Introduction to Orchestration

Release version: Australia

Updated March 12, 2026

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Summary of Introduction to Orchestration

Orchestration automates complex tasks across various systems, applications, and hardware, enabling efficient management of IT and business processes. It enhances team collaboration by providing reusable data and versioning for workflows. Changes in activities are easily tracked, ensuring that downstream effects are visible to developers.

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Key Features

External Calls: Orchestration can interact with web services outside of ServiceNow and communicate with systems behind corporate firewalls via MID Server.
Reusable Activities: Developers can create activities that encapsulate JavaScript functions, facilitating integration with third-party systems.
Activity Packs: Pre-built activities and a designer tool help developers create custom activities with minimal scripting.
Core Applications: Includes Client Software Distribution for software delivery and a Password Reset application for Active Directory.
ROI Tracking: Users can measure the costs and benefits of automated tasks to evaluate ROI.

Key Outcomes

Orchestration automates tasks like employee onboarding and server management, streamlining operations. It supports systems that expose web services, command-line interfaces, and various proprietary services. The architecture of Orchestration ensures that workflows can pause and resume based on real-time data analysis, enhancing operational efficiency.

Orchestration automates simple or complex multi-system tasks on remote services, servers, applications, and hardware.

An Orchestration process can cross all management disciplines and interact with hosted services and all types of infrastructure elements. These capabilities provide a powerful system for managing IT and Business processes quickly and reliably.

Orchestrated solutions aide collaboration among teams by providing reusable data and versioning for both the workflows and the activities within them. Subject matter experts can create activities that are reusable to numerous workflow developers. When an activity requires a change, developers can see the downstream implication of the change immediately by knowing which workflows use the activity. Well-designed orchestrations never fail and apply human tasks to address errors as they arise.

Orchestration tools

Orchestration can make calls outside of a ServiceNow instance, directly to web services or through a MID Server to systems within corporate firewall. Orchestration also enables the creation reusable activities that wrapper Java Script functions for manipulating things inside the platform. Orchestration extends the Workflow editor by providing these features:

Activity packs containing ready-to-use activities.
Activity Designer, which enables developers to create custom activities without an over dependence to create scripts to orchestrate to third-party systems.
Ability to create activity packs using Scoped Applications.
A Databus for following the flow of data across orchestration activities.

Orchestration Core provides entitlements to use specific applications:

Client Software Distribution: An application that automates software delivery from the Service Catalog. Provides OOB support for SCCM. Partner solutions support Macs using JAMF. Other third-party solutions provide support through the extension framework.
Configuring Password Reset: An application for users to reset their password in Active Directory. It can expand to communicate with other third-party systems.
Orchestration ROI: Enables users to evaluate estimated costs and actual costs for tasks, automate these tasks, and track the ROI of these tasks.

Systems that Orchestration can automate

Orchestration can automate tasks such as employee onboarding, user access rights, server management, managed file transfers, and Security Operations Orchestration activities . For example, you might use the Active Directory and Exchange activities provided in the base Orchestration system to set up network accounts and mailboxes for new employees.

If Orchestration does not provide the activities you need for an integration, create the necessary activities using the templates in the Orchestration Activity Designer. The external systems that Orchestration can automate for:

Any system exposing web services (SOAP, REST)
Any system accessible from the command line (such as a UNIX system accessible through SSH, a Windows system enabled for PowerShell remoting or WMI)
Numerous proprietary services: Windows Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange mail servers, InfoBlox, and F5 Networks.
Note:
For a full list of Activity Pack service offerings, see Orchestration Core Activity Packs.
Any filesystem accessible by SFTP
Any database with a compliant JDBC driver
Additional Activity Packs are also available with other ServiceNow products, such as Security Operations

Orchestration workflow

When an Orchestration activity starts within a workflow, Orchestration launches a Discovery probes and sensors and writes a probe record to the ECC Queue. The workflow pauses as the MID Server picks up the request and executes the probe. When the probe reports back, the workflow resumes as the results are analyzed. The workflow can exit or continue at this point.