ServiceNow connector V2.0 - Amazon Kendra
Supported featuresPrerequisitesConnection instructionsLearn more

ServiceNow connector V2.0

ServiceNow provides a cloud-based service management system to create and manage organization-level workflows, such as IT services, ticketing systems, and support. You can use Amazon Kendra to index your ServiceNow catalogs, knowledge articles, incidents, and their attachments.

For troubleshooting your Amazon Kendra ServiceNow data source connector, see Troubleshooting data sources.

Supported features

Amazon Kendra ServiceNow data source connector supports the following features:

  • Field mappings

  • User access control

  • Inclusion/exclusion filters

  • Full and incremental content syncs

  • ServiceNow instance versions: Rome, Sandiego, Tokyo, Others

  • Virtual private cloud (VPC)

Prerequisites

Before you can use Amazon Kendra to index your ServiceNow data source, make these changes in your ServiceNow and AWS accounts.

In ServiceNow, make sure you have:

  • Created a Personal or Enterprise Developer Instance and have a ServiceNow instance with an administrative role.

  • Copied the host of your ServiceNow instance URL. The format for the host URL you enter is your-domain.service-now.com. You need your ServiceNow instance URL to connect to Amazon Kendra.

  • Noted your basic authentication credentials of a user name and password to allow Amazon Kendra to connect to your ServiceNow instance.

    Note

    We recommend that you regularly refresh or rotate your credentials and secret. Provide only the necessary access level for your own security. We do not recommend that you re-use credentials and secrets across data sources, and connector versions 1.0 and 2.0 (where applicable).

  • Optional: Configured OAuth 2.0 client credentials that can identify Amazon Kendra using a user name, password, and a generated client ID, and a client secret. See ServiceNow documentation on OAuth 2.0 authentication for more information.

  • Added the following permissions:

    • kb_category

    • kb_knowledge

    • kb_knowledge_base

    • kb_uc_cannot_read_mtom

    • kb_uc_can_read_mtom

    • sc_catalog

    • sc_category

    • sc_cat_item

    • sys_attachment

    • sys_attachment_doc

    • sys_user_role

  • Checked each document is unique in ServiceNow and across other data sources you plan to use for the same index. Each data source that you want to use for an index must not contain the same document across the data sources. Document IDs are global to an index and must be unique per index.

In your AWS account, make sure you have:

  • Created an Amazon Kendra index and, if using the API, noted the index ID.

  • Created an IAM role for your data source and, if using the API, noted the ARN of the IAM role.

    Note

    If you change your authentication type and credentials, you must update your IAM role to access the correct AWS Secrets Manager secret ID.

  • Stored your ServiceNow authentication credentials in an AWS Secrets Manager secret and, if using the API, noted the ARN of the secret.

    Note

    We recommend that you regularly refresh or rotate your credentials and secret. Provide only the necessary access level for your own security. We do not recommend that you re-use credentials and secrets across data sources, and connector versions 1.0 and 2.0 (where applicable).

If you don’t have an existing IAM role or secret, you can use the console to create a new IAM role and Secrets Manager secret when you connect your ServiceNow data source to Amazon Kendra. If you are using the API, you must provide the ARN of an existing IAM role and Secrets Manager secret, and an index ID.

Connection instructions

To connect Amazon Kendra to your ServiceNow data source, you must provide the necessary details of your ServiceNow data source so that Amazon Kendra can access your data. If you have not yet configured ServiceNow for Amazon Kendra see Prerequisites.

Console

To connect Amazon Kendra to ServiceNow

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon Kendra console.

  2. From the left navigation pane, choose Indexes and then choose the index you want to use from the list of indexes.

    Note

    You can choose to configure or edit your User access control settings under Index settings.

  3. On the Getting started page, choose Add data source.

  4. On the Add data source page, choose ServiceNow connector, and then choose Add connector. If using version 2 (if applicable), choose ServiceNow connector with the "V2.0" tag.

  5. On the Specify data source details page, enter the following information:

    1. In Name and description, for Data source name—Enter a name for your data source. You can include hyphens but not spaces.

    2. (Optional) Description—Enter an optional description for your data source.

    3. In Default language—Choose a language to filter your documents for the index. Unless you specify otherwise, the language defaults to English. Language specified in the document metadata overrides the selected language.

    4. In Tags, for Add new tag—Include optional tags to search and filter your resources or track your AWS costs.

    5. Choose Next.

  6. On the Define access and security page, enter the following information:

    1. ServiceNow host—Enter the ServiceNow host URL. The format for the host URL you enter is your-domain.service-now.com.

    2. ServiceNow version—Select your ServiceNow instance version. You can select from Rome, Sandiego, Tokyo, or Others.

    3. Authorization—Turn on or off access control list (ACL) information for your documents, if you have an ACL and want to use it for access control. The ACL specifies which documents that users and groups can access. The ACL information is used to filter search results based on the user or their group access to documents. For more information, see User context filtering.

    4. Authentication—Choose between Basic authentication and Oauth 2.0 authentication.

    5. AWS Secrets Manager secret—Choose an existing secret or create a new Secrets Manager secret to store your ServiceNow authentication credentials. If you choose to create a new secret an AWS Secrets Manager secret window opens. Enter the following information in the window:

      1. Secret name—A name for your secret. The prefix ‘AmazonKendra-ServiceNow-’ is automatically added to your secret name.

      2. If using Basic Authentication—Enter the Secret name, Username, and Password for your ServiceNow account.

        If using OAuth2.0 Authentication—Enter the Secret name, Username, Password, Client ID, and Client Secret you created in your ServiceNow account.

      3. Save and add your secret.

    6. Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)—You can choose to use a VPC. If so, you must add Subnets and VPC security groups.

    7. Identity crawler—Specify whether to turn on Amazon Kendra’s identity crawler. The identity crawler uses the access control list (ACL) information for your documents to filter search results based on the user or their group access to documents. If you have an ACL for your documents and choose to use your ACL, you can then also choose to turn on Amazon Kendra’s identity crawler to configure user context filtering of search results. Otherwise, if identity crawler is turned off, all documents can be publicly searched. If you want to use access control for your documents and identity crawler is turned off, you can alternatively use the PutPrincipalMapping API to upload user and group access information for user context filtering.

    8. IAM role—Choose an existing IAM role or create a new IAM role to access your repository credentials and index content.

      Note

      IAM roles used for indexes cannot be used for data sources. If you are unsure if an existing role is used for an index or FAQ, choose Create a new role to avoid errors.

    9. Choose Next.

  7. On the Configure sync settings page, enter the following information:

    1. For Knowledge articles, choose from the following options :

      • Knowledge articles—Choose to index knowledge articles.

      • Knowledge article attachments—Choose to index knowledge article attachments.

      • Type of knowledge articles—Choose between Only public articles and Knowledge articles based on ServiceNow filter query based on your use case. If you select Include articles based on ServiceNow filter query, you must enter a Filter query copied from your ServiceNow account. Example filter queries include: workflow_state=draft^EQ, kb_knowledge_base=dfc19531bf2021003f07e2c1ac0739ab^text ISNOTEMPTY^EQ, article_type=text^active=true^EQ.

        Important

        If you choose to crawl Only public articles, Amazon Kendra crawls only knowledge articles assigned a public access role in ServiceNow.

      • Include articles based on short description filter—Specify regular expression patterns to include or exclude specific articles.

    2. For Service catalog items:

      • Service catalog items—Choose to index service catalog items.

      • Service catalog item attachments—Choose to index service catalog item attachments.

      • Active service catalog items—Choose to index active service catalog items.

      • Inactive service catalog items—Choose to index inactive service catalog items.

      • Filter query—Choose to include service catalog items based on a filter defined in your ServiceNow instance. Example filter queries include: short_descriptionLIKEAccess^category=2809952237b1300054b6a3549dbe5dd4^EQ, nameSTARTSWITHService^active=true^EQ.

      • Include service catalog items based on short description filter—Specify a regex pattern to include specific catalog items.

    3. For Incidents:

      • Incidents—Choose to index service incidents.

      • Incident attachments—Choose to index incident attachments.

      • Active incidents—Choose to index active incidents.

      • Inactive incidents—Choose to index inactive incidents.

      • Active incident type—Choose between All incidents, Open incidents, Open - unassigned incidents, and Resolved incidents depending on your use case.

      • Filter query—Choose to include incidents based on a filter defined in your ServiceNow instance. Example filter queries include: short_descriptionLIKETest^urgency=3^state=1^EQ, priority=2^category=software^EQ .

      • Include incidents based on short description filter—Specify a regex pattern to include specific incidents.

    4. For Additional configuration:

      • ACL information—Access control lists for entities you have selected are included by default. Deselecting an access control list will make all files in that category public. ACL options are automatically deactivated for entities not selected. For public articles ACL is not applied.

      • For Maximum file size – Specify the file size limit in MBs that Amazon Kendra will crawl. Amazon Kendra will crawl only the files within the size limit you define. The default file size is 50MB. The maximum file size should be greater than 0MB and less than or equal to 50MB.

      • Attachment regex patterns—Add regular expression patterns to include or exclude certain attached files of catalogs, knowledge articles, and incidents. You can add up to 100 patterns.

    5. Sync mode—Choose how you want to update your index when your data source content changes. When you sync your data source with Amazon Kendra for the first time, all content is crawled and indexed by default. You must run a full sync of your data if your initial sync failed, even if you don't choose full sync as your sync mode option.

      • Full sync: Freshly index all content, replacing existing content each time your data source syncs with your index.

      • New, modified, deleted sync: Index only new, modified, and deleted content each time your data source syncs with your index. Amazon Kendra can use your data source's mechanism for tracking content changes and index content that changed since the last sync.

    6. In Sync run schedule, for Frequency—Choose how often to sync your data source content and update your index.

    7. Choose Next.

  8. On the Set field mappings page, enter the following information:

    1. Default field mappings—Select from the Amazon Kendra generated default data source fields that you want to map to your index.

    2. Add field—To add custom data source fields to create an index field name to map to and the field data type.

    3. Choose Next.

  9. On the Review and create page, check that the information you have entered is correct and then select Add data source. You can also choose to edit your information from this page. Your data source will appear on the Data sources page after the data source has been added successfully.

API

To connect Amazon Kendra to ServiceNow

You must specify a JSON of the data source schema using the TemplateConfiguration API. You must provide the following information:

  • Data source—Specify the data source type as SERVICENOWV2 when you use the TemplateConfiguration JSON schema. Also specify the data source as TEMPLATE when you call the CreateDataSource API.

  • Host URL—Specify the ServiceNow host instance version. For example, your-domain.service-now.com.

  • Authentication type—Specify the type of authentication you use, whether basicAuth or OAuth2 for your ServiceNow instance.

  • ServiceNow instance version—Specify the ServiceNow instance you use, whether Tokyo, Sandiego, Rome, or Others.

  • Sync mode—Specify how Amazon Kendra should update your index when your data source content changes. When you sync your data source with Amazon Kendra for the first time, all content is crawled and indexed by default. You must run a full sync of your data if your initial sync failed, even if you don't choose full sync as your sync mode option. You can choose between:

    • FORCED_FULL_CRAWL to freshly index all content, replacing existing content each time your data source syncs with your index.

    • FULL_CRAWL to index only new, modified, and deleted content each time your data source syncs with your index. Amazon Kendra can use your data source’s mechanism for tracking content changes and index content that changed since the last sync.

  • Secret Amazon Resource Name (ARN)—Provide the Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of a Secrets Manager secret that contains the authentication credentials you created in your ServiceNow account.

    If you use basic authentication, the secret is stored in a JSON structure with the following keys:

    {
    "username": "user name",
    "password": "password"
}

  • If you use OAuth2 client credentials, the secret is stored in a JSON structure with the following keys:

    {
    "username": "user name",
    "password": "password",
    "clientId": "client id",
    "clientSecret": "client secret"
}

  • IAM role—Specify RoleArn when you call CreateDataSource to provide an IAM role with permissions to access your Secrets Manager secret and to call the required public APIs for the ServiceNow connector and Amazon Kendra. For more information, see IAM roles for ServiceNow data sources.

You can also add the following optional features:

  • Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)—Specify VpcConfiguration when you call CreateDataSource. For more information, see Configuring Amazon Kendra to use an Amazon VPC.

  • Inclusion and exclusion filters—You can specify whether to include or exclude certain attached files using the file names and the file types of knowledge articles, service catalogs, and incidents.

    Note

    Most data sources use regular expression patterns, which are inclusion or exclusion patterns referred to as filters. If you specify an inclusion filter, only content that matches the inclusion filter is indexed. Any document that doesn’t match the inclusion filter isn’t indexed. If you specify an inclusion and exclusion filter, documents that match the exclusion filter are not indexed, even if they match the inclusion filter.

  • Specific documents to index—You can use a ServiceNow query to specify the documents you want from one or more knowledge bases, including private knowledge bases. Access to the knowledge bases is determined by the user that you use to connect to the ServiceNow instance. For more information, see Specifying documents to index with a query.

  • Indexing parameters—You can also choose to specify whether to:

    • Index knowledge articles, service catalogs, and incidents or all of these. If you choose to index knowledge articles, service catalog items and incidents, you must provide the name of the ServiceNow field that is mapped to the index document contents field in the Amazon Kendra index.

    • Index attachments to knowledge articles, service catalog items and incidents.

    • Include knowledge articles, service catalog items and incidents based on the short description filter pattern.

    • Choose to filter active and inactive service catalog items and incidents.

    • Choose to filter incidents based on incident type.

    • Choose which entities should have their ACL crawled.

    • You can use a ServiceNow query to specify the documents you want from one or more knowledge bases, including private knowledge bases. Access to the knowledge bases is determined by the user that you use to connect to the ServiceNow instance. For more information, see Specifying documents to index with a query.

  • Identity crawler—Specify whether to turn on Amazon Kendra’s identity crawler. The identity crawler uses the access control list (ACL) information for your documents to filter search results based on the user or their group access to documents. If you have an ACL for your documents and choose to use your ACL, you can then also choose to turn on Amazon Kendra’s identity crawler to configure user context filtering of search results. Otherwise, if identity crawler is turned off, all documents can be publicly searched. If you want to use access control for your documents and identity crawler is turned off, you can alternatively use the PutPrincipalMapping API to upload user and group access information for user context filtering.

  • Field mappings—Choose to map your ServiceNow data source fields to your Amazon Kendra index fields. For more information, see Mapping data source fields.

    Note

    The document body field or the document body equivalent for your documents is required in order for Amazon Kendra to search your documents. You must map your document body field name in your data source to the index field name _document_body. All other fields are optional.

For a list of other important JSON keys to configure, see ServiceNow template schema.

Learn more

To learn more about integrating Amazon Kendra with your ServiceNow data source, see: