ServiceNow tile
About ServiceNow tiles
The ServiceNow tile allows you to query incidents and change requests from ServiceNow and display this data in SquaredUp DS.
The ServiceNow tile is available with SquaredUp DS v4.4 and above.
A Connect edition license (or above) is required for this feature. To upgrade please contact [email protected].
To check the license edition you are using see How to check which license key is being used . To see what is included in different product edition licenses see the Licensing Overview.
Should you use the Web API tile or the dedicated ServiceNow tile?
The ServiceNow tile is available in SquaredUp DS v4.4 and above, and offers easier configuration than the Web API tile. You can display incidents and change request with the ServiceNow tile. If you want to use any other data from ServiceNow, you need to use the Web API tile.
The Web API tile can display other data in addition to incidents and change requests, it gives you more flexibility and advanced configurations.
For more information about using the Web API tile with ServiceNow see How to use the Web API tile with ServiceNow.
How to configure a ServiceNow tile
If you don't already have a ServiceNow provider, you need to create one before you can configure a ServiceNow tile (How to add a ServiceNow provider).
- Add a new tile to a dashboard or a perspective and click on Integrations > ServiceNow.
- Select the visualization for your ServiceNow tile:
Shows the results in a donut shape.
Example:
A Scalar displays one value. A Scalar is useful to show a specific number like "total cost of my services" or "free disk space on this server".
When multiple values are returned (meaning a table with multiple rows), you will still be able to pick the Scalar visualization, but the Scalar will only show the value of the first row.Example:
A table of data, for example incidents or tickets.
Tip: You can turn the individual rows into links in the settings. For example, if you're displaying tickets in your grid, you can link the rows to the ticket in your external ticket system.
Did you know? Since SquaredUp DS 5.4 users can search the grid, and temporarily change the column size and sorting of the grid (by clicking on the column headers) without having to access the settings. They can also expand a row by clicking on the three dots at the end of each row if cells are too small to show their entire content.
- Scope:
The scope section is optional, and allows you to specify a scope to narrow down the queryIt depends on the ServiceNow account you are using for a provider if you can use the scope.
How the ServiceNow account affects the ServiceNow tile
The permissions of the ServiceNow account you are using for your ServiceNow providerplugin affect what you can see and do in the ServiceNow tile.We recommend using a service account, which means you create an account specifically to use with the ServiceNow providerplugin. You have different options for setting up this service account:
- ServiceNow permissions assignment with roles
Give the ServiceNow account the ITIL and rest_api_explorer roles. - ServiceNow permissions assignment with ACLs, in place of roles
If you don't want to use the ITIL role (for licensing or security reasons) give the ServiceNow account only the rest_api_explorer role and use ACLs to give the account more rights. This will limit the functionality of the ServiceNow tile.Using accounts without the ITIL role may cause data streams to error.When you are using an account without the roles specified in this article, then the functionality of the ServiceNow tileplugin is limited:.
- You'll see an error if you used a scope for your tile
- In the View dropdown, only the non-admin default view is available (contains a default set of columns)
- Under Filter, default filters are not available, only user-created ones are visible
You can grant the specific permissions required more granularly by creating a custom role and assigning the specific ACLs or assigning the ACLs themselves directly to a user account:
ACLs can be added in two ways:
- Adding them directly to a user account, meaning you are adding the ACLs to the service account you are using for the ServiceNow providerplugin.
- Adding them to a role. We recommend that you create a new role specifically just for adding the ACLs to it. Then you need to assign the role to the service account you are using for the ServiceNow providerplugin.
A benefit of adding the ACLs to a role is that it makes them easier to manage and you can assign the role to different users (in this case, service accounts) if you want to use different service accounts for different instances of the ServiceNow providersplugin.
You need to add the following ACLs:
sys_filter
sys_dictionary.*
sys_dictionary
sys_db_object
sys_ui_list
sys_db_object.*
sys_ui_list.*
What tile functions do those ACLs add when I use a non-admin ServiceNow account?
- The tile can be scoped
- Under Filter, all default filters are visible
- The ACLs don't affect the views. The View dropdown still shows only the non-admin default view. You need to use an admin Service account to see all the views.
Tip: If you experience any problems with scoping tiles, you'll find FAQs and help in the article How to scope tiles.
Note: If you never used a perspective, you should read Working with perspectives before scoping tiles on perspectives.
The power of perspectives is that tiles on a perspective can use a dynamic scope. A dynamic scope considers the currently viewed object. A dynamic scope consists of two different states:
- the configuration of the scope in the tile (for example, "consider child objects of type logical disk for the currently viewed object")
- the actual resolved scope that depends on which object you are currently viewing ("this object has 5 child objects of type logical disk")
After configuring the dynamic scope once in the tile, you'll get different results depending how the scope is resolved on the different objects you are viewing.
Suggestions
Suggestions are generated based on the object you are currently viewing. You'll see a list of relevant scope options based on the object's relations to other objects. Suggestions don't cover every possible scope, but they are a quick and easy way to select a suitable scope for your tile.
Note: Suggestions won't be shown if an object has no children, parents or siblings.
Tip: If the exact scope you want isn't listed in the suggestions, you can select a suggested scope that is similar to the one you want, and then click on custom. The custom section will now automatically be filled with the suggestion you picked and you can edit the scope here to adjust it exactly to your needs. This is a more intuitive way to pick a scope than starting in the custom section and navigating the SCOM object model for classes and groups.
Double-check the scope when using suggestions: Using suggestions is an easy way to pick a scope, but you need to make sure that the generated suggestion is appropriate for all objects that use the perspective.
For example, when you pick a suggestion for an EA, you will get suggestions that are specific to the map, dependencies, and availability tests for this one EA. On perspectives you want to use for all EAs, you have to change the scope suggestion in the custom section so that the tile work for all EAs.You can pick between "this object" and objects that are related to this object as parents, children or siblings. The suggestions for children are written as paths that follow the SCOM object tree structure, parents and siblings can be identified by the word parent or sibling in the suggestion.
A parent of an object is any object that hosts or contains that object.
A child of an object is any object that this object hosts or contains.
A sibling of an object is any object of the same class that is hosted by the same parent.Enterprise Applications are designed so that you can map out the servers that make up the application. You can then configure tiles to show information related to just the servers on the EA's map. When you create a perspective that will be used for all EAs, you need to make sure that you scope the tiles so that they work for any EA. When you start with a suggestion, the tile's scope only works for the one EA you're currently looking at, and this is why you need to edit the scope:
- For an EA you want to scope to the servers that are specified on the EA map by selecting something from the suggestions (SquaredUp DS 4.2 and above) that shows something similar to the following:
This /<YourApplicationName> Map / ... / Windows Computer
The above will scope the tile to all the objects of class Windows Computer on this EAs map.
The screenshot below shows some scope suggestions for an application called FinanceXS. The bold text shows the currently selected scope is This object. The cursor shows the optionThis / FinanceXS / ... / Windows Computer
. Once chosen this scope will show all the Windows computers shown on the applications map. Next, we need to adjust the specified scope to allow it to work for all EAs, rather than just this one. - In the scope section click custom.
- Click on the text
<YourApplicationName> Map (children)
which is your first scope step. This will expand the scope step so you can edit it. - Remove the auto-populated class
<YourApplicationName> Map
by clicking the cross x next to it. - Start typing
Enterprise Application - Map
and select this from the list to add this class. This is so that this tile scope will work for all EAs, rather than just this one EA. - The scope is now configured to show all the Windows computers on the EA's map, whichever EA you happen to be viewing with the perspective.
If you are looking at an EA, the path to find all windows computers in that EA may read
Map / ... / Windows Computer
. It returns all objects of the Windows Computer class contained within all of the paths underMap
.To narrow the scope down, you can click on the triangle to expand the suggestion and select one of the more specific paths. If you select
Map / Web / Windows Computer
you will find all objects of the Windows Computer class in the pathMap / Web
.If you choose the option
Map / *
you'll find all objects contained in the map. If you extend this suggestion by clicking on the triangle, you'll see suggestions to select all objects in a more specific path, for exampleMap / Web / *
.Custom
Here you can pick objects that are related to the object you are currently looking at. If you want to create a specific scope that is not listed under suggestions, you can create the scope here.
Tip: You can pick a similar scope under suggestions first and then click on custom to edit it.
- At the top, you'll see the name of the object you are currently looking at. Now you can choose if you want to pick parents or children of that object, and if this parent or child relation should be considered only one level up or down the SCOM model or through all levels.
- Class:
Here you pick the class of the objects you want to select. If you leave this field empty, the scope falls back to the "this object" scope.
Note: You will only see groups and classes that the object you are currently looking at is a member of.
Tip: If you want to pick objects of any class, enter the SCOM base class logical entity in the class field.
Tip: If you want to find out what classes the object you are interested in belongs to, you can go to the Monitored Entity perspective of that object. You'll see all the classes the object belongs to listed there. - Criteria:
You can narrow the selection of objects of a particular class down further by entering criteria for those objects. For more help see How to use criteria when scoping objects.
Tip: If you want to find out what properties you can base your criteria on, you can go to the Monitored Entity perspective of the object you are interested in. You'll see all the properties for criteria listed there.
.
For example, for a perspective created for the group IIS8 Computer Group adding a Status tile scoped to show children with a class of
object
will show the group members, i.e. the members of the IIS8 Computer Group.If you need to traverse a more advanced SCOM object model like an EA, you can use the + button to add more steps. This creates a scope that can go through any kind of path of the SCOM object model.
Complete the following steps and then click the + button after you're done to add the next level of SCOM objects:
- At the top, you'll see the name of the object you are currently looking at. Now you can choose if you want to pick parents or children of that object, and if this parent or child relation should be considered only one level up or down the SCOM model or through all levels.
- Class:
Here you pick the class of the objects you want to select. If you leave this field empty, the scope falls back to the "this object" scope.
Note: You will only see groups and classes that the object you are currently looking at is a member of.
Tip: If you want to pick objects of any class, enter the SCOM base class logical entity in the class field.
Tip: If you want to find out what classes the object you are interested in belongs to, you can go to the Monitored Entity perspective of that object. You'll see all the classes the object belongs to listed there. - Criteria:
You can narrow the selection of objects of a particular class down further by entering criteria for those objects. For more help see How to use criteria when scoping objects.
Tip: If you want to find out what properties you can base your criteria on, you can go to the Monitored Entity perspective of the object you are interested in. You'll see all the properties for criteria listed there.
.
Other specific objects
Gives you the normal, non-dynamic scope options you are used to when scoping tiles on dashboards. This means the tile will not dynamically adapt it's content to the currently viewed object, it will always show data for the static object picked here.
Since the power of perspectives is that their tiles can show data for different objects depending on what object is currently being viewed, you should only select this option when you are sure that there is no relationship between the desired scope and the currently viewed object.
- ServiceNow permissions assignment with roles
- Provider:
Select your ServiceNow provider from the select provider drop-down and click next.You can only use providers of the same type as the tile. Providers of other types won't be shown in the select provider drop-down.
Note: If you click on add new, you can create a new ServiceNow provider in a new tab. Click on reload after you created the new provider to be able to choose it from the drop-down. - Table:Table:
Here you can choose if you want to get incidents or change requests (for any other data, you can't use the ServiceNow tile and need to use the Web API tiles, see How to use the Web API tile with ServiceNow).
View:
Here you choose the view that determines the set of columns which will be displayed. Views are created in ServiceNow and the list of views is populated from there.To allow the ServiceNow views to be pulled into the ServiceNow Grid visualization the ServiceNow account must also have the 'admin' role in ServiceNow.
Filter:It depends on the ServiceNow account you are using for a provider if you can see all the available views or only the non-admin default view in the View dropdown.
How the ServiceNow account affects the ServiceNow tile
The permissions of the ServiceNow account you are using for your ServiceNow providerplugin affect what you can see and do in the ServiceNow tile.We recommend using a service account, which means you create an account specifically to use with the ServiceNow providerplugin. You have different options for setting up this service account:
- ServiceNow permissions assignment with roles
Give the ServiceNow account the ITIL and rest_api_explorer roles. - ServiceNow permissions assignment with ACLs, in place of roles
If you don't want to use the ITIL role (for licensing or security reasons) give the ServiceNow account only the rest_api_explorer role and use ACLs to give the account more rights. This will limit the functionality of the ServiceNow tile.Using accounts without the ITIL role may cause data streams to error.When you are using an account without the roles specified in this article, then the functionality of the ServiceNow tileplugin is limited:.
- You'll see an error if you used a scope for your tile
- In the View dropdown, only the non-admin default view is available (contains a default set of columns)
- Under Filter, default filters are not available, only user-created ones are visible
You can grant the specific permissions required more granularly by creating a custom role and assigning the specific ACLs or assigning the ACLs themselves directly to a user account:
ACLs can be added in two ways:
- Adding them directly to a user account, meaning you are adding the ACLs to the service account you are using for the ServiceNow providerplugin.
- Adding them to a role. We recommend that you create a new role specifically just for adding the ACLs to it. Then you need to assign the role to the service account you are using for the ServiceNow providerplugin.
A benefit of adding the ACLs to a role is that it makes them easier to manage and you can assign the role to different users (in this case, service accounts) if you want to use different service accounts for different instances of the ServiceNow providersplugin.
You need to add the following ACLs:
sys_filter
sys_dictionary.*
sys_dictionary
sys_db_object
sys_ui_list
sys_db_object.*
sys_ui_list.*
What tile functions do those ACLs add when I use a non-admin ServiceNow account?
- The tile can be scoped
- Under Filter, all default filters are visible
- The ACLs don't affect the views. The View dropdown still shows only the non-admin default view. You need to use an admin Service account to see all the views.
Here you choose a filter to restrict the query to certain items. You'll see default filters from ServiceNow and filters that have been created by users in ServiceNow.It depends on the ServiceNow account you are using for a provider if you can see the default filters.
How the ServiceNow account affects the ServiceNow tile
The permissions of the ServiceNow account you are using for your ServiceNow providerplugin affect what you can see and do in the ServiceNow tile.We recommend using a service account, which means you create an account specifically to use with the ServiceNow providerplugin. You have different options for setting up this service account:
- ServiceNow permissions assignment with roles
Give the ServiceNow account the ITIL and rest_api_explorer roles. - ServiceNow permissions assignment with ACLs, in place of roles
If you don't want to use the ITIL role (for licensing or security reasons) give the ServiceNow account only the rest_api_explorer role and use ACLs to give the account more rights. This will limit the functionality of the ServiceNow tile.Using accounts without the ITIL role may cause data streams to error.When you are using an account without the roles specified in this article, then the functionality of the ServiceNow tileplugin is limited:.
- You'll see an error if you used a scope for your tile
- In the View dropdown, only the non-admin default view is available (contains a default set of columns)
- Under Filter, default filters are not available, only user-created ones are visible
You can grant the specific permissions required more granularly by creating a custom role and assigning the specific ACLs or assigning the ACLs themselves directly to a user account:
ACLs can be added in two ways:
- Adding them directly to a user account, meaning you are adding the ACLs to the service account you are using for the ServiceNow providerplugin.
- Adding them to a role. We recommend that you create a new role specifically just for adding the ACLs to it. Then you need to assign the role to the service account you are using for the ServiceNow providerplugin.
A benefit of adding the ACLs to a role is that it makes them easier to manage and you can assign the role to different users (in this case, service accounts) if you want to use different service accounts for different instances of the ServiceNow providersplugin.
You need to add the following ACLs:
sys_filter
sys_dictionary.*
sys_dictionary
sys_db_object
sys_ui_list
sys_db_object.*
sys_ui_list.*
What tile functions do those ACLs add when I use a non-admin ServiceNow account?
- The tile can be scoped
- Under Filter, all default filters are visible
- The ACLs don't affect the views. The View dropdown still shows only the non-admin default view. You need to use an admin Service account to see all the views.
- ServiceNow permissions assignment with roles
- Configure the settings for the visualization you chose:
Scalar
Color
Conditional formatting:
You can display the data in different colors based on values you define here. For example, you can display the data in green when the value is below 100 and in red when it is above 100.
- Click on add to configure a condition.
- Click on select color.... to open the color picker. Select the color for this condition.
- Enter your condition in the field next to the color. You can use the
value
property and manipulate it with JavaScript String and Regex APIs. When you click on the mustache picker, you'll get some examples:- Value is greater than something, less than something, etc.
For example:{{value < 10}}
(The color you pick will be used if the value is less than 10) - Value is present in the result (scalar tiles only)
For example:value.IndexOf('error') != -1
(The color you pick will be used if the string value "error" is present in the results) - Value matches one of the regular expressions you defined (scalar tiles only)
For example:value.match(/healthy|good|up/)
(The color you picked will be used if the string values arehealthy
,good
, orup
)
- Value is greater than something, less than something, etc.
Display:
Here you decide how the color is used:
Link options
Allows you to turn the graph item(s) into links. You can either enter plain text to create a fixed link (URL always stays the same) or use dynamic properties to create a dynamic link.
Dynamic links make use of dynamic properties which are inserted as part of the URL. This creates a template URL that will be resolved to an actual URL based on the items properties.
For example, if you want to link to tickets in your ticket system and the format of the URL for tickets in your system is
https://www.my-system/ticket-123
, where123
is the ticket ID, you can use the dynamic property that contains the ticket ID and enter the dynamic URLhttps://www.my-system/ticket-{{ticketID}}
.- For scalars, you can only use the dynamic property
value
in dynamic links, which means the link changes when the value of the scalar changes. Since a scalar is just one item, it would also make sense to use a fixed link, for example the link to the website of which you are displaying the response time. - For status icon or bars and the rows of a grid, you usually want to use a dynamic link since you get multiple items or rows that represent different things. You can use any of the dynamic properties the mustache picker offers you.
Dynamic mustache properties and values you need to change according to your instance are highlighted in bold.
ServiceNow incidents:
https://<your-instance>.service-now.com/nav_to.do?uri=%2Fincident.do%3Fsys_id%3D{{sys_id}}
PagerDuty incidents:
{{incident.html_url}}
Azure DevOps projects:
https://dev.azure.com/<your-instance>/{{name}}
Azure DevOps builds:
https://dev.azure.com/<your-instance>/_build/results?buildId={{id}}
Zendesk tickets:
https://<your-instance>.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/{{id}}
Azure Application Insights
https://portal.azure.com/#@squaredup.net/resource/{{ResourceId}}
Display
Size mode:
Show legend:
Allows you to show or hide the legend of the graph.
Display mode:
Allows you to switch between displaying absolute values or percentages.
Display
Limit:
Allows you to change the limit for the number of rows of data returned (default is 20).
Sort by:
Allows you to sort the data by a column in ascending or descending order. The Sort option uses the many incident fields, and you can sort by one of them even if that field is not currently displayed in your results table. To make this more clear you may like to reference this in the tile title, for example
Incidents, sorted by priority
. Click done to save the tile.
The tile now shows data according to your settings.
FAQs
Why can't I find the provider I created in the dropdown list?
If you are unable to see your provider in the list check that it is a servicenow provider. Any other types of providers will not be shown in the dropdown.
How do I query data other than Incidents or Change Requests ?
The ServiceNow tile can only show Incidents or Change Requests. If you wish to query other tables use the Web API tile to query the ServiceNow API instead of the ServiceNow tile (see How to use the Web API tile with ServiceNow).
How do I create a new view or filter ?
The list of views and filters is pulled from ServiceNow. When you create any new views and filters in ServiceNow they will be available in SquaredUp DS.