Process for Exports from IT Asset Management to ServiceNow

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

A Windows scheduled task Export to ServiceNow triggers exports to ServiceNow at 3am every Sunday morning.

If you are in an administrator role, you can also trigger an export through the web interface for IT Asset Management. Go to the IT Asset Management Settings General page (Administration > IT Asset Management Settings > General) and select the Integrations tab. Expand the ServiceNow section.

Process Details

  1. On the central application server, when the export is triggered, a utility is launched that:
    • Checks whether you have licensed the ServiceNow integration option from Flexera (if not, it shows an error in the same page of the web interface).
    • Tests your ServiceNow credentials in the ServiceNow export settings section of the Integrations tab in the IT Asset Management Settings General page (Administration > IT Asset Management Settings > General).
  2. Next, the utility checks whether ServiceNow is able to accept an import at this time:
    • It checks whether a record in Scheduled Data Imports, and another in Data Sources, have been created by the integration application. (Links to the relevant pages where you can inspect the records in ServiceNow are under Flexera Integration > Advanced.)
    • It ensures that no prior import is already in process, checking that there is no record in the Import Runs table or the Import Transactions table that are incomplete (that is, have a State other than Succeeded or Failed). Both lists are available for inspection in the IT Asset Management Integration History group.
    If either of the checks fails, the utility abandons the export and displays an appropriate error.
  3. The utility checks the connection with the operations databases for IT Asset Management. (If there is any failure, the utility abandons the export and displays an appropriate error.)
  4. All being well, the data export, transfer, and import processes are run for all data types (unless any of them have been specifically excluded) in the following order:
    1. Hardware inventory
    2. Contracts
    3. Installed applications
      CAUTION:
      In ServiceNow, contracts and installed applications both have dependencies on hardware inventory. It is recommended that you do not exclude the hardware inventory, as this may result in unpredictable gaps in other records when the correct dependencies cannot be established.
      The data collected is differential (that is, collecting only additions and changes since the last export). To prevent timeout issues, each data set is split into segments for transfer to ServiceNow. Each segment is identified with a transaction ID, transaction type, and the data in an XML chunk. ServiceNow returns a return code for each segment of data.
      • If the return code shows a failure, the segment is retransmitted for a maximum number of tries, after which the utility exits (skipping any remaining exports) and displays an appropriate error.
      • While success continues, the utility waits for each data type to complete before commencing the next data type.

  5. In ServiceNow, as the first data chunk is received, the integration application creates a record in the Import Runs table. (For details of the main columns in the Import Runs table, see Import Runs Columns.)
    Note: If you have selected to store installed application data to SAM Foundation Plugin tables but the SAM plugin is not found, then ServiceNow logs an error in the Application Log and returns an error code. In IT Asset Management, the utility abandons the export and displays an appropriate error in the log file.
  6. For each data chunk (including the first), ServiceNow creates a record in the Import Transactions table. (For details of the main columns in the Import Transactions table, see Import Transactions Columns.)
  7. When the transaction record is created, it returns a success code to IT Asset Management, which then processes and transmits the next data chunk. This loop continues until all the records of a particular export type have been transmitted.
  8. In ServiceNow, the inbound data chunks are written to staging tables (visible in the navigation panel under Flexera Integration > Staging Records) based on the transaction type:
    Transaction type Import Set Table
    inventory_export Inventory Imports (note that this is hardware inventory)
    application_export Application Imports
    contract_export Contract Imports
    connection_test Not applicable
    export_status Not applicable
  9. In ServiceNow, the integration application uses the Scheduled Data Imports and Data Sources records to process each Import Transaction record. The integration application queues the transaction records, and as each record is processed, it sets its State to Succeeded. When all the transaction records for an Import Run are completed, the integration application also sets its State to Succeeded.
  10. During this processing loop, IT Asset Management continues polling the API for status. Only when it receives a successful completion message does it resume the process with the next selected data type.
  11. When the data has been collated from the individual transactions to the staging tables, transform maps are executed to map the fields in the import set tables to fields in ServiceNow database tables. The final tables for data from each transaction type are shown below. (For a complete set of the transform mappings, see Transform Maps for ServiceNow Integration.)
    Transaction type Ultimate Data Tables in ServiceNow
    application_export Software Model, Discovery Model, Software Installation, and Software Instance. The tables used are the SAM tables for installation.
    contract_export Contract and Lease Instance
    Tip: Check the Contract used by tab near the bottom of the page of contract properties. This references all computers linked to the contract.
    inventory_export Product Model, Virtual Machine Instance, Computers

At the completion of this process, data exported from IT Asset Management is reflected in your ServiceNow data set.

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

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