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Elastic ServiceNow connector referenceedit

The Elastic ServiceNow connector is a connector for ServiceNow.

This connector is written in Python using the Elastic connector framework.

View the source code for this connector (branch 8.11, compatible with Elastic 8.11).

Choose your connector reference

Are you using a native connector on Elastic Cloud or a self-managed connector client? Expand the documentation based on your deployment method.

Native connector (Elastic Cloud)edit

View native connector reference

Availability and prerequisitesedit

The ServiceNow connector is available natively in Elastic Cloud since 8.10.0.

To use this connector natively in Elastic Cloud, satisfy all native connector requirements.

Usageedit

To use this connector natively in Elastic Cloud, see Native connectors.

For additional operations, see Using connectors

Compatibilityedit

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

  • ServiceNow "Tokyo"
  • ServiceNow "San Diego"
  • ServiceNow "Rome"
  • ServiceNow "Utah"
  • ServiceNow "Vancouver"

Configurationedit

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

ServiceNow URL
The host URL of the ServiceNow instance.
Username
The username of the account used for ServiceNow.
Password
The password of the account used for ServiceNow.
Comma-separated list of 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:

Documents and syncsedit

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.

Sync rulesedit

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

Advanced sync rulesedit

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

Known issuesedit

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

Troubleshootingedit

See Troubleshooting.

Securityedit

See Security.

Content extractionedit

See Content extraction.

Connector client (self-managed)edit

View connector client reference

Availability and prerequisitesedit

The ServiceNow connector was introduced in Elastic version 8.9.0. This connector is available as a self-managed connector client. To use this connector as a connector client, satisfy all connector client requirements.

Usageedit

Self-manage this connector

Because this client is available as a native connector, you’ll first need to convert to a connector client in the Kibana UI. This action is irreversible. Use the Convert connector button on the right-hand side of the configuration page.

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

For additional operations, see Usage.

Compatibilityedit

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

  • ServiceNow "Tokyo"
  • ServiceNow "San Diego"
  • ServiceNow "Rome"
  • ServiceNow "Utah"
  • ServiceNow "Vancouver"

Configurationedit

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.
use_text_extraction_service
Requires a separate deployment of the Elastic Text Extraction Service. Requires that ingest pipeline settings disable text extraction. Default value is False.

Documents and syncsedit

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 Dockeredit

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:8.11.4.0 \
/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 rulesedit

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

Advanced sync rulesedit

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

End-to-end Testingedit

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 issuesedit

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

Troubleshootingedit

See Troubleshooting.

Securityedit

See Security.

Content extractionedit

See Content extraction.

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