SNOW REST integration prerequisites

SNOW REST integration prerequisites
SNOW REST integration prerequisites

Did you know –

These PowerShell scripts allow organizations to specify which alerts/events that need to go to ITSM tool.

Does not matter to the tool, whether Broadcom (Spectrum/DXOI), SolarWinds, MECM/MEM/MCM, SCOM

Pretty much ANY tool that can leverage PowerShell scripts and/or REST calls can utilize this script.

The following ServiceNow ‘SNOW REST integration prerequisites’ are required before proceeding.

TEST/PROD ServiceNow (SNow) URL(s)

ID

Password

Incident short_description naming convention

ServiceNow SNOW Alert rule (to make events create incidents)

ServiceNow SNOW Incidents require additional variables to match ServiceNow selections

 

SNOW Incident short_description field is the title of the incident

Pre-define this in the SNOW REST Event/incident injection, to meet organizational naming conventions

Description can be additional details about the issue to be investigated, resolved.

SNOW Incident short_description, description fields
SNOW Incident short_description, description fields

 

Examples of short_description titles

# Setup SNOW Event Name standard

Example SNOWAlertName

$SNOWAlertName = “<Org> <Team> SCOM Test Event – $Alert”

Example SNOWAlertName

$SNOWAlertName = “<Team> <ORG> SCOM Event – $AlertName”

Example SNOWAlertName

$SNOWAlertName = “<Team> <ORG> SCOM $AlertName”

Example SNOWAlertName

$SNOWAlertName = “##CUSTOMER## ##TEAM## SCOM Event – $AlertName”

Example SNOWAlertName

$SNOWAlertName = “##TEAM## ##CUSTOMER##: SCOM – $AlertName”

Example SNOWAlertName

$SNOWAlertName = “##TEAM## ##CUSTOMER##: SPECTRUM – $AlertName”

Example SNOWAlertName

$SNOWAlertName = “##TEAM## ##CUSTOMER##: SOLARWINDS – $AlertName”

 

SNOW Incident fields

Direct Incident REST injection requires additional fields, such as caller, business_service, category, subcategory, channel, impact, urgency, priority, assignment_group
SNOW Incident fields
SNOW Incident fields
Additional SNOW incident fields
Additional SNOW incident fields

 

Additional information

REST/RESTAPI https://www.techtarget.com/searchapparchitecture/definition/RESTful-API

SNOW Utah Connector https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/utah-it-operations-management/page/product/event-management/task/t_EMConfigureSCOMConnector.html

Additional blogs showing scope and options using ServiceNow for ITSM tool

https://kevinjustin.com/blog/2024/03/27/servicenow-event-integration/

https://kevinjustin.com/blog/2024/03/27/servicenow-incident-integration/

https://kevinjustin.com/blog/2024/04/30/servicenow-connector-for-scom/

https://kevinjustin.com/blog/2024/05/24/lots-of-options-to-create-servicenow-incidents-through-powershell-scripts-connectors-and-3rd-party-vendors/

Integrate SCOM and SolarWinds

Steve Irwin quote - what a beauty!
Steve Irwin quote – what a beauty!

I’m ISO (in search of) the mythical single pane of glass.  In my best Steve Irwin voice…  Integrate SCOM and SolarWinds – We are strong together.  To me, integration occurs everywhere, at home, in your job, anyone you work with.  Contribute, don’t consume 🙂   Everyone is unique, including preferences, and past experiences.  In my career, I’ve been lucky to administer both tools for Fortune 100 companies (and more tools) across my career.  I hope this blog provides a way to use both tools to get the full value for the least cost!

 

 

 

Integration typewriter picture - stronger together - integrate SCOM and SolarWinds
Integration typewriter picture – stronger together – integrate SCOM and SolarWinds

Integration

The real meat of this is how to get the most for the least cost!

Let’s ‘Integrate SCOM and SolarWinds’ into our unicorn.  To date, getting data from SolarWinds into SCOM allows for easiest PowerBI Apps/reports

In my experience, the MSI requires Solarwinds Support login to download the SolarWinds Management Pack for SCOM.msi.  Downlload and configure article here.

SCOM view of SolarWinds data
SCOM view of SolarWinds data

3rd party options (free)

Cookdown vendor method to grab SolarWinds data into SCOM

Webhooks SolarWinds – Cookdown details

 

SolarWinds Thwack entries – you can find my Thwack submissions there as well 😊

https://thwack.solarwinds.com/resources/thwack-command-center/f/forum/39833/scom-connector

https://thwack.solarwinds.com/product-forums/network-performance-monitor-npm/f/forum/70676/scom-integration

 

One possible PowerBI report

PowerBI App with multiple reports, dashboards
PowerBI App with multiple reports, dashboards

 

 

ITSM integrations

Remedy

Most times the Remedy application is old, deprecated, outside it’s service life, rarely integrated with monitoring.  One customer’s PowerBI report shows the utility at a glance (see picture below)

PowerBI report referencing ITSM insights for teams, totals, volume
PowerBI report referencing ITSM insights for teams, totals, volume

ITSM integration for ServiceNow (SNow)

Free – https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/explore-your-servicenow-data-with-power-bi/

SNOW PowerBI Connector (pay – requires support contract login)

https://store.servicenow.com/sn_appstore_store.do?#!/store/application/87a42573879e0110fb5033773cbb354f/

 

Documentation

2021 Blog https://www.upguard.com/blog/solarwinds-vs-scom

Blog https://www.trustradius.com/compare-products/microsoft-system-center-operations-manager-scom-vs-solarwinds-server-application-monitor