow:

  • ServiceNow "Tokyo"
  • ServiceNow "San Diego"
  • ServiceNow "Rome"

Configuration

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When using the connector client workflow, initially these fields will use the default configuration set in the connector source code. These are set in the get_default_configuration function definition.

These configurable fields will be rendered with their respective labels in the Kibana UI. Once connected, you’ll be able to update these values in Kibana.

The following configuration fields are required to set up the connector:

url
The host url of the ServiceNow instance.
username
The username of the account for ServiceNow.
password
The password of the account used for ServiceNow.
services

Comma-separated list of services to fetch data from ServiceNow. If the value is *, the connector will fetch data from the list of basic services provided by ServiceNow:

retry_count
The number of retry attempts after a failed request to ServiceNow. Default value is 3.
concurrent_downloads
The number of concurrent downloads for fetching the attachment content. This speeds up the content extraction of attachments. Defaults to 10.

Documents and syncs

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All services and records the user has access to will be indexed according to the configurations provided. The connector syncs the following ServiceNow object types:

  • Records
  • Attachments
  • Content of files bigger than 10 MB won’t be extracted.
  • Permissions are not synced. All documents indexed to an Elastic deployment will be visible to all users with access to that Elastic Deployment.

Deployment using Docker

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You can deploy the ServiceNow connector as a self-managed connector client using Docker. Follow these instructions.

Step 1: Download sample configuration file

Download the sample configuration file. You can either download it manually or run the following command:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/elastic/connectors/main/config.yml.example --output ~/connectors-config/config.yml

Remember to update the --output argument value if your directory name is different, or you want to use a different config file name.

Step 2: Update the configuration file for your self-managed connector

Update the configuration file with the following settings to match your environment:

  • elasticsearch.host
  • elasticsearch.api_key
  • connectors

If you’re running the connector service against a Dockerized version of Elasticsearch and Kibana, your config file will look like this:

# When connecting to your cloud deployment you should edit the host value
elasticsearch.host: http://host.docker.internal:9200
elasticsearch.api_key: <ELASTICSEARCH_API_KEY>

connectors:
  -
    connector_id: <CONNECTOR_ID_FROM_KIBANA>
    service_type: servicenow
    api_key: <CONNECTOR_API_KEY_FROM_KIBANA>

Using the elasticsearch.api_key is the recommended authentication method. However, you can also use elasticsearch.username and elasticsearch.password to authenticate with your Elasticsearch instance.

Note: You can change other default configurations by simply uncommenting specific settings in the configuration file and modifying their values.

Step 3: Run the Docker image

Run the Docker image with the Connector Service using the following command:

docker run \
-v ~/connectors-config:/config \
--network "elastic" \
--tty \
--rm \
docker.elastic.co/enterprise-search/elastic-connectors:8.10.4.0 \
/app/bin/elastic-ingest \
-c /config/config.yml

Refer to DOCKER.md in the elastic/connectors repo for more details.

Find all available Docker images in the official registry.

Sync rules

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Basic sync rules are identical for all connectors and are available by default.

Advanced sync rules

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A full sync is required for advanced sync rules to take effect.

Advanced sync rules are defined through a source-specific DSL JSON snippet.

The following sections provide examples of advanced sync rules for this connector.

Indexing document based on incident number for Incident service
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[
  {
    "service": "Incident",
    "query": "numberSTARTSWITHINC001"
  }
]
Indexing document based on user activity state for User service
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[
  {
    "service": "User",
    "query": "active=False"
  }
]
Indexing document based on author name for Knowledge service
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[
  {
    "service": "Knowledge",
    "query": "author.nameSTARTSWITHSystem Administrator"
  }
]

Connector Client operations

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End-to-end Testing

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The connector framework enables operators to run functional tests against a real data source. Refer to Connector testing for more details.

To perform E2E testing for the ServiceNow connector, run the following command:

$ make ftest NAME=servicenow

Generate performance reports using the following flag: PERF8=yes. Toggle test data set size between SMALL, MEDIUM and LARGE with the argument DATA_SIZE=. By default, it is set to MEDIUM.

Users do not need to have a running Elasticsearch instance or a ServiceNow source to run this test. Docker Compose manages the complete setup of the development environment.

Known issues

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There are no known issues for this connector. Refer to Known issues for a list of known issues that impact all connectors.

Troubleshooting

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See Troubleshooting.

Security

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See Security.

Content extraction

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See Content extraction.

Framework and source

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This connector is included in the Elastic connector framework.

View the source code for this connector (branch 8.10, compatible with Elastic 8.10).

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