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Configuring the Unified Data Connector for ServiceNow

The BigPanda Unified Data Connector (UDC) syncs data from ServiceNow to provide context and insights for AI Incident Assistant (Biggy), AI Incident Prevention, and AI Detection and Response. Ingested data is securely stored and made available in the IT Knowledge Graph, powering accurate answers, deep analytics, trend analysis, and advanced capabilities.

Provide your account team with ServiceNow credentials

Before your BigPanda team can get started, they will need the following basic credentials for your ServiceNow instance.

  • The ServiceNow instance name you want to use.

  • The username and password of the account used to access ServiceNow.

  • The time zone of your ServiceNow instance.

The user account provided must have at least read permission access to all of the tables to sync from ServiceNow. (You can read more about this in our ServiceNow Data Connector Setup documentation.)

Data requirements for ServiceNow UDC configuration

To leverage all of the BigPanda features that integrate with ServiceNow, you must ensure that your UDC configuration includes all required tables and fields. You can also configure additional custom tables and fields for added functionality and more robust contextual enrichment.

Required fields

All tables must include specific required fields to be ingested successfully. As long as these minimum requirements are met, you can include as many additional custom fields as you want.

Related tables

In every table, you can choose to include one or more related tables. (For example, if an incident has CIs, you can include the task_ci related table to collect them along with the incident.)

While many related tables are optional, AI Incident Assistant requires the change_task and task_ci related tables for successful ingestion.

See our documentation on Related Tables for a list of common related tables and their join fields.

Required fields

All ServiceNow tables connected to the Unified Data Connector must include these minimum required fields.

  • sys_id

  • sys_created_on

  • sys_updated_on

  • sys_created_by

  • sys_updated_by

Some tables may have additional required or recommended fields, including fields necessary for related tables.

Redacted columns

Non-required fields are able to be individually redacted from a table. This adds additional security to ensure that no sensitive data is included during table syncs.

See the Data Redaction documentation for detailed options on protecting sensitive data.

Required tables for ServiceNow UDC configurations

Some features require more tables than others, but we strongly recommend including all of these core tables for all features. Broader datasets allow BigPanda to provide comprehensive context, better analysis, and more accurate answers.

ServiceNow table

Additional required fields for IA

Additional required fields for IP

Is the table required for ADR functionality?

change_request

number

number

short_description

description

state

impact

urgency

priority

risk

risk_analysis

approval

approval_history

backout_plan

justification

test_plan

change_plan

assignment_group

assigned_to

cmdb_ci

business_service

start_date (or equivalent)

end_date (or equivalent)

close_code

close_notes

closed_at

opened_at

Any additional field where vital information regarding the risk of a change.

change_task

Required as related table

change_request

 

cmdb_ci

name

 

incident

affected_service

assigned_to

assignment_group

brand_category

business_duration

business_impact

caller_id

category

caused_by

close_code

close_notes

cmdb_ci

contact_type

impact

knowledge

location

made_sla

major_incident_state

number

opened_by

parent_incident

priority

problem_id

reassignment_count

reopen_count

resolved_at

resolved_by

short_description

state

subcategory

urgency

work_notes

x_bip_panda_bigpanda_id

assignment_group

business_duration

business_impact

business_service

caused_by

ci_additional_info

close_notes

cmdb_ci

comments

description

impact

location

number

opened_at

priority

resolution

resolved_by

short_description

technical_details

urgency

work_notes

Any additional field where vital information regarding the scope, impact, or resolution of incidents.

Table required for:

Service Desk Correlation

Historical Incidents

kb_knowledge

number

 

problem

number

 

task_ci

Required as a related table

task

 

Table required for:

Service Desk Correlation

Common Related Tables

The following are common related ServiceNow tables:

Main Table

Related Table

Join Field

Description

incident

task_ci

task

Incident-related CIs

change_request

change_task

change_request

Tasks for change requests

change_request

task_ci

task

Change-related CIs

kb_knowledge

m2m_kb_ci

kb_knowledge

Knowledge article related CIs

problem

problem_task

problem

Tasks for problems

problem

task_ci

task

Problem-related CIs

Any table

sys_audit

documentkey

Audit trail for any record

Custom tables in ServiceNow UDC configurations

Additional and custom tables can be connected to deepen the context and performance of BigPanda features.

Custom tables must include the minimum required fields:

  • sys_id

  • sys_created_on

  • sys_updated_on

  • sys_created_by

  • sys_updated_by

Required Tables and Endpoints for AI Incident Assistant - ServiceNow integration

To enable the ServiceNow integration, AI Incident Assistant requires access to certain tables and endpoints. 

Access to the following tables is required:

  • change_request 

  • change_task 

  • cmdb_ci 

  • cmdb_ci_business_app 

  • document 

  • incident 

  • kb_knowledge 

  • new_call 

  • problem 

  • problem_task 

  • rm_defect 

  • rm_epic 

  • rm_feature 

  • rm_release 

  • rm_story 

  • rm_test 

  • sc_req_item 

  • sc_request 

  • sc_task 

  • sn_customerservice_case 

  • sys_choice 

  • sys_user 

  • sys_user_group 

  • task 

  • task_ci 

  • task_cmdb_ci_service 

  • task_outage 

  • ticket 

Indirect access

Indirect access via reference links is required for things such as cmdb_ci_*, but this depends on your ServiceNow tables.

For example, if you have a field on an incident table such as u_business_app that points to a particular table, AI Incident Assistant would need access to that table to effectively dot-walk that reference.

Access to additional tables

Users may ask AI Incident Assistant for information from tables not listed above. AI Incident Assistant can only retrieve information from tables it has access to.

An administrator can grant access to additional tables by including access to those tables in the provisioned AI Incident Assistant service account user. 

Access to the following endpoints is required:

Endpoint

How it is used

POST /oauth_token.do 

OAuth token minting. Default when OAuth authentication is used, but not needed if using Basic authentication.

GET /api/now/on_call_rota/oncallgroups 

On call lookup.

GET /api/now/table/sys_user 

Validating user references in queries and mapping names and emails to sys_ids for subsequent lookups. (For example, "How many incidents did John Smith resolve this year?")

GET /api/now/table/{table} 

Record lookup and queries.

GET /api/now/table/{table}/{sys_id} 

Following a reference link from previous results.

POST /api/now/table/incident 

Incident creation.

PATCH /api/now/table/{table}/{sys_id} 

Add work notes or comments.

GET /api/now/stats/{table} 

Counting and aggregation.

GET /api/now/ui/meta/{table} 

Retrieve table schema.

GET /api/now/doc/table/schema 

Retrieve all table definitions.

In this section: