ServiceNow Commvault Integration​ [Streamline Incident Management]

Are you looking to enhance your incident management process for data protection operations? ServiceNow Commvault Integration provides a powerful solution to automatically create and manage incidents directly within your ServiceNow platform.

By leveraging Commvault’s workflow capabilities, you can seamlessly connect your data backup and recovery environment with ServiceNow’s service management services.

This guide will walk you through setting up ServiceNow Commvault Integration to automatically create incidents in ServiceNow when critical events, like restore failures, occur in Commvault. This proactive approach ensures timely notifications and efficient handling of data protection issues.

How ServiceNow Commvault Integration Works for Incident Creation

ServiceNow Commvault Integration utilizes pre-built workflow activities within Commvault to communicate with your ServiceNow instance. These activities enable you to perform various operations, including:

• Creating new ServiceNow records: Automatically generate incidents, problems, or change requests.
• Modifying existing ServiceNow records: Update incident status, add notes, or reassign tasks.
• Retrieving ServiceNow records: Query ServiceNow for specific information needed within Commvault workflows.
• Deleting ServiceNow records: Manage and clean up records as needed.

For incident creation specifically, Commvault offers a predefined workflow called “Demo_ServiceNowCreateIncident”. This workflow is designed to:

1. Securely connect to your ServiceNow instance by validating user credentials using OAuth.
2. Automatically create an incident record in ServiceNow when a data restore operation fails within Commvault.
3. Enrich the incident record with detailed information about the failure, ensuring your administrators have all the context they need. This includes:
   • Alert details (name, type, criteria, time of detection)
   • CommCell environment information (name, initiating user)
   • Job details (ID, status, start and end times, error code)
   • Failure specifics (reason for failure, affected backup set)
4. Optionally send an email notification to the CommCell administrator, providing immediate awareness of the restore failure and the newly created ServiceNow incident.

Setting up ServiceNow Commvault Integration for Incident Creation

To enable automated incident creation through ServiceNow Commvault Integration, you’ll need to configure a few things beforehand:

Prerequisites for ServiceNow Commvault Integration:

• Active ServiceNow Instance: Ensure you have a working ServiceNow instance that is accessible via its URL.
• Commvault Integration with ServiceNow: Your ServiceNow instance must be properly integrated with Commvault. This involves setting up OAuth authorization to allow secure communication between the two platforms. Refer to ServiceNow documentation for “OAuth Setup” for detailed instructions.
• OAuth Token Creation: Generate an OAuth token within ServiceNow. This token will be used by Commvault to authenticate and access your ServiceNow instance. Again, consult ServiceNow’s “OAuth Setup” guide for token creation steps.
• ServiceNow Login Activity Configuration: Within the Commvault workflow, specifically in the “ServiceNowLogin” activity, you need to provide the OAuth token details and user credentials created in the previous steps. Refer to Commvault documentation on “Available Built-In Activities” for guidance.
• ServiceNow Configuration Items and User:
  • Configuration Item Name: Your ServiceNow instance must have a configuration item named “Simpana”.
  • ServiceNow User: A user with the last name “cvworkflow” must exist in your ServiceNow instance. This user will be designated as the “caller” when incidents are created by the ServiceNow Commvault Integration.
• Enable the Workflow: The “Demo_ServiceNowCreateIncident” workflow is disabled by default in Commvault. You must manually enable it. See Commvault documentation on “Workflow Operations – Enable/Disable a Workflow” for instructions.

Step-by-Step Procedure to Trigger Incident Creation on ServiceNow

Once the prerequisites are in place, follow these steps to configure an alert in Commvault that will automatically trigger the “Demo_ServiceNowCreateIncident” workflow upon a restore failure:

1. Access Alerts in CommCell Console: From the CommCell Console ribbon, navigate to and click on Alerts. This will open the Alerts dialog box.

2. Add a New Alert: Click the Add button within the Alerts dialog box to create a new alert.

3. General Alert Information: In the General Information page:

   • Display Name: Enter a descriptive name for your alert (e.g., “ServiceNow Restore Failure Incident”).
   • Category: From the Category dropdown list, select Job Management.
   • Type: From the Type dropdown list, choose Data Recovery, and then click Next.

4. Associate Entities: Select the specific clients or client groups that you want this alert to apply to. Click Next after selecting your entities.

5. Define Alert Criteria: In the Choose Alert Criteria page, select Job Failed as the alert trigger. Click Next to proceed.

6. Configure Workflow Notification: Navigate to the Notification Type(s) Selection page and then click on the Workflow tab.

   • Enable Workflow Notification: Check the box labeled Select [Workflow] for notification.
   • Choose Workflow: From the Workflow to run dropdown list, select Demo_ServiceNowCreateIncident workflow.
   • Input Parameters: A table will appear, pre-populated with input parameters required by the workflow. You need to select values for these parameters from the dropdown lists in the Value column. These values are dynamic and will be populated with alert details at the time of the alert.

Name	Value	Description
AlertName	<ALERT NAME>	The user-defined name of the alert.
AlertType	<ALERT CATEGORY – ALERT TYPE>	Categorization of the alert (e.g., Job Management – Data Recovery).
CommCell	<COMMCELL NAME>	The name of your CommCell environment.
DetectedCriteria	<DETECTED CRITERIA>	Specific criteria that triggered the alert (e.g., Job Failed).
DetectedTime	<END TIME>	Date and time when the alert condition was detected (restore job end time).
User	<USER NAME>	CommCell user who initiated the restore operation.
JobID	<JOB ID>	Unique identifier of the failed restore job.
Status	<STATUS>	Overall status of the restore operation (e.g., Failed).
StartTime	<START TIME>	Time when the restore operation began.
EndTime	<END TIME>	Time when the restore operation ended (and the failure was detected).
ErrorCode	<ERR CODE>	Numerical error code associated with the job failure.
FailureReason	<FAILURE REASON>	Textual description of the reason for the restore failure.
BackupSet	<BACKUPSET NAME>	Name of the backup set that was being restored.

Review and Finish: In the Summary page, carefully review all your alert configurations. Once satisfied, click Finish to create the alert.

Helpful Guides:

• Commvault Error Code [62:2427]
• fix Commvault Error Code: [68:74]

Conclusion:

Now, whenever a restore job fails for the selected clients or client groups, the configured alert will trigger, and the ServiceNow Commvault Integration workflow will automatically create a detailed incident in your ServiceNow system.

This streamlined process significantly improves incident visibility and response times, ensuring efficient management of your data protection environment.