Hi Team,

Would you please help to ingest the service now inventory into ansible automation platform (AAP)?

Hello Manoj,

Ingesting ServiceNow inventory into the Ansible Automation Platform allows you to streamline your automation workflows. Here's a general guide on how to do this:

How to Ingest ServiceNow Inventory into the Ansible Automation Platform

1. Prerequisites:

   • Ensure you have access to both ServiceNow and the Ansible Automation Platform.
   • You may need administrative privileges in both systems.

2. ServiceNow Configuration:

   • In ServiceNow, create a dedicated user or service account that Ansible can use to access ServiceNow's data via its API.

3. Ansible Inventory Plugin:

   • Ansible provides various inventory plugins to fetch data from external sources. Check if there's an existing inventory plugin for ServiceNow. You can typically find these plugins in the Ansible Galaxy or on GitHub.

4. Install the Plugin:

   • If you find a ServiceNow inventory plugin, install it using Ansible Galaxy or download it manually.

5. Configure the Inventory Plugin:

   • Set up the configuration for the ServiceNow inventory plugin. You'll need to specify:
     • ServiceNow API endpoint (URL)
     • Credentials (username and password or API token)
     • Filter criteria to fetch the specific inventory data you need (e.g., servers, devices, or services).
     • Any other required configuration parameters as per the plugin's documentation.

6. Test the Inventory Plugin:

   • Run a test to ensure that the plugin can successfully connect to ServiceNow and fetch inventory data. You can use the ansible-inventory command with the --list option to see the fetched data.

7. Use the Inventory in Playbooks:

   • Once you have confirmed that the plugin is working, you can use the fetched ServiceNow inventory in your Ansible playbooks and automation workflows.

8. Automation Use Cases:

   • Leverage the ServiceNow inventory data in your playbooks for tasks like configuration management, patching, provisioning, or other automation operations.

9. Scheduled Updates:

   • Automate regular updates of your Ansible inventory from ServiceNow to ensure the data is always up to date.

10. Error Handling and Logging:

    • Implement error handling and logging mechanisms to monitor the synchronization process and troubleshoot issues.

11. Security and Permissions:

    • Ensure that the Ansible system has appropriate permissions to access and modify data in ServiceNow.

12. Documentation and Maintenance:

    • Document the configuration and the entire process for future reference, and periodically review and update it as needed.

By following these steps, you can ingest ServiceNow inventory into the Ansible Automation Platform, enabling you to automate tasks and orchestrate processes based on the data retrieved from ServiceNow. Be sure to follow best practices for security and maintain regular updates to keep your automation system running smoothly.