ServiceNow - OpenSRE Documentation

Overview

OpenSRE connects to ServiceNow so the CLI and interactive shell can answer configuration questions about your instance — for example opensre integrations verify servicenow and shell questions like “Is ServiceNow configured?”. ServiceNow today is a config and verify integration. It does not register investigation query tools.

Prerequisites

A ServiceNow instance URL (a free developer instance works)
A user with read access to the sys_user table (used for the live connectivity check)

Setup

Option 1: Interactive CLI

opensre integrations setup servicenow

Option 2: Onboarding wizard

opensre onboard

Select ServiceNow under Incident & Comms and provide instance URL, username, and password. The wizard validates credentials with a one-row authenticated read of the sys_user table before saving.

Option 3: Environment variables

export SERVICENOW_INSTANCE_URL=https://dev12345.service-now.com
export SERVICENOW_USERNAME=admin
export SERVICENOW_PASSWORD=your-password

SERVICENOW_PASSWORD is also resolved from ~/.opensre/credentials.json when the environment variable is not set (the wizard stores it there).

Option 4: Persistent store

{
  "version": 1,
  "integrations": [
    {
      "id": "servicenow-prod",
      "service": "servicenow",
      "status": "active",
      "credentials": {
        "instance_url": "https://dev12345.service-now.com",
        "username": "admin",
        "password": "your-password"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Field	Description
`instance_url`	Required. Instance URL (for example `https://dev12345.service-now.com`). Must use `https://` — plain `http://` is accepted only for localhost/loopback.
`username`	Required. ServiceNow username for HTTP Basic authentication
`password`	Required. Password for the user

Credentials

Use a dedicated ServiceNow user with the minimum roles needed for a one-row read of sys_user (for example itil). Prefer the onboarding wizard so the password stays in ~/.opensre/credentials.json instead of .env.

Investigation tools

None. ServiceNow is used for configuration and verification only. The interactive shell can still answer “Is ServiceNow configured?” by running the verifier.

Verify

opensre integrations verify servicenow

Verify is a live check: it validates the URL shape (HTTPS or loopback) and calls GET …/api/now/table/sys_user?sysparm_limit=1. Expected detail on success:

ServiceNow connected as <username> at https://dev12345.service-now.com.

You can also ask the interactive shell:

> Is ServiceNow configured?

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Fix
Status `missing`	Set `instance_url`, `username`, and `password` via any setup option above
401 Unauthorized	Check the username and password combination
403 Forbidden	User authenticated but cannot read `sys_user` — grant a role with table read access (for example `itil`)
404 Not Found	Verify the instance URL (include `https://`, no path)
Developer instance unreachable	Free developer instances hibernate after inactivity — wake it from the developer portal and retry

Security

Use a dedicated ServiceNow user with minimum read roles.
Prefer the onboarding wizard so the password stays in ~/.opensre/credentials.json.
Rotate the password periodically and remove the integration when it is no longer needed.

​Overview

​Prerequisites

​Setup

​Option 1: Interactive CLI

​Option 2: Onboarding wizard

​Option 3: Environment variables

​Option 4: Persistent store

​Credentials

​Investigation tools

​Verify

​Troubleshooting

​Security