Aria Automation and ServiceNow

Aria Automation has a robust service catalog called Service Broker, which allows administrators to publish offerings and for consumers to request them. ServiceNow has something similar called their Service Catalog. You can integrate them, such that Automation Service Broker items are published to the ServiceNow Service Catalog, allowing consumers to use one storefront for all orders, the ServiceNow Service Portal. The integration is made via a plugin available from the ServiceNow Store called the VMware Aria Automation Plugin. Here's how to do it!

There are several pieces of documentation I used for this:

These links help guide us during our installation and configuration, while Maher's blog gives us all the details. Let's get started with the prerequisites, the compatibility matrix. In our case we're using:

Aria Automation 8.16.2
ServiceNow Vancouver
VMware Aria Automation Plug-In 8.16.1 (this is from the ServiceNow store)

Then install the ServiceNow MID Server, which you can do on Linux or Windows. I installed on Windows, confirmed connectivity, and started the MID Server upon completion.

Once complete, go to ServiceNow - All - Mid Server and validate.

As you can see, mines been validated, so let's move on.

The next step is to Install the User Criteria Scoped API Plug-In on your ServiceNow instance. If you are a paid ServiceNow subscriber this is easy, just go to System Definition - Plugins and search for "User criteria scoped API". Once found you can click Install and then Activate.

I'm not a paid subscriber, but rather I'm using a developer instance of ServiceNow, so I don't have access to items from the ServiceNow Store, including the "User criteria scoped API", so we'll have to install it manually from XML. Go to All - System Updates Sets - Retrieved Update Sets and Import Update Set from XML.

Once you've selected Import Update Set from XML, point it at your XML file, and follow the instruction in Maher's vlog (part 3). I'm not going to detail this as you're likely installing it from the ServiceNow store anyway.

Next, create a Data Source Choice in ServiceNow by going to System Definition - Choice Lists - New.

Select Configuration Item [cmdb_ci] from the Table dropdown and configure it as documented.

Next, enable application access as documented here. Now that we're done with the Install prerequisites, let's move on to the Install and Update of the VMware Aria Automation Plug-in.

As indicated in the documentation: You can install the VMware Aria Automation Plug-in from ServiceNow Store. The installation is free, you must have a valid VMware Aria Automation product license. If you have previously installed the VMware Aria Automation Plug-in, then you can skip this topic.

Once installed (or updated), let's configure it. First, add the necessary User roles.

You can also add users to groups for Approval and/or Support purposes.

To establish the connection between the ServiceNow Plugin for Aria Automation and Aria Automation itself, you must create an Endpoint for it. Go to Manage Endpoints - New and create yours, mine looks like this.

Once complete, you can configure event-based data sync in Aria Automation if you'd like, but this is optional.

Next, let's configure the ServiceNow Service Portal, which you do via System Properties.

As indicated, this record is a part of the VMware vRA ITSM Application.

Finally, we can configure what the ServiceNow Service Portal looks like by going to Service Portal - Service Portal Configuration.

Then go to Designer, search for index, and select Home Page.

You can now configure what your Service Potal looks like by dragging widgets from the left hand pane to the canvas on the right, mine now looks like this.

Finally, to see the Aria Automation Service Broker items that have been published to the ServiceNow Service Portal, select the "Request Something" tile.