Import from ServiceNow

Started by Hervé, October 06, 2015, 12:14:05 PM

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Hervé

Dear all,

In order not to begin from nowhere, I developped a plugin to import objects from our CMDB which is ServiceNow.

The plugin connects to ServiceNow REST web services and a configuration file allows to translate ServiceNow entries to Archi objects and attributes.

It is still lacking few things like locations, actors, and some others but works fine so far with Technology and Relations. We're not using ServiceNow yet to store business oriented information but this is planned. As this is done, I plan to automate the creation of standard views like business services, or business applications.

I can share it with you if this is something you're interested in.

Should you know ServiceNow and already work with it, I'm also interested in your point of view.

Best regards
Herve

Jean-Baptiste Sarrodie

Hi,

This seems a good plugin to start with. The best to share it is to share the code on GitHub either on your account or under archicontribs organization (if you choose the latest, let me know you github user name and I will create repo and provide you R/W access on it).

Regards,

JB
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prgee

I don't know if ServiceNow supports it but there is a standard interface definition for CMDB's. Here is a link to the Eclipse site that describes it: https://wiki.eclipse.org/COSMOS_UG_Introduction_to_CMDBf

An Archi plugin that supported this would be able (in theory) to interact with any CMDB that supported the CMDBf standard.

One can only dream 8)

Regards,
Peter

Hervé

Hi Jean-Baptiste,

My GitHub user is herve91.


Hi prgee,

I followed your link but did not find any useful information. The http://www.cmdbf.org link provided on your site is related to fences in Poland. I will do some searches about CMDBf but it may stay a dream at this stage.


Best regards
Hervé

prgee

Sorry about the link - I'm not sure what happened to it?? I'll try again:

https://www.dmtf.org/standards/cmdbf

Cheers,
Peter

Jean-Baptiste Sarrodie

Hi,

I've created the snow-import-plugin repository and added you as a member. Let me know if you face any issues.

Regarding CMDBf. I don't know if Service Now implements it, but CMDBuild does. There's even an Archi plugin to import from/export to CMDBuild which seems to have been updated this year (haven't tested it with Archi 3.x).

Regards

JB
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Hervé

Hi,

I uploaded the plugin and its source to the repository. I'll try to do to research about ServiceNow compliance to CMDBf.

Regards
Hervé

Hervé

Dear all,

I wish you all a happy new year. Part of my new year resolutions, I updated the ServiceNow plugin. A lot of work still remains to be done, but as you know, little by little ...  :D

The version 1.1 of the ServiceNow plugin is available on gitHub
     https://github.com/archi-contribs/snow-import-plugin

The major changes are :

  • The plugin version is now mandatory in the iniFile as the structure changed
  • Add remaining time in the progressBar even if it's not really reliable (as the import time is not linear)
  • Rewrite of the getFromURL() method to improve proxy management (the system properties are not modified anymore)
  • Optimize relations download by getting only those that are really used
  • Migrate logging to Log4J
  • Set all methods to private (except the doImport that is called by Archi)
  • Get all the detailed tables from ServiceNow as the master table cmdb_ci doesn't allow to retrieve the properties

Please do not hesitate to drop me a line should you have any question or comment.

Best regards
Hervé

Phil Beauvoir

Hervé, thank-you for sharing this here. And happy new year!

Phil
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brain_work

Hello Hervé,

Are you still maintaining/developing the ServiceNow plugin and does it work with Archi 4? I ask this because our company is considering ServiceNow as the replacement for the current CMDB tool.

Regards,
Peter

Hervé

#10
Hi Peter,

The plugin has been planned to download the whole content of the ServiceNow data. Unfortunately, our ServiceNow grew so quickly that it is now not manageable anymore.

I planned to rework my plugin to select a single application or service and download only what references this application or this service.

Christmas is coming vey fast now and I will not be able to work on it before early next year but I'm always available to discuss with you about your needs and check if I can easily adapt to them or not.

Best regards
Hervé

Hervé

#11
Hi again Peter,

I juste tried it again home and It still works on Archi 3 but ServiceNow sends only 10.000 elements per request so I did not retreive all my elements. If you've got more than 10.000 elements as well in a single tble, then I need to adress this.

It doesn't work with Archi 4 (a Java exception is raised) but I can have a quick look ...

Best regards
Hervé

brain_work

Hi Hervé,

There is no hurry because we don't use ServiceNow at this moment and I'm not sure when we are going to use it.

Regards,
Peter

Hervé

Too late  ;D

I's been much easier to adapt the plugin to Archi 4 than I first expected :

  • Replace IRelationships instances by IArchimateRelationships instances
  • Replace getDefaultFolderForElement method by getDefaultFolderForObject method

et voila ...

I'm just finalising few tests and I will release the JAR file on GitHub.

Please do not hesitate to drop me a line if you need some help to fill in the ini file (it looks like a bit complicated but when you understand how it works, then it becomes much more simpler).

Best regards
Hervé


brain_work

Hi Hervé,

Thanks. I will let you know when I'm going to use the plugin.

Regards,
Peter