ServiceNow Inbound Integration

The ilert ServiceNow Integration helps you to easily connect ilert with ServiceNow.

ServiceNow is a cloud-based platform that provides workflow automation, IT service management (ITSM), and digital workflow solutions to enhance the efficiency of business operations. Initially recognized for its ITSM capabilities, ServiceNow has since expanded its services to include a broader range of business functions, including customer service, human resources, and security operations.

ServiceNow is a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) provider of enterprise Service Management (SM) software.

In ilert: Create a ServiceNow alert source

Go to the "Alert sources" tab and click Create new alert source
Enter a name and select your desired escalation policy. Select "ServiceNow" as the Integration Type and click on Save.

On the next page, a ServiceNow URL is generated. You will need this URL below when setting up the hook in ServiceNow.

In ServiceNow: Create a business rule

Go to ServiceNow, search for Incidents, **then open the header menu and choose Configure -> Business Rules**

In the Business Rules view click on New to create a new business rule

Name the business rule e.g. ilert Alerts, choose Advanced option, in the When to run section choose async then choose Insert and Update options

Go to Advanced tab and paste the following code into the script section:

(function executeRule(current, previous /*null when async*/) {

    var iLertUrl = "<your alert source URL here>";


    function glideRecordToJson(gr) {
        var obj = {};
        for (var prop in gr) {
            if (gr[prop]){
                obj[prop] = gr.getValue(prop);
            }
        }
        return obj;
    }

    var obj = glideRecordToJson(current);
    obj.server_url = gs.getProperty("glide.servlet.uri");
    var body = JSON.stringify(obj);
    var request = new sn_ws.RESTMessageV2();
    request.setEndpoint(iLertUrl);
    request.setHttpMethod("POST");
    request.setRequestBody(body);
    request.setRequestHeader("Accept", "application/json");
    request.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "application/json");

    var response = request.execute();
    gs.log(response.getBody());


})(current, previous);

Click on Submit or Update to save the business rule

ServiceNow Incident Lifecycle

Advanced configuration

ilert's ServiceNow integration allows you to easily configure advanced settings such as dynamic escalation policy routing and priority mapping.

To get access to the advanced features, you will have to provide access credentials to your ServiceNow instance first. The provided user will need the following permissions in ServiceNow:

sys_user
sys_user_group
cmdb_ci_service
service_offering
sys_choice
sys_dictionary

This will grant you access to:

Dynamic priority mapping

When selecting priority mapping, ilert will contact your ServiceNow instance and fetch all available priorities of ServiceNow alerts. You will then be able to choose a mapping for each of these and determine how ilert will treat them when creating alerts in ilert.

Dynamic escalation policy routing

When selecting escalation policy routing, ilert will contact your ServiceNow instance and fetch all available alert fields. You will then be able to choose an alert field that should be used for incoming alerts in ilert to determine the routing key.

You may choose to give escalation policies in ilert a unique routing key.

With an incoming event ilert will try to find the right escalation policy based on the routing key and assign the alert to the escalation policy. If no routing key is provided, ilert will use the assigned escalation policy of the alert source.

Bidirectional alert synchronisation

When providing credentials you may choose to activate bidirectional mode on the ServiceNow alert sources. This will cause your alert source to be automatically linked with an outbound connector and alert action. This way status changes to ilert alerts will synchronize to ServiceNow tickets.

When saving the ServiceNow alert source with the bidirectional setting enabled, it will automatically create an outbound connector for you and take you to the creation page of the necessary alert action, please make sure to continue with the setup of the action to finish your bidirectional alert source setup.

Good to know

In the bidirectional setup, ilert will try to map users automatically (if Caller ID in alert action is left empty) based on their email address. This accounts for actions taken in ilert and synced back to ServiceNow, as well as actions taken in ServiceNow and send to ilert.

Remember to leave the Caller ID field in the alert action empty for automated user mapping to work properly

When providing a comment to the alert in ilert while resolving it, ilert will make sure sync the comments content as resolve information to the alert in ServiceNow.

Understanding ServiceNOW <-> ilert flows

This refers to the bidirectional setup

Synchronously mapping the the ServiceNOW ticket/incident lifecycle to the immutable lifecycle of an ilert alert, is not a simple back and forth. The connector runs a lot of state comparisons to identify if a ticket/incident update is needed based on the latest change event of an alert.