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Ganesh Punalkar edited this page Jan 25, 2020 · 77 revisions

Welcome to the SNOW wiki!

Overview

Introduction

  • Global Service Provider of ITSM. Founded in 2003 by Fred Luddy, former STO of Preregrine Systems and Remedy Corporation.

Architecture

  • Customer site
  • Firewall
  • Load Balancer
  • Webserver
  • Server (Linux)
  • J2EE App Server
  • Database (MYSQL/Oracle)

Features & Key Benifits

Avilabilty
  • Proven 99 % availability
  • Automatic updates
  • geographically separator Disaster Recovery
Scalabilty
  • Architectured for large enterpries
  • Proven Massive Scalability
  • dedicated database and Application set
  • Tightly integrated
  • Desinged from ground for web based transations
Security
  • HTTPS / SSL / TLS
  • Role based security
  • Contextual Sercurity
  • Password, data encryption
  • Datacenter physical Sercurity
  • VPM tunneling
Version of ServiceNow
  • Aspen- Dec. 1st 2011
  • Berlin- 2nd July 2012
  • Calgary-28th Feb. 2013
  • Dublin-22nd October 2013
  • Eureka-6th May 2014
  • Fuji-3rd March 2015
  • Geneva-10 Dec. 2015
  • Helsinki-2nd May 2016
  • Istanbul-12th Jan.2017
  • Jakarta -17th July 2017
  • Kingston
  • London
  • Madrid
  • New York
  • Orlando

Tables & Columns

Watch List

  • Watch lists allows multiple users to subscribe to notifications of a task.
  • Administrators can configure email notifications for watch lists.
  • Users must have an e-mail address defined in their user record or enter an e-mail.

Single Tenant / Multi Tenant Environment

Tenancy, Backup, Recovery & Customer Support

Backup
  • 7 Daily - Preserved for one week
  • 1 weekly - Preserved for one month
  • include data from all customer instance (Primary and secondary, Production and Non Production instances)
  • Entire DB server backed up every night

Restoration

  • Restoration from backup is last resort especially in Production.
  • While restore, production is unavailable
  • For some customers, restoration can be longer and can take hours causing downtimes.
Single Talent
  • One customer per instance
Multi Tenant
  • Multiple customers per instance

Cloning of Instances

  • Overwrite the entire content of one instance with other.
  • Users with admin role can place a request.
  • Request to be placed 48 hours in advance to start of cloning action by ServiceNow.

Process of Cloning

  • Prod
  • QA
  • DEV

Plugin

  • Admins can active any published plugins.
  • System Destination >> Plugin
  • Plugins activated by default on newly

Domain Separation

  • Domain separation is a way to separate data into logically defined domains.

Data and Process Separation

Data Flow

  • Data - Bottom to Top
  • Process - Top to Bottom
  • Don't create or update the any data on global level.

Creation

Customer A - Domain Company - Department - Data

Mapping of Companies in the domain

Applications & Modules

4 key Applications

  • Incident
  • Problem
  • Change
  • Service Catalog

Import Sets

  • Import Sets is a powerful tool used to import data from various data sources, and then map that data into ServiceNow tables.

  • The import Sets table acts as a staging area for records imported from a data source.

  • External data set: JDBC, HTTP/FTP, EXCEL, CSV, XML

  • Import set table

  • Trasform:

Steps to load the data

  • Data Source
  • Load data - Create new, Use existing
  • Import Set Table (source table)
  • Transform Map
  • Target Table
  • Auto Mapping Fields
  • Mapping Assist
  • Transform
  • Coalesce - coalescing on a field (or set of table) means the field will be used as a unique key. If a match is found using the coalesce field, the existing record will be updated with the information being imported. if a match is not found, then a new record will be inserted into the database.
  • Choice Actions create - update - ignore - will ignore field reject - will delete the entire row
  • Transform Script
Notes: Data should not be imported in extremely large chunks.

Systems Tables:

  • sys_user
  • cmn_department
  • cmn_location
  • sys_user_group
  • sys_user_grmember
  • core_company
  • sc_request
  • sc_req_item
  • sc_task
  • change_request
  • incident
  • problem
  • knowledge
  • sys_dictionary
  • sys_db_object

On-Boarding

  • domain
  • company
  • location
  • department
  • cost center
  • users
  • groups
  • group membership
  • user roles
  • SLA (contract_sla, task_sla)

Choice List

  • Table Name -

  • Language - en

  • Element - backed name

  • Value - make

  • Label - Make

  • Dependent Value - Subcategory

  • Choice List is Process

Update Set

  • An update set is a group of customization's that can be moved from one instance to another.

  • only process will capture in update set

  • data is not capture in update set

  • both instance version & patch should be same

  • maximum of more than 100 records. This maximum value helps to prevent conflicts and makes review the update set easier.

  • Ensure that all base system records have matching sys_id fileds. Some vase system records are created on an instance after provisioning and do not match between different instances, leading to problems with update sets. The best way to avoid this issue is to:

  • Provision production and sub-production instances.

  • clone production instance onto the sub-production instances.

  • identify a common path for update sets to move from instance to instance and maintain that model. never migrate the same update set from multiple sources. Best practice is to move update sets from dev to test and then from test to production.

  • Plan for when to commit the update set to production. Avoid committing an update set to a production instance during business hours. The instance may perform slower temporarily as the update set applies.

  • Make sure update set names are clear. Create a naming convention to coordinate changes from multiple developers and to reference when committing the changes to another instance.

  • If update sets are being generated as fixes for problems, consider including the problem ticket in the name (for example, PR10005 - Duplicate Email Issues Fix)

  • If more than one update set is needed to address a problem, include a sequence number in the naming convention so that update sets are applied in the order that they were crested (for example, PR1005 - Duplicate Email Issues Fix and PR1005.2 - Duplicate Email Issues Fix)

Avoid Common Pitfalss

  • Do not delete update set. If an update set is deleted, any updated records may be overwritten in the next update

  • Do not back out the Default update set, This action causes damage to the system.

  • Do not mark an update set as Complete until it is ready to migrate. Once an update set is complete, do not change it back to In Progress. Instead, create another update set for the rest of the changes, and make sure to commit them together in the other that they were created. Naming conventions may help in this case (for example, Performance Enhancements and Performance Enhancements)

  • Do not manually merge updates into an update set. Always use the Merge Update Sets Module. This tool compares duplicate files between update sets and selects the newest version.

Workflow

  • The Graphical Workflow engine automates multi-step processes. Each workflow has a sequence of activities.

  • Defining Workflow Properties

  • Adding Workflow Activities

  • Publishing Workflow

Workflow Roles

  • Activity Creator
  • Webservice
  • Workflow Admin
  • publish
  • workflow_admin

Email Notification

Overview

  • Notifications are important communication tool that keep users informed of events that concern them.

Notification

  • Notifications can be triggered by events in the platform, but unlike business Rules, require no scripting knowledge and can also be created for conditions.
Types of notification
  • Email
  • SMS
  • Meeting Invitation
Received by
  • Configured users
  • Voluntary Recipients

Events

  • An event is an indication to the ServiceNow processes that something notable had occurred.
Events are caused by:
  • User Actions : Logging in, approving a request, renaming an attachment
  • Scripts: Business Rules, Workflows
Note: The Event notifications are in the sys_event table.

Events / Notification Flow

  • Script / Business Rules / Workflow >> Event Queue >> Script Actions / Email Notification
Note: The most common ways of generating events are by Business Rules and Workflow activities.
  • Events will not deleted, but relevant logs can delete. Schedule Script
  • Cleanup >> archive or delete permantally

Email Notification Task

  • SNTP - Send
  • POP3 - Received
  • IMAP
5 Tasks approach
  • Configure Email Properties
  • Create Events and Business Rules
  • Create Email Notifications
  • Configure Email Addresses and Subscribe to Notifications
  • Create or update ServiceNow Records via Email

SMS Notification Task

Short messaging service (SMS) is the standard protocol used to deliver short text messages to cell phones.

  • Create Events and Business Rules
  • Create Notifications for Users
  • Create a SMS device
  • Subscribe to the Notification

This are create in case of email notification are slow or need attention immediately.

SLA (Service Level Agreement

SLA Defination

  • Defines a set of amount for a task to reach a certain condition.
  • SLA Definition
  • Task SLA
  • SLA Workflow
  • SLA Automation
SLA are defined 3 set of conditions:
  • Start conditions
  • Pause conditions
  • Stop conditions
  • Reset conditions

SCRIPTING

Tables (System Dictionary) + Form Layout Design

  • Base Table
  • Child Table
  • Dictionary Override

Task

  • incident
  • problem
  • change

Table Creations

  • Extends
  • Extensible
  • Application
  • Create Menu
  • Access Control List
  • Application Access (create, update, read,
Table Field
  • Column Label
  • Type
  • Refrence
  • Max Length
  • Default Value
  • Display

CMDB

Glide System

The GildeSystem (referred by the variable name 'gs' in Business Rules) provides a number of convenient methods to get information about the system, the current logged in user, etc. It turns or Server side are used in Business Rules

  • General funcitons
  • Date and Time functions

Business Rules

  • A business rule is a server-side script that runs when a record is displayed, inserted, or deleted, or created, or when a table is queried. Use business rules to accomplish tasks like automatically changing values in form fields when certain conditions are met, or to create events for email notifications and script actions.
Note: Business rules can make use of scripts to take actions on records in the database. However, there are several other scripting options available on the ServiceNow Platform, such as client scripts and UI Actions.
To configure business rules, you first need

When Business Rules Run

  • Before -
  • Atfer
  • Async
  • Diplay

Business Rule Database Operation

  • insert
  • update
  • delete
  • query

Catalog Client to determine when the business rule should run and what action it should take.

Script Include

  • Store JavaScript for execution on the server
  • Each script include defines either an object class or a function
  • Must be called to run
  • Resuable (Write Once Use Many)
  • Only loaded on Request
  • Can be client callable

UI Policies

  • Mandatory
  • ReadOnly
  • Visble

UI Actions

  • A button on a form
  • A context menu item on a form
  • A related link in a form
  • A button in the banner on the top of a list
  • A context menu item on a form
  • A related link at the bottom of a list
  • A menu item for the action choice list at the bottom of a list

ACL

Security Rules defined and set at the Row Level Access (access to the record) and at the Column Level (access to the field) and is executed when attempting to acc

ACL rules can be defined in three ways:

  • Conditional Expressions
  • Scripts
  • Roles
Note: By default, the system provides ACL rules to access the database.

Table Rows and Fields

  • Table.None (All rows & Column)
  • Table.* (all the fields, column level access)
  • Table.field (specific field level access)
Field ACL
  • table.field
  • parent.field
  • *.field
  • table.*
  • parent.*
  • ✱.✱

ACL Flow

  • Start
  • User request access to an object
  • Find ACL rules matching object
  • Evaluate permissions of matching

Service Request Management

Benefits SRM Implementation

  • Provides a catalogue of services to all IT users.
  • User-friendly interface for requesting and tracking requests.
  • Capability to ore-configure system driven approvals
  • Automated routing of requests to the support teams and elimination of wrong prioritization and categorization by support teams.
  • Reduction in cycle time for SR complication

Related Types

  • incident task
  • process of flow
  • workflow

Service Request Workflow

  • Customer
  • Service Management System
  • Workflow
  • New request confirmation Email to Customer
  • New Service Request item
  • Approval Required?
  • Authorization Request Emailed to Approves
  • Approval Deny or Customer Portal
  • Approved
  • New Calatlog Task
  • Close Catalog Task

Types of Service Requests

  • Simple
  • Complex
  • Composite

Three Separate Records

  • Service Request (sc_req)
  • Service Item (sc_req_items)
  • Request Task (sc_task)

Maintain Items >> Catalog Item

  • catalog
  • category
  • workflow
  • execution plan
  • picture - items
Variables -

  • Display Title

  • Order

  • Layout - 1 Column Wide, 2 Column wide, alternating sides, 2 columns

  • entitlement script used for domain field

  • out of box no domain fields

  • Type

  • Mandatory

  • Questions

  • Annotation

  • Type Specification

  • Default Value

  • Availability

Variable Set - Shared set of variable
  • user reference qualifier
  • Default value (javascript: gs.getUser();
Approved by Group -
Approved By -
Categories -
Catalogs -
Catalog UI Policies -
Catalog Client Scripts -
  • items
  • variable set

Record Producer?

LDAP

  • DC - Domain Control
  • OU - Organization Unit (users)
  • DN -
  • RDN - Related
  • LDN - Login Distinct Name
  • CN - Common Name
  • UPN - User Profile Name (Unique ID)
  • Source - Store in the ServiceNow

Active Directory & LDAP

  • Active Directory is server (load balancing)
  • LDAP is protocol to access the Active Directory

Path

  • CN = Gaurav, OU = users, DC = IT

Two aspects to the integration

  • Data Population
  • Authentication

The LDAP integration requires:

  • An LDAP v3 compliant directory services server
  • Allows inbound network access (enable SNOW IP and ports) through the firewall of customer network
  • The external IP address or fully-qualified domain name of the LDAP server
  • A read-only LDAP account for Secure connection between Service Now and LDAP Server’s over internet
  • A PKI SSL certificate is required, to secure communication

Ports

  • 389
  • 636 (with s)
  • tcp layer needs to open
  • SSL certificate Type(x.509) - Format (.DER - attach or .PEM - Copy & Paste)
  • Mid server integration with discovery -tommorow

There are 7 major steps to complete LDAP Integration:

  • Load X.509 Certificate for SSL
  • Create Server
  • LDAP Configuration
  • OU Definitions
  • Define Data source
  • Define Transform map
  • Create a Schedule

Advanced Options:

  • connection timeout - seconds
  • Read timeout - seconds
  • Lister -
  • listen interval - mintue
  • paging - lezzy loading
  • SSL -

Integration

Discovery

  • Discovery is contains the all the CI Server.
  • Probe - probing for information
  • Sensor - execute the information

Components of Discovery

  • CMDB
  • Firewall
  • MID Server
  • Proxy Server

List of Protocols which enbl

  • WMI - Windows Server
  • SNMP -
  • TCP -
  • SSH -

Single Sign On

  • External Authentication, also referred to as SSO(Single Sing-on), is a method of access control that enables a user to login in once and gain access to the resources of multiple software systems without being prompted to log in again.
Note:
  • Enable external authentication' property needs to be enabled for Single Sing-on.
  • Administrator may need to bypass external authentication when testing an SSO integration. Administrators can use the following URL to bypass external authentication and log in with a local ServiceNow user (side_door.do)

Web Services

  • A Web Service is an HTTP-based communication method that lets diverse applications exchange information and talk to each other.
  • Inbound Web Service
  • Outbound Web Service
  • Publisher of Web Services (Provider/Producing)
  • Consumer of Web Services (Consuming)

Web Service Components

  • SOAP - Simple Object Access Protocol
  • XML - Extensible Markup Language
  • WSDL - Web Services Description Language
  • HTTP - Hyper text Transfer Protocol

Web Services Methods

  • Direct
  • Mapped
  • Scripted

Inbound Email Action

  • Inbound email actions enable an administrator to define the actions ServiceNow takes when receiving email. Inbound email actions are similar to business rules, using both conditions and scripts.

Actions

Reporting

Report Visibility

  • Globallly
  • report creator
  • more specific
  • group
  • ACL

Report Types

  • List
  • Column and bar Charts
  • Pie
  • Dials

Report Generation

  • on-demand
  • schedule

Report Output Formats

  • PDF
  • Excel
  • PNG
  • CSV

Performance & Tuning

Network

  • Monitor Ping Times (150 ms)
  • Running a Trace route (tracert instance.service-now.com)

Application Server

  • Monitor Response Times
  • Track System Trasaction Logs (System Logs >> Transactions)

Browser

  • Compressing Data
  • Caching items from Secure Websites
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