DocsAPI ReferenceRelease Notes
BigPanda AppRequest DemoBigPanda University

ServiceNow

Use the BigPanda ServiceNow application for a convenient & deep integration between BigPanda and ServiceNow.

The BigPanda application for ServiceNow is a native ServiceNow application that enables easy setup of multiple different integrations between BigPanda and ServiceNow, including Incidents, Incident Reports, Changes, Maintenance Plans, and CMDB.

BigPanda ServiceNow Application Architecture

BigPanda ServiceNow Application Architecture

👍

No matter which ServiceNow integration type you are creating, you can follow the steps below to install or update the application.

ServiceNow Incidents

The ServiceNow Incidents integration allows you to automatically create incidents in ServiceNow from correlated, insight-rich incidents in BigPanda. Incidents in ServiceNow and BigPanda are automatically synchronized throughout their life-cycle, ensuring relevant workflows are triggered as needed and teams are always up-to-date so they can quickly resolve critical issues.

Reference the ServiceNow Incidents and ServiceNow Incident Advanced Customization documentation to learn about:

ServiceNow Incident Reports

The ServiceNow Incident Reports feature allows you to push incident data into BigPanda for analysis in Unified Analytics. Fields can be customized and adjusted if you rely on properties that differ from BigPanda’s standards.

Reference the ServiceNow Incident Reports documentation to learn more about:

🚧

Update the BigPanda App

To use ServiceNow Incident Reports, you must upgrade to version 2.8 of the BigPanda ServiceNow application.

If you are currently using a version of the BigPanda ServiceNow application from the ServiceNow Store, you'll need to switch to the latest version from the ServiceNow Developer Page or downloadable here. To streamline the migration, please follow the Migrate from the ServiceNow Store to the Update Set instructions.

ServiceNow Changes

The ServiceNow Changes integration immediately notifies BigPanda of any new or updated changes in your ServiceNow Change Management, ensuring these changes are available for machine-language-driven root cause analysis in BigPanda, with the root Root Cause Changes feature.

In the ServiceNow Changes documentation, learn more about:

ServiceNow CMDB

The ServiceNow CMDB integration allows you to enrich your incoming BigPanda alerts with contextual information from your ServiceNow CMDB. The added context enables NOC operators to quickly assess and resolve incidents.

In the ServiceNow CMDB documentation, learn more about:

ServiceNow Maintenance Plans

The ServiceNow Maintenance integration provides a method for suppressing alerts originating from infrastructure during a maintenance window.

In the ServiceNow Maintenance Plans documentation, learn more about:

Install the BigPanda ServiceNow Integration

To install the integration, follow the on-screen instructions in BigPanda.

To download the BigPanda application Update Set and see the features added in the most recent version, check out the ServiceNow Developer Portal.

  1. Navigate to System Update Sets > Retrieved Update Sets.
  2. Under Related Links, select Import Update Set from XML.
  3. Under Preview Set, select Fix any errors.
  4. If the error Could not find a record in sys_app_application for column menu referenced in this update is encountered, select Accept Remote Update. The error is expected and the remote update must be accepted for the application to function.
  5. Once imported, the application should now be available from the Navigation Pane and Scope.

If you’ve previously downloaded the BigPanda ServiceNow application and need to update to a newer version, see the Update the BigPanda ServiceNow App documentation.

Create a BigPanda ServiceNow User

Follow the instructions below to create a new BigPanda ServiceNow user.

🚧

Skip this section if you are using ServiceNow on-premises

  1. In ServiceNow, under User Administration > Users, click New.
  2. Fill out the New User form (make sure to include the following fields):
  • User ID - bigpanda
  • First name - BigPanda
  • Password - create a password of your choosing and save for later
  1. Make sure that the Active checkbox is checked.
  2. Click Submit.
  3. Find the user by writing bigpanda in the filter box above the User ID column.
  4. Go to the Roles section (the first section) and click Edit.
  5. Filter for x_bip_panda_user on the left table and then double-click it to move it to the right table.
  6. Click Save.

Update the BigPanda ServiceNow App

Updating the BigPanda ServiceNow app may involve different steps depending upon the version that you are currently running. Determine which version you are on, and follow the steps below to upgrade.

For more information about updating the ServiceNow App, see the Update ServiceNow and ServiceNow Merge Conflicts and Application Scripts documentation.

👍

BigPanda App Version

To determine your BigPanda ServiceNow application version, navigate to System Applications > My Company Applications within your ServiceNow instance. The BigPanda Application tile will list which version has been installed.

Uninstall the Integration

Deleting an integration requires changes to both the integrated system and BigPanda. You must uninstall the integration on the integrated system and then delete the integration from BigPanda.

🚧

When replacing an existing integration with a new tool or system, we recommend configuring the new integration first to ensure no data is lost.

Stop Sending Data to BigPanda

On the integrated system, disable any settings that send data to BigPanda.

Manually resolve any open alerts sent from the integration to remove the associated incidents from your incident feed. These incidents will not automatically resolve without an ok status from the original sending integration.

Stop Sending Data from BigPanda

In BigPanda, disable any settings that send data to the integrated system. This includes modifying or removing AutoShare rules or Environments that are tied to the integration.

Delete the Integration from BigPanda

  1. In BigPanda, navigate to the Integrations tab and select the desired integration from the list.
  2. In the integration details on the right, click Delete Integration. A support message opens, pre-populated with a request to delete the selected integration.
  3. Press Enter to send the request.
  4. The BigPanda support team will remove the integration from the UI.

❗

️

This procedure does not remove any data from BigPanda or the integrated system. As needed, remove data from each system before deleting the integration.

Release Notes

v2.8 (4/28/23)

The BigPanda team resolved logical bugs related to the newly introduced event-type metadata tracking that were present in v2.5-2.7.

New Features

  • Application: The Javascript Mode has been updated to ES12 (ECMA2021) For more details check this ServiceNow Developer Blog post.
  • CMDB: Support for inactivating individual tables, which can be used to test the addition of new tables
  • CMDB: Improved logging (track incorrect queries, missing columns, etc.)
  • CMDB: Prepopulate configuration with most frequently used tables (only for new downloads; these will not be applied when updating)
  • Configuration: Set Affected CIs checkbox in Changes to true as default
  • Incident Reports: Sync historical incidents with BigPanda for MTTR analysis
  • Incidents: Flapping - Block Resolve toggle will only resolve a ServiceNow incident if it is not flapping
  • Incidents: When tickets fail to get created in ServiceNow, Comments are now posted back to BigPanda with details
  • Incidents: Description and Short Description defaults were updated based on feedback from users
  • Incidents: Update BigPanda incident tag to use HTML anchor link
  • OAuth: Support for OAuth-based authentication when creating tickets from BigPanda

Bug Fixes

  • Incidents: Prevent occasional duplicate notifications on initial ticket creation
  • Incidents: Support syncing BigPanda Incident Tags with space characters
  • If using v2.7, clearing browser cache may be required to fix configuration form entries
  • Resolve issues when using CMDB and upgrading from version < 2.2.1
  • Updated the CMDB Script Includes to retrieve the display names of glide_list and Choice Table records
  • Changed "===" to "==" and "!==" to "!=" in Business Rules and Script actions
  • Resolved NLU “fix missing record” errors when installing/applying Update Sets
  • CMDB 'Active' checkbox now works on individual rows for ServiceNow Utah
  • Added Incident ID to Incident Reports

v2.7 (removed following fixes applied in v2.8)

v2.6 (removed following fixes applied in v2.7)

v2.5 (removed following fixes applied in v2.7)

v2.4 (7/1/22)

Bug Fixes

  • When a closed incident in ServiceNow is reopened in BigPanda a new ServiceNow incident is created instead of reopening the closed incident
  • Set standard "Content-Type", 'application/json' Request Headers to support debugging
  • CMDB will now replace newline characters with spaces
  • In Chrome, auto-complete will be unable to insert incorrect passwords on the Configuration form
  • All changes sent to BigPanda will be in UTC to prevent incorrect time zone shifting
  • Fix bug sending blank values for Incident Tags

Updated 5 months ago