This article summarizes what types of asset attributes can be enriched from our connector with ServiceNow CMDB, and the benefits of using that enriched data in policy.
ServiceNow Integration with Elisity
Our Integration is designed to provide two major benefits:
- Provide contextual data from CMDB into CCC to help our SecOps user persona to understand operational context about a device
- Enable customers to distinguish rogue devices from enterprise-managed and apply differentiated policies to them. By rogue devices, we mean devices of types that we have accurately identified – but which may not be owned or managed by our enterprise customer.
ServiceNow integration is similar to our Medigate integration in overall operation.
There is one minor difference. When we discover a new endpoint, we will take attributes MAC and IP which uniquely identify the device and query ServiceNow. If MAC and IP together do not have a match in ServiceNow, we will query with MAC address alone, then with the IP alone if IP Only Based Lookup is enabled, and finally with the hostname if Hostname-Based Lookup is enabled.
To reiterate, when a new device comes online, Elisity will query ServiceNow with the following attributes in order of precedence.
- MAC + IP Address
- MAC Address
- IP Alone, when IP Only Based Lookup is enabled
- Hostname (compared to CMDB Name), when Hostname-Based Lookup is enabled
The IP Only Based Lookup and Hostname-Based Lookup options under Advanced Settings on the ServiceNow connector control the last two steps of this query order. Hostname is the least specific of these keys, so enable it where CMDB MAC and IP coverage is incomplete and leave it disabled where hostnames are not reliably unique. See Connect ServiceNow CMDB for the configuration steps.
Attribute Mapping
Below is a map of how attributes map from ServiceNow to Elisity's Cloud Control Center.
| ServiceNow Field | Elisity Attribute | Core Effective Attribute | Policy Group Match Criteria |
|---|---|---|---|
managed_by |
Managed By | No | Yes |
managed_by_group |
Managed By Group | No | Yes |
u_ci_id * |
CI ID | No | Yes |
u_tech_org * |
Tech Org | No | Yes |
u_business_org * |
Business Org | No | Yes |
manufacturer |
Vendor | Yes | Yes |
model_number |
Model | Yes | Yes |
subcategory |
Type | Yes | Yes |
serial_number |
Serial Number | No | Yes |
operational_status |
Operational Status | No | Yes |
install_status |
Install Status | No | Yes |
environment |
Environment | No | Yes |
u_ci_ownership * |
CI Ownership | No | Yes |
location |
Location | No | Yes |
short_description |
Description | No | Yes |
support_group |
Support Group | No | Yes |
department |
Department | No | Yes |
sys_class_name |
CMDB Class Name | No | Yes |
asset_tag |
Asset Tag | No | Yes |
owned_by.name |
Owner | No | Yes |
owned_by.user_name |
Owner Username | No | Yes |
name |
CMDB Name | No | Yes |
fqdn |
Hostname (host portion of the FQDN) | Yes | No |
| Device exists in ServiceNow | Trust attribute: Known in ServiceNow | No | Yes |
sys_created_by |
Created By ** | No | Yes |
sys_updated_by |
Updated By ** | No | Yes |
* Custom fields defined in your ServiceNow instance. If a field does not exist in your CMDB, the attribute is left empty and enrichment of the other attributes continues.
** Created By and Updated By support flexible matching (equals, not equals, contains) in Policy Group match criteria.
Install Status and Environment contain the label shown in ServiceNow (for example, Installed or Retired), not the stored value. ServiceNow attributes appear on the device details page and can be added as columns in the Device Table. Attributes marked Yes in the Policy Group Match Criteria column are listed under ServiceNow Attributes when you build Policy Group match criteria. Known in ServiceNow is a value of the Trust Attributes criterion instead.
Category is an attribute derived from Elisity Intelligence and does not directly map to attributes in ServiceNow.
Additional Considerations
Admin-initiated refresh of device info from ServiceNow:
Cloud Control Center will query ServiceNow for new information every 24 hours. Any devices learned by Elisity prior to the Connector being configured will be automatically scheduled for enrichment during the next 24 hour cycle and based on their attachment timestamp.
Deployment Order:
If ServiceNow functions are deployed after Elisity, admin-initiated refresh(es) will need to be triggered from CCC when the CMDB has been populated.
If ServiceNow is used prior to an Elisity deployment and the CMDB is populated, admin intervention should not be necessary.