Change Management integration with ITOM Visibility

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 3 minutes to read
    • Summarize
    Summarized using AI
    This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete.

    Summary of Change Management integration with ITOM Visibility

    This integration enables automated and manual management of configuration items (CIs) with IP addresses involved in change requests by connecting Change Management with ITOM Discovery and ITOM Visibility. It provides enhanced visibility and control over changes affecting application services and their underlying infrastructure.

    Show full answer Show less

    Enabling Integration

    • Subscription to ITOM Discovery or ITOM Visibility automatically enables integration.
    • Required plugins:
      • For ITOM Discovery: Discovery plugin (com.snc.discovery)
      • For ITOM Visibility: Discovery plugin and Service Mapping plugin (com.snc.service-mapping)

    Integration with ITOM Discovery

    This integration introduces three configurable Change Management properties that control how discovery is triggered for affected CIs in change requests:

    • Discovery Trigger Mode: Controls automatic, manual, both, or no discovery initiation.
    • States Allowing Manual Discovery: Defines which change request states permit manual discovery initiation via a related link.
    • States Triggering Automatic Discovery: Defines change request states that automatically trigger discovery when entered.

    Note: When multiple languages are used, these state properties must be set using internal state values to function correctly.

    The Affected CI related list is enhanced with Discovery State and Discovery Last Updated fields:

    • Discovery State: Shows status icons and links to discovery logs with statuses like In Progress, Completed Successfully, Completed with Warning/Error, or Cancelled.
    • Discovery Last Updated: Timestamp of the most recent discovery run.

    If manual or both trigger modes are configured, an Initiate Discovery related link appears for eligible change request states, allowing fulfillers to request discovery on-demand.

    Integration with ITOM Visibility

    This integration extends visibility to application services by showing changes on service maps, highlighting how changes impact the overall service and individual CIs.

    • Service maps visualize changes using colored balloons indicating approval and impact status:
      • Light gray balloon: Unapproved change with no effect on service behavior.
      • Dark gray balloon: Unapproved change affecting service behavior.
      • Green balloon: Approved change when change validation is configured.
      • Double balloon: Multiple changes occurring close in time.
    • If the ServiceNow AI Platform is configured for change validation, it evaluates all changes and marks change records on service maps as approved or not.

    Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Automated synchronization of CI discovery within change processes improves accuracy and efficiency.
    • Manual initiation options give change fulfillers control over discovery timing.
    • Enhanced visibility on application service maps helps understand the impact and approval status of changes.
    • Integration with AI-driven change validation supports risk-aware change management.

    If your organization is subscribed to ITOM Discovery or ITOM Visibility, integration with these ITOM products is automatically enabled. With this integration, any configuration item (CI) with an IP address that is part of a change request process can be maintained automatically. Change request fulfillers can also manually request the discovery process for a CI.

    Enabling integration

    Depending on subscriptions purchased by your organization, you must install and configure the following plugins:
    • For ITOM Discovery - the Discovery plugin (com.snc.discovery)
    • For ITOM Visibility - the Discovery plugin (com.snc.discovery) and Service Mapping plugin (com.snc.service-mapping)

    Integration with ITOM Discovery

    When Discovery is activated, Change Management exposes three new properties within the Change Properties module (Change Management > Administration > Change Properties):
    Table 1. Change Management properties for Discovery
    Property Description
    Configures how discovery is triggered for Affected CIs (automatically, manually or off) Determines whether to trigger discovery for the affected CIs automatically, manually, both, or not at all.

    Type: Choice list

    Values: Off, Both, Automatic, Manual

    Default value: Off

    Note:
    If the property below is set to Both, and you trigger discovery manually, then the automatic discovery will not be triggered for that change request.
    List of Change Request states (comma-separated) where discovery can be triggered manually Defines the change request state values to allow discovery to be manually initiated. For these defined state values, the Initiate Discovery related link is available.

    Type: String

    Default value: Implement, Review

    Note:
    If there are multiple languages used on the instance, then this property needs to be set to the internal state value for Review.
    List of Change Request states (comma-separated) where discovery triggers automatically. E.g. when the Change Request's state changes to Review Defines the change request state values for which discovery is automatically triggered. Discovery initiates when transitioning to the state values listed.

    Type: String

    Default values: Review

    Note:
    If there are multiple languages used on the instance, then this property needs to be set to the internal state value for Review.
    Note:
    For the last two properties in the above table, if there are multiple languages used on the instance, then the property needs to be set to the internal value, which is 0, for Review.
    In addition to the new properties, the Discovery State and the Discovery last updated fields get added to the Affected CI related list. Discovery State provides one of five status values and a corresponding icon to reflect that status:
    • In Progress
    • Completed Successfully
    • Completed w/Warning
    • Completed w/Error
    • Cancelled

    The Discovery State value is presented as a link to the corresponding Discovery log file. The Discovery last updated field contains a date and time stamp indicating the last time Discovery was executed.

    If you have opted to manually initiate the Discovery module, or opted for both manual and automatic initiation, then the Initiate Discovery related link appears in the Related Links section when the state of the change request matches one of the defined states in the property. When Discovery is triggered, the values in the Discovery State and the Discovery last updated fields change.
    Figure 1. Change management integration with discovery
    change management integration with discovery

    Integration with ITOM Visibility

    You can view the changes in the context of application services. Service maps available in Service Mapping show changes to an application service as a whole and to the individual configuration items (CIs) comprising the service.

    If the ServiceNow AI Platform is configured to validate changes, all changes are evaluated and rendered as valid or not. If a change is valid, its change record on the application service map is marked as approved. For more information about configuring the platform for change validation, see Managing proposed changes.

    The type of change mark depends on the nature of changes that it represents:
    Light gray balloon (Light grey balloon icon)
    Unapproved change that does not influence the application service behavior. For example, a change in a network path or adding a node to a cluster.
    Dark gray balloon (Dark gray balloon icon)
    Unapproved change that changes the application service behavior.
    Green balloon (Green balloon icon)
    An approved change in deployments where the ServiceNow AI Platform is configured to validate changes.
    Double balloon (Green balloon icon)
    Multiple separate changes that happened a short time from each other.