ServiceNow

Connect & Ingest data from ServiceNow

ServiceNow is an enterprise IT service management (ITSM) platform that provides incident management, change management, asset tracking, and workflow automation. The Sling ServiceNow connector extracts data from the ServiceNow Table API, supporting ITSM records, user management, CMDB, and audit data.

CLI Pro Required: APIs require a CLI Pro token or Platform Plan.

Setup

The following credentials and inputs are accepted:

Secrets:

• instance (required) -> Your ServiceNow instance name (e.g., dev12345 from dev12345.service-now.com)

• username (required) -> ServiceNow username with API access

• password (required) -> ServiceNow password for the specified user

Inputs:

• anchor_date (optional) -> The starting date for historical data extraction on first sync (default: 1 year ago). Format: YYYY-MM-DD

Getting Your Credentials

1. Log in to your ServiceNow instance as an administrator

2. The instance name is the subdomain of your ServiceNow URL (e.g., dev12345 from https://dev12345.service-now.com)

3. Use your admin username and password for authentication

4. Ensure the user has the rest_api_explorer or admin role for full API access

Free Developer Instance: You can get a free ServiceNow developer instance at developer.servicenow.com to test the connector.

Important: Store your credentials securely. Never commit passwords to version control. Consider creating a dedicated service account with read-only access for data extraction.

Using sling conns

sling conns set SERVICENOW type=api spec=servicenow secrets='{ instance: dev12345, username: admin, password: your_password }'

Environment Variable

See here to learn more about the .env.sling file.

export SERVICENOW='{ type: api, spec: servicenow, secrets: { instance: "dev12345", username: "admin", password: "your_password" } }'

Sling Env File YAML

See here to learn more about the sling env.yaml file.

connections:
  SERVICENOW:
    type: api
    spec: servicenow
    secrets:
      instance: "dev12345"
      username: "admin"
      password: "your_password"

With anchor date for historical data:

connections:
  SERVICENOW:
    type: api
    spec: servicenow
    secrets:
      instance: "dev12345"
      username: "admin"
      password: "your_password"
    inputs:
      anchor_date: "2023-01-01"

Replication

Here's an example replication configuration to sync ServiceNow data to a PostgreSQL database:

source: SERVICENOW
target: MY_POSTGRES

defaults:
  mode: incremental
  object: servicenow.{stream_name}

streams:
  # ITSM core data
  incidents:
  change_requests:
  problems:
  tasks:

  # User management
  sys_users:
  sys_user_groups:
  sys_user_group_members:
    mode: full-refresh

  # CMDB
  cmdb_ci:
  cmdb_ci_servers:

  # Reference data (full-refresh only)
  cmn_locations:
    mode: full-refresh
  core_companies:
    mode: full-refresh
  sys_user_roles:
    mode: full-refresh
  sys_user_has_roles:
    mode: full-refresh

Sync all endpoints:

source: SERVICENOW
target: MY_POSTGRES

defaults:
  mode: incremental
  object: servicenow.{stream_name}

streams:
  # Sync all available endpoints
  '*':

Endpoints

ITSM Records

Endpoint	Description	Incremental
incidents	IT incident records	Yes
change_requests	Change request records	Yes
problems	Problem records	Yes
tasks	Generic task records (base table for all ticket types)	Yes
sc_requests	Service catalog request records	Yes
sc_req_items	Service catalog requested item records	Yes

User Management

Endpoint	Description	Incremental
sys_users	User account records	Yes
sys_user_groups	User group records	Yes
sys_user_group_members	Group membership records	No
sys_user_roles	Role definition records	No
sys_user_has_roles	User-to-role assignment records	No

CMDB

Endpoint	Description	Incremental
cmdb_ci	Configuration item records	Yes
cmdb_ci_servers	Server configuration item records	Yes

Reference Data

Endpoint	Description	Incremental
cmn_locations	Location records	No
core_companies	Company/organization records	No

Knowledge & Audit

Endpoint	Description	Incremental
kb_knowledge	Knowledge base article records	Yes
sys_audit	Audit log records	Yes

To discover available endpoints:

sling conns discover SERVICENOW

Incremental Sync

The ServiceNow connector supports incremental sync for most endpoints using the sys_updated_on timestamp field. On first sync, records from the last year (or the configured anchor_date) are fetched. Subsequent syncs only fetch records modified after the last sync timestamp.

Supported Incremental Endpoints

• ITSM: incidents, change_requests, problems, tasks, sc_requests, sc_req_items

• Users: sys_users, sys_user_groups

• CMDB: cmdb_ci, cmdb_ci_servers

• Knowledge: kb_knowledge

• Audit: sys_audit (uses sys_created_on since audit records are append-only)

Full-Refresh Only Endpoints

Reference and lookup tables use full-refresh mode since they are typically small and change infrequently:

• cmn_locations, core_companies, sys_user_roles, sys_user_has_roles, sys_user_group_members

Rate Limiting

The ServiceNow API has rate limits that vary by instance type:

• Developer instances: Lower rate limits

• Production instances: Higher rate limits based on subscription

The connector automatically:

• Uses conservative rate limiting (5 requests/second)

• Retries with exponential backoff on HTTP 429 (rate limit) responses

• Retries on HTTP 5xx server errors

Common Use Cases

ITSM Incident Analytics

source: SERVICENOW
target: MY_POSTGRES

defaults:
  mode: incremental
  object: itsm.{stream_name}

streams:
  incidents:
  change_requests:
  problems:
  tasks:

User and Access Management

source: SERVICENOW
target: MY_POSTGRES

defaults:
  mode: full-refresh
  object: servicenow_users.{stream_name}

streams:
  sys_users:
  sys_user_groups:
  sys_user_group_members:
  sys_user_roles:
  sys_user_has_roles:

CMDB Asset Inventory

source: SERVICENOW
target: MY_POSTGRES

defaults:
  mode: incremental
  object: cmdb.{stream_name}

streams:
  cmdb_ci:
  cmdb_ci_servers:
  cmn_locations:
    mode: full-refresh
  core_companies:
    mode: full-refresh

If you are facing issues connecting, please reach out to us at [email protected], on discord or open a Github Issue here.