The document discusses integrating the monitoring system Zenoss with the ticketing system ServiceNow for incident management and configuration management database (CMDB) purposes. It describes why customers would want each integration, what features the integrations provide, and how the integrations work technically. The incident management integration allows for automated ticket creation and updating based on monitoring events. The CMDB integration syncs device and component data between the two systems.

1. © 2016 All Rights Reserved CONFIDENTIAL#GALAXZ16
#GALAXZ16
ServiceNow Integration
Incident Management and CMDB
1
Michael Shannon

2. © 2016 All Rights Reserved CONFIDENTIAL#GALAXZ16
Agenda
Introduction
Incident Management Integration
 Why you want it
 What you get
 How it works
CMDB Integration
 Why you want it
 What you get
 How it works
2

3. © 2016 All Rights Reserved CONFIDENTIAL#GALAXZ16
Introduction
Integrating your monitoring system with ticketing
 Most popular integration - in use at 12% of Zenoss’ customers
 Certified with ServiceNow (since Dublin)
Integrating your CMDB with your monitoring system
 In use at several customers
 Certified with ServiceNow (since Fuji)
3

4. © 2016 All Rights Reserved CONFIDENTIAL#GALAXZ16
Incident Management Integration - Why you want it
Automate ticket management
 Reduce time and effort
 Improve accuracy and content
Synchronized view of events and incidents
 Manage from Zenoss or ServiceNow
4

5. © 2016 All Rights Reserved CONFIDENTIAL#GALAXZ16
Incident Management Integration - What you get
Create incidents automatically via Zenoss triggers/notifications
Create incidents manually via event console
Resolve incident when corresponding event is closed
Resolve incident when corresponding event clears automatically
Assign the incident to the user acknowledging the event
Acknowledge event when corresponding incident is assigned
Close event when corresponding incident is resolved
Associate existing events with existing incident
5

6. © 2016 All Rights Reserved CONFIDENTIAL#GALAXZ16
Incident Management Integration - How it works
6

7. © 2016 All Rights Reserved CONFIDENTIAL#GALAXZ16
Incident Management Integration - How it works
Leverages existing Trigger and Notification functionality
 Notification sends incidents
 Triggers select events to automatically ticket
 Button added to UI for manual ticketing
 zenactiond daemon used for auto-ticketing
 zope used for manual ticketing
New daemon for polling incident information
 zenincidentpoll polls ServiceNow
 Updates events as appropriate
7

8. © 2016 All Rights Reserved CONFIDENTIAL#GALAXZ16
CMDB Integration - Why you want it
‘Closes the loop’
 Allows incidents to be related to CIs in ticketing system
 Enrich Zenoss devices with CMDB data
 Associate a unique ID (CI) from the CMDB to Zenoss devices and components
Automate transition to monitoring
 Flag in CMDB can be set to cause Zenoss to start monitoring a device
 Integrates with change management process
Automate population of monitoring tool
 Reduce errors by reducing manual data entry
 Increase consistency (device names will match between CMDB and Zenoss)
8

9. © 2016 All Rights Reserved CONFIDENTIAL#GALAXZ16
New CMDB Integration - What you get
Retrieves devices from ServiceNow
 Adds to /Discovered device class
 Updates existing devices
 Adds clickable link for CI ID
 Adds CMDB Class field (CMDB table name)
Optionally retrieve and set location information
Optionally create event when a device is created
Attempts to link existing components with CMDB
 Adds clickable link for CI ID
Optionally retrieve applications that depend on devices in Zenoss
 Creates hierarchy under Systems organizer
 Single level (application->device)
 Can be used to seed Impact models
9

10. © 2016 All Rights Reserved CONFIDENTIAL#GALAXZ16
New CMDB Integration – How it works
New daemon (zencmdbpoll) for retrieving information from ServiceNow
 Configurable cycle interval (default is 24 hours)
Integration with ServiceNow is certified (on their Fuji release)
 Uses JSONv2 API
 Queries batched to improve performance
 Queries limited to ‘recently updated’ to improve performance
Majority of the integration can be configured from the UI
 Some UI elements are JSON, and may require Services assistance to configure
 Base field mappings, additional field mappings, relationships to components and
applications all configurable
10

11. © 2016 All Rights Reserved CONFIDENTIAL#GALAXZ16
CMDB Integrations - Two versions
Two integrations – New and Legacy
 Note: Not compatible with each other
New CMDB Integration
 Pulls from ServiceNow to Zenoss
 UI for configuration
 Moderate Services involvement
Legacy CMDB Integration
 Pushes from Zenoss to ServiceNow
 Configuration changes requires code changes
 Heavy Services involvement
11

12. © 2016 All Rights Reserved CONFIDENTIAL#GALAXZ16
Knowledge16
Come see us at Knowledge16!
Booth #1228 in the Exhibitor Hall
Tell the ServiceNow administrators at your company!
12

13. © 2016 All Rights Reserved CONFIDENTIAL#GALAXZ16
Q&A
Questions?
13

14. © 2016 All Rights Reserved CONFIDENTIAL#GALAXZ16
Top Takeaways
Two integrations available – CMDB and Incident Management
Use either or both
Close the loop with both integrations
14