VMware vRealize Automation and ServiceNow integration just got upgraded with our latest plugin release. The integration allows for ServiceNow users to access the vRealize Automation catalog via the ServiceNow portal. This integration has allowed our customers to benefit from the feature rich blueprinting capabilities within vRealize Automation and present those items to ServiceNow users thus providing a single portal for users to access for the IT requests and other business needs. vRealize Automation and ServiceNow are even better together with the release of ITSM 8.0.1 plugin made available in the ServiceNow Store.
As vRealize Automation has evolved since our 7.x release, so has the ServiceNow plugin in regards to some of the differences in core constructs of vRealize Automation 8.x. For instance in vRealize Automation 8.x you configure “Projects” in order to groups users to catalog items, whereas in the vRealize Automation 7.x world you would configure “Business Groups”. The new ITSM plugin reflects these changes. However our message and the value that the ITSM plugin brings to our customers has not changed. The better together story is stronger than ever with enhanced Day 2 actions and more visibility for example.
Requirements
VMware vRealize Automation
- vRealize Automation – 8.0, 8.0.1
- vRealize Automation Cloud
ServiceNow versions
- Madrid
- New York
ServiceNow Plugins
- User criteria scoped API (This plug-in requires paid subscription)
Note: You cannot upgrade from 7.x plugin to 8.0.1, this would need to be a parallel or fresh install.
ServiceNow / vRealize Automation Portal Overview
In case you are not familiar with the plugin and how it works, let me briefly go over some of the main areas of interest. One of the main reasons why IT organizations want to use the ServiceNow plugin is so they can have their end users (internal employees) have one place to request services and infrastructure. When a user logs into ServiceNow they will see any plugins and software they are entitled to, and if they are entitled to the vRealize Automation endpoint within ServiceNow then they will see the portal link on the navigation bar within the ServiceNow portal.
Once the user clicks on the Portal link, then they will be taken to a VMware Cloud Services branded portal that contains their Deployment and Catalog items (see image below). From there they can request resources that were built in vRealize Automation. The portal can be branded now as well, that is one of the new features of the 8.0.1 plugin as referenced later in this blog.
In the image below on the left hand side you will see Categories and then a list of items, those are the vRealize Automation 8.x “Projects” that the user is entitled to. Remember the user will be entitled to the Project from within the ServiceNow portal Entitlement section. So there is no need to do any user configuration in the vRealize Automation software itself to make this catalog available.
Once the user requests an item then the provisioning and approval process will begin. When the resource is deployed the user can then interact with the machine or resource from the portal.
The image below shows a deployment screen where the user can get information related to the resource and deployment. Information like network, storage and summary details are available. Users can also take “actions” from this screen against the deployment and/or the resource. So if a User wants to reboot a virtual machine, they can do that from the “action” dropdown menu.
Users will only be able to see actions that they have been entitled to as well, so if you do not want the users to be able to take snapshots for instance then do not allow for that action in the Entitlements section. There is a screenshot in the Features section of this blog that shows an example of the Entitlement page. Now lets explore some of the new features in 8.0.1.
Features in ITSM 8.0.1 Release
Resource Sharing allows Admins or users to share their deployments with other ServiceNow users. This will allow groups to be able to collaborate together by sharing access to deployed resources.
Catalog items and Day 2 actions entitlement across ServiceNow users.
Resource Visibility based on entitlements and ownership within ServiceNow.
Header and Footer Rebranding where Global admin can apply changes based on requirements. Rebranding allows a Global admin to apply changes to images, logo, text and colors of the header and footer area of the vRealize portal.
Some other features to note:
- Two-way checkout functionality for Catalog items on the portal
- Reconcile of CMDB
- Support for below vRA datatypes
- Date/Time
- Array
- Password
VMware is committed to giving our customers choice when it comes to building out multi-cloud automation and operations. This updated integration allows for even more capabilities for our customers as they progress along their journey and helps IT provide value back to the business.
If you are interested in reading about the 7.x version of the plugin then check out the link below.
Introducing the vRealize Automation ITSM Plugin for ServiceNow v7.6
