Spectrum 10.2 service desk integration / ServiceNow question

[John OMahony]

Hi everyone

I have been taking a look at the new service desk integration functionality in Spectrum 10.2 and have some questions hopefully someone can help with. For clarity my interest is the generic integration (new in 10.2) that includes ServiceNow and not the CA Service Desk product.

 

Is there a list of fields that are mapped from Spectrum to ServiceNow using this integration. Is it possible to modify the fields mapped? In particular is it possible to get the PCause detail for alarms into ServiceNow using this integration?

 

It is unclear to me whether the generic service desk integration is SANM enabled or not. The manual says the CA Service Desk integration is SANM enabled, but nothing about the generic service desk integrations. It seems it is possible to auto generate tickets based on the alarm type, but unclear if there are any other possibilities. Can anyone confirm please?

 

The manual discusses an Integration Component that needs to be installed on the ServiceNow server. It seems this is for the case where we want to enable OneClick Notifications from ServiceNow, but it’s unclear if it’s only in that instance it is needed. Can anyone confirm if this is needed when the integration uses polling for ticket updates?

 

I guess that's a lot of questions, hopefully someone is able to help.

 

Regards, John

[Nagesh Jaiswal]

Hello JohnO2, 

 

I don't think you can modify the mappings. But I will double check on this. 

 

SANM can be used for Service Now integration also. 

 

And lastly if you are using polling then you don't need to install the mid server component. 

 

Thanks,

Nagesh 

[John OMahony]

Hi Nagesh_Jaiswal

This question is not answered. Can CA stop marking questions as answered when they are not please? I will mark the question as answered when I feel it is answered.

 

You still need to provide details on the mappings and also on whether modifying the mappings is possible.

 

In addition I have a question on how SANM is used with this integration. How does that work? There is no mention of this in the documentation. When this integration is enabled does a SANM application appear in the SANM locater search and that can be used with a SANM policy? 

The docs describe how to filter based on the Alarm Type and that is all. If SANM can be used for ServiceNow integration why is Alarm Type filtering available on the ServiceNow setup page?

 

I have one further question, is there any fault tolerance built into this integration? Can you explain the architecture of that if there is please?

 

Regards, John

[baude02]

Hi John,

 

Have you seen this? CA Spectrum: Support for Additional Service Desk Solutions - YouTube 

I will also have a look to see if I can gather some of the requested info's for you

 

Regards,

Dencel

[baude02]

Configuring OneClick Notifications for ServiceNow - CA Spectrum - 10.2 - CA Technologies Documentation 

Alarm Fields, REST examples and Attribute mapping - CA Spectrum - 10.2 - CA Technologies Documentation 

 

This new integration is not SANM enabled, but communicates via a Webservices integration with the installation component on the ServiceNow server.

 

Regards,

Dencel

[John OMahony]

Hi Dencel
Thanks for the links. I had seen the documentation pages but not the video. I have a couple of questions then.

 

In the video it says the integration supports “policy based automated alarm ticket submission”, it is about 2mins 10 secs in … yet you say it is not SANM enabled. Can you explain (or find out) what it means then by “policy based automated alarm ticket submission”?

 

I asked previously about the alarm fields that are mapped to ServiceNow and it looks like your link provides those. I did also ask if it’s possible to modify or add to this list… do you know the answer to that?

 

Also my understanding from reading the manual is that the ServiceNow integration component only needs to be installed when it is required for ServiceNow to push notifications to Spectrum OneClick. The alternative to push notifications is for Spectrum to poll ServiceNow for updates using web services. If push is not required then communication to ServiceNow only uses web services. Can you confirm that is correct please?

 

Regards, John

[John OMahony]

Nagesh_Jaiswal baude02

 

I have been trying to get this integration working, however along with Phani.Devulapalli (see CA Spectrum: Error creating ServiceNow Ticket ) I have been experiencing issues so have been discussing this with the ServiceNow team here to get their view on this integration. Their view is as follows ...

 

"It looks like this integration is trying to write data to the ServiceNow Incident table. This is considered bad practice in the ServiceNow world where the use of a 'staging' table is considered the correct way to do this. This allows ServiceNow to use business logic to determine if an Incident needs to be raised. On our site we don't allow direct writing to the Incident table."

 

I wonder could you comment on this please.

Is it correct that the integration is attempting to write to the Incident table in ServiceNow? And if yes, is there is any way to change this to have the data written to a 'staging' table instead of the Incident table?

 

Regards, John

[baude02]

Hi John,

 

I have run this past the developers and they replied as follows:

 

“By default the Integration module in Spectrum writes the data into the Service Now incident table . I need to analyze on writing the data to staging table .”

 

I will get back to you ASAP with the analysis.

 

Kind regards,

Dencel

 

Dencel Baury

CA Technologies

Principal Support Engineer

 

CA Deutschland GmbH | Marienburgstraße 35, 64297 Darmstadt | Telephone: [phone] | [e-mail]

 

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[John OMahony]

Hi Dencel

Thanks for that update.

 

Can you let the developers know that in my opinion the choice of table needs to be configurable? I think there should be a field in the OneClick SD config page that allows changing the table from Incident to a user specified staging table.

 

Also do you have any update on what is meant by “policy based automated alarm ticket submission” if it is not SANM?

 

Regards, John

[Nagesh Jaiswal]

Hello JohnO2, 

 

The current integration module is designed to write the data to the incident table. Can you elaborate that why would you change the choice and write the data into the staging table? 

 

Thanks,

Nagesh 

[John OMahony]

Hi Nagesh_Jaiswal

In an earlier comment I wrote that our ServiceNow team believe it is bad practice in the ServiceNow world to write directly to the Incident table. They believe the use of a 'staging' table is considered the correct way to do this. This allows ServiceNow to use business logic to query the staging table and determine if an Incident needs to be raised in the Incident table. On our site I have been told we won't be allowed direct writing to the Incident table.

 

Now you can argue the merits of this, however if that is their view I expect it could be the view of other ServiceNow users. And I can understand the risk of letting a 3rd party tool directly create trouble tickets in a service desk system, without any control over those tickets... For instance I wouldn't be particularly happy sending all Spectrum alarms directly to the Incident table, I believe there should be some control over what gets sent ... in other words SANM like policy control over what is sent ... and it is unclear to me whether that is available as part of this integration. You have previously said it is, whereas baude02 said it is not. Can you clarify please?

 

So in my view there are 2 issues with this integration that need to be resolved before it is usable for us.

 

1. There needs to be a field in the Service Desk config page that allows to define which table to use, whether the Incident table or a customer defined Staging table. 

2. This integration needs SANM type automated policy control over what is sent to the Service Desk. And by the way the 'alarm filter' functionality available in the SD Config page is not going to be good enough.

 

John

[Nagesh Jaiswal]

Hello JohnO2, 

 

Thanks for the detailed explanation. I now understand better. 

 

I will however challenge this scenario also. Our integration clearly states that we intent to create Incidents in ServiceNow. So why would there a need to additional business logic to decide whether to or not to raise an incident. 

 

I understand the need of selective incident creation of alarms from Spectrum. And SANM will work for ServiceNow as well. 

 

Following are  the screen shots captured from development machine.

 

Configured SDNotifer for major alarms only. You can see the ticket created for major alarm only. 

 

 

 

 

I hope this is helpful. 

 

Thanks,

Nagesh 

[Phani Devulapalli]

Hi Nagesh_Jaiswal

 

Thanks for clarifying , I had similar questions as John with reference to usage of SANM and the above explanation helps to an extent . I tried configuring sd_notifier and I could see from the logs that its trying to create the ticket using SANM policy now .

 

The documentation for the new Service Desk integrations seems to be bit vague and confusing , I see some of the content was updated in last few days specifically for ServiceNow which is good but  it still needs a bit of clarify . The documentation does not refer to usage of SANM with the new Service Desk integrations , this needs to be updated in the documentation. The existing documentation still refers to the using SANM and CA Service Desk only 

 

Using SANM with CA Service Desk Manager - CA Spectrum - 10.2 - CA Technologies Documentation 

 

Thanks,

Phani

[Nagesh Jaiswal]

Hello Phani.Devulapalli, 

 

Thanks for the feedback. I have made note of the same and will be forwarding the same to our documentation team. You will see further improvement in coming days. 

 

Thanks,

Nagesh 

[John OMahony]

Hi Nagesh_Jaiswal
Thanks for that update. As Phani.Devulapalli said it is a pity the manuals do not contain the full detail. It could have saved us a lot of time.

 

I have now configured SANM, as per the CA Service Desk part of the manual, and it seems to be working for the ServiceNow integration. By that I mean it is trying to create the ServiceNow ticket but we still have the issue described here … https://communities.ca.com/thread/241774569 … both Phani and myself are experiencing this and have support calls open. But I have yet to receive any update on that.

 

Assuming this issue can be fixed I can now go back to the ServiceNow team and discuss the use of the Incident table. Without SANM functionality I didn’t really have anything to discuss with them. I will update you on their view after I talk to them.

 

Finally you still have to confirm whether it is possible or not to change the mappings. Previously you said “I don't think you can modify the mappings. But I will double check on this”. Can you let me know please?

 

Regards, John

[John OMahony]

Hi Nagesh_Jaiswal
I have had a call this afternoon with our ServiceNow team and can confirm they are definitely not comfortable allowing us to directly write to the Incident table. The main reason for this is that ServiceNow is the primary business support system here, it houses the CMDB and is used widely to implement much business logic. Examples of the type of logic related to Spectrum as follows:

1. If there is a change request in the system for a piece of kit, for a particular customer or site, then they will not raise an incident for any related device.
2. They use ServiceNow to set maintenance windows for customers and sites and will not raise an incident for any related device based on the maintenance window.
3. They have logic which detects Major Service Outages (MSO) that is based on the number and frequency of alerts for customers and sites. When an MSO occurs then an MSO incident is raised and no new incidents for individual devices are raised.

 

While it might be possible to customise Spectrum to do the above, in my opinion it would be a difficult and costly exercise. It would need to pull the information from ServiceNow to make all the decisions that are being made already in ServiceNow. It doesn’t appear to me that it would much sense to go that route.

 

For info I believe some of their logic could quite easily be handled by Spectrum, such as defining a length of time before raising an incident, rules for flapping and frequency of alarms, and defining time of day rules. However there is much that would be difficult to implement.

 

In addition to the above there is another issue with using the Incident table that would prevent it's use here. The team here have customised the Incident table extensively. For example they do not use the severity field, they have created a priority field to take it’s place. As a consequence I don’t believe the integration will work here.

 

So, in my view, unless you consider allowing the configuration of which table the ServiceNow integration writes to then we will be unable to use it at our site.

 

Regards, John

[Nagesh Jaiswal]

Hello JohnO2, 

 

This is how Spectrum is designed currently. And it will need an enhancement to Spectrum code to give option and to write to Staging table. 

 

I am hearing of such request for the first time out of the implementations happening around Spectrum customer base for Service Now integration. I would suggest to open a community idea and we would like to see the responses from the community. 

 

Having said that I have answers to rest of questions you had. We map following fields mapped from Spectrum to Service Now. We send Alarm title , Pcause , Orginating event , Alarm creation time, severity and TROUBLE_SHOOTER /OC user -> assignee. The pcause information we are sending to Service now as part of description

 

We do not support customization or modification of the mapped fields as of now. 

 

Hopefully this helps for now. 

 

Thanks,

Nagesh 

[John OMahony]

Hi Nagesh_Jaiswal

Thanks for your answers. I have created the following idea for this ... Spectrum Service Desk Integration - option to write to custom table for ServiceNow 

 

Regards, John

[Nagesh Jaiswal]

Thank you JohnO2 .

 

Thanks,

Nagesh Jaiswal

[Rajesh Rajesh]

Hello,

 

Thanks for your mail.

Currently i am in DC where I do not have access to phone or email.

I will revert to you once i get access. Anything urgent please call [phone]

 

Thanks

Rajesh