Documentation forSolarWinds Platform

How does the ServiceNow integration with the SolarWinds Platform work?

This SolarWinds Platform topic applies only to the following products:

Hybrid Cloud Observability EssentialsHybrid Cloud Observability Advanced

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In ServiceNow®, incidents are created and as the staff are working on them, their status changes according to the stage they are in.

When you integrate ServiceNow with the SolarWinds Platform, the actions that happen to the alert are reflected in ServiceNow. The same is true the other way round - if you work on an incident in ServiceNow, the changes must be reflected in the alert in the SolarWinds Platform.

States in the SolarWinds Platform vs ServiceNow states

In the SolarWinds Platform, you specify the states when configuring the ServiceNow alert action.

The options for each state depend on the states defined for the state field on the incident table of your ServiceNow instance.

Closing states

Final states defined in ServiceNow. When a ServiceNow incident is in one of these states, the SolarWinds Platform integration will not touch it anymore, the incident cannot be reopened again. When an alert is in a closing state and triggers again, a new ServiceNow incident is created.

New state

When a new ServiceNow incident is created, it is in the state you defined as State in the Incident Detail section when configuring the alert action. When you acknowledge an alert in the SolarWinds Platform, only alerts that are in the new state change to acknowledge state.

The actual state is affected by business rules defined in ServiceNow. For example, when a new incident is assigned to a user or group (Assigned To is defined), it would be in the In Progress state even on a fresh instance.

Reset state

When an alert is reset in the SolarWinds Platform, the corresponding ServiceNow incident changes into the Reset state.

To enable Orion alerts to reopen ServiceNow incidents when the trigger condition occurs again, specify a reset state.

To keep the ServiceNow incident closed forever and prevent the alert from reopening it, select one of the closing states here.

Reopen state

When an incident is not in a closing state, this is the state it is put in when the alert is re-triggered or when the incident is manually put in the reset state while the alert is still active.

Acknowledge state

When you acknowledge an alert, the ServiceNow incident will enter into this state.

What happens when...

... an alert is triggered in the SolarWinds Platform?

When an alert is first triggered, the SolarWinds Platform creates a new ServiceNow incident according to the settings in the alert action.

... an alert is reset in the SolarWinds Platform?

When an alert is reset in the SolarWinds Platform, the ServiceNow incident changes into the reset state.

When the reset state is one of the closing states, the ServiceNow incident state changes, Close notes are added. This incident is closed and cannot be reopened any more.

When the reset state you configured is not a closing state, the Additional comments are added to the ServiceNow incident. When the alert re-triggers, the ServiceNow incident status will change to the reopen state.

... an alert is re-triggered in the SolarWinds Platform?

When an alert is re-triggered, the Orion integration tries to find the corresponding ServiceNow incident.

When it is closed, a new ServiceNow incident is created.

When it doesn't have a reset state defined, the incident won't be reopened.

When the ServiceNow incident status is not closed, the incident status changes to the reopen status.

When the reopen state is not defined and the reset state is not a closing state or the incident is not closed manually, no more incidents will be created.

... an alert is acknowledged in the SolarWinds Platform?

When the alert is acknowledged in Orion, the associated ServiceNow incident receives a work note. If the incident is untouched (in the new state), it will transition to the defined acknowledge state.

... an incident state is changed in ServiceNow?

For example, when a technician takes the ticket in ServiceNow and starts working on it, the alert is acknowledged in Orion.

When the user changes the incident's state to a reset state in ServiceNow and the alert that created this incident is still active in Orion, it will transition to the reopen state.

Troubleshooting