This document is about the integration of NetApp WFA into Service-Now. I assume in the meantime everybody is familiar with WFA (if not then do something about it). So lets spend a few sentences on Service-Now:
Service-Now is an Internet-based SaaS system for IT support, much like SalesForce.com is for CRM. You rent the service rather than installing it on premise. NetApp people are mostly familiar with it as we are a customer of Service-Now and implement the IT ticketing system with it.
What is such an integration good for?
Single pane of glass integration of storage provisioning/management (via WFA) in Service-Now service catalog and user interface. In other words we want:
- Expose the WFA workflows in Service-Now to get a smooth user experience
- Embed WFA workflows in Service-Now workflows (currently considered optional)
The current thinking is dominated by the fact that WFA workflows typically make sense on their own so exposing them as they are in Service-Now makes sense. Ideally those items are exposed either selectively or completely in an own category in the Service-Now service catalog.
Dont get confused about the term service catalog!
Within the context of Provisioning Manager the term storage service catalog is known to NetApp people. It implements certain kind of storage provisioining/placement/protection. In the context of ITSM solutions the term service catalog can consist of a much broader set of entities, e.g. including ordering of hardware. Dont get confused here. In the context of WFA we can consider the offered workflows also as a storage centric catalog.
Security?
This question comes up a lot. A Service-Now installation usually looks like this: A hosted web based application with an on premise remote agent (MID Server) in the customer datacenter. We need to attach to this remote agent then there is no discussion about security. Due to cross domain user management a WFA user has to be configured which then is used by Service-Now to perform the WSDL API requests.
Technically - whats behind?
Similarly to the other documented integration approaches it is again the WSDL interface of WFA which we trigger from Service-Now. It is intended to trigger it via the Service-Now MID server to address security. Will be verified soon.
Current status?
We have a demo instance of Service-Now to get this forward. Connection to WFA was established and the getAllWorkflows method was send successfully. Next method is getJobStatus - here we currently have some issues with envelopes. Once thats fixed the other methods should be a no brainer.
References:
- See the Cisco IAC counterpart of such an integration on https://communities.netapp.com/docs/DOC-16287
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