IDN

How to Integrate ServiceNow ServiceDesk with IdentityNow

There has been a surge recently in integrating SNOW (ServiceNow) with IDN (IdentityNow) to generate tickets during provisioning or certification events. Many use-cases come to mind: For example, on an identity joiner event you might want to create SD ticket to give laptop and phones to an employee. Or give / remove an application access which is not directly integrated with IDN. Below I will show you how to get up and running in less than 30 min with the integration

Notes

  • This integration is fast changing and the guide is correct as of 30th April 2021
  • This integration is an additional license cost to IDN. Please talk to your CSM about it.
  • This assume you already have a SNOW tenant in your company
  • The guide doesn’t go in-depth into advance scenarios requiring Velocity or rules.

Prerequisite

  • SailPoint for Service Desk Installed on SNOW tenant

  • SNOW Governance connector installed on IDN and users correlated between IDN and SNOW connector
  • Configure at least one virtual appliance cluster.
  • Configure at least one source to generate manual tasks for Provisioning.
  • Be familiar with Apache Velocity scripting.
  • Know the authentication option (Basic or OAuth2) to use for IdentityNow to authenticate into ServiceNow. For token generation and OAuth Client setup on the ServiceNow instance, see Create an endpoint for clients to access the instance.
  • Have the permissions requirements for a service account: A Service Desk Administrator must be assigned the x_sap_sdim.admin role.

Gather Information

  • Create a source which is going to be used for provisioning and has entitlements a user can request. In this example a flat file source with 3 entitlements.

  • Create an Access Profile and Requestable Role for this source

  • To set an integration source owner, select an org admin user and get their identity ID via API call {{api-url}}/v3/search 2c91808673a16fb20173b8523ecd0021
  • Get the Cluster ID of your VA via API Call {{api-url}}/beta/managed-clusters 2c918088737cf45e0173b8fb6727040d
  • Get the id for the provision source (Say flat file) created via {{api-url}}/beta/sources/ : 2c91808578daf04e0178dcb83b1a0173
  • Get the id for the SNOW governance source which correlates users between SNOW and IDN via {{api-url}}/beta/sources/ : 2c91808478daf0580178dcff779001b4
  • Get the SNOW Application sys_id from SNOW. 8053xxxedbffb300exxxxxxxdbxxxxcx123

 

Integration

Use the following API to create the integration: https://developer.sailpoint.com/apis/beta/#operation/createServiceDeskIntegration

Please populate the payload (attached separately) and replace the parameters with value

Parameter

Value

<ownerId>

2c91808673a16fb20173b8523ecd0021

<clusterId>

2c918088737cf45e0173b8fb6727040d

<Provision_Source_ID>

2c91808578daf04e0178dcb83b1a0173

<SNOW_Sys_ID>

8053xxxedbffb300exxxxxxxdbxxxxcx123

<SNOW_URL>

https://XXXX.service-now.com/

<requesterSource>

2c91808478daf0580178dcff779001b4

<username>

SNOW user

<password>

User Password

 

 

Integration Testing

  • For the provision source, create some Entitlements and create Access Profile and requestable role.
  • Request for a SNOW correlated user for the source

  • In Account Activity a pending request will show for the request with REQ Ticket Number

  • In SNOW “Service Catalog -> Requests” the ticket number shows up

  • Click on RITM and you will see the description of request

  • Once the ticket is closed, the Access Request in IDN will close after interval checks. This frequency can be configured as well (See Configuring a Schedule for Status Checks section in SDIM Integration API Reference Guide)

That should be it. You should be able to create provisioning tickets for the source now.

Hope that helped!!!

 

 

By Piyush Khandelwal, ago

How to attach a rule in IdentityNow #IDN101

Happy New Year Folks!!!

Hopefully this year is better than previous and as always.. stay safe!!!

Anyone who would have worked with IDN would have used or encountered rules. They are wildly used and inevitable component of any deployment to achieve your requirements. So you must be well aware that no client, partner and in fact most of internal SailPoint PS/ES also don’t have access to deploy their rules to their tenants. These rules are reviewed by a specialist team within ES and they upload it to the tenant. There are some very good reasons for doing so due to the SaaS nature of our product and IDN architecture.

There is a lot of work being done to reduce dependency on rules and also a lot in pipeline to make this process simpler. This also does increase our own workload on tickets, review and deployment and we want to reduce it too as IDN has exploded into the world in past few years and new tenants onboarding everyday.

Current Process of Rule upload

  • Send it to SailPoint as an ES ticket. Support will forward it to ES if not as rule review is a billable task.
  • Rule review is done and uploaded to tenant.
  • Ticket is responded to and closed after confirmation.

To make this process faster and seamless do follow some best practices

  • Read the whole rule guide .
  • Run the rule validator and send us the output of it.
  • Make sure the naming convention is followed for the rule names
  • Best to keep the same structure and print of code so it’s easy to see the difference in git for us.

Once the rule has been uploaded to your tenant, there might be a need of additional steps to attach the rule to your source (depending on the type of rule). Once the rule is uploaded you will need the RuleID for some of the rules (mentioned below) to attach it to your source. Please ask the ES person for it if not already given. It will be a long random GUID. We use Postman to execute the API calls but feel free to use your choice of client.

There is a great guide written internally by Neil McGlennon but I am expanding on it.

Few common things found below

  • {ruleID}: This is the rule ID generated after rule is uploaded to your tenant. Ask ES for it if not given already
  • {Rule Name}: This is the name of your rule.
  • {id}: This is the externalID of the source you want to attach it to. It is a long GUID and NOT the shortID found in the URL. You can obtain it by few different methods but simplest is by doing a GET /cc/api/source/get/{shortSourceID} where “shortSourceID” is the ID of the source found in the URL when clicking on it in the tenant.
  • All the API calls use https://{tenantname}.api.identitynow.com/ as the URL (before /beta/…)
  • All of these examples use a PATCH for a partial source update, however PUT operations will work too, as long as the entire source object model is provided.
  • For the PATCH operations, a op key has to be provided. For new configurations this is typically set to add as our example shows, however they can be any of the following:
    • add – Add a new value to the configuration. Use this operation if this is the first time you are setting the value, i.e. it has never been configured before.
    • replace – Use this operation to change the existing value. Use this operation if you are updating the value, i.e. you want to change the configuration.
    • remove – Removes a value from the configuration. Use this operation if you want to unset a value.

Beware! Removals can be destructive if the path isn’t configured properly. This could negatively alter your source config!

Identity Attribute Rule

This rule doesn’t need to be attached via API as it can be seen via UI under Attribute Mappings

 

Account Profile Attribute Generator

This rule doesn’t need to be attached via API as it can be seen via UI under Create Profile for any source which has one.

 

Account Profile Attribute Generator (from Template)

This rule doesn’t need to be attached via API as it can be seen via UI under Create Profile for any source which has one. (as above)

Correlation Rule
Manager Correlation Rule
Before Provisioning Rule
AfterCreate, AfterModify, AfterDelete, BeforeCreate, BeforeModify, BeforeDelete Rules
Build Map Rule
JDBC Provisioning Rule
WebServiceBeforeOperation Rule
WebServiceAfterOperation Rule

 

Once any of the rule is attached, it’s ready for use immediately by the source or profile.

Hopefully this covers all rule types and if you have any issues with attaching a rule in your tenant, please feel free to reach out to me or to Support / ES team.

By Piyush Khandelwal, ago

PSA: New Transform Types Available for IdentityNow

Hey Folks!!!

Since the last time we chatted about transforms and had said we are in process of adding new types in future. Well.. here we are with few news ones fresh out of the oven!!!

They will greatly help you achieve your goals without the need of rules. Please do revisit them while doing your design or upliftment. The goal is to minimise dependency on rules and by using transforms it gives you more control over the testing and deployment process.

For some new noteworthy ones

The date math transform allows you to add, subtract and round components of a timestamp to or from an incoming value. It also allows you to work with a referential value of “now” to run operations against the current date and time instead of a fixed value.

Imagine using this for LCS calculation if simple or just to get some dates for different systems say 10 days in future or so.

The username generator transform allows you to specify logic to use when attempting to derive a unique value for an attribute in an account create profile, . Oftentimes this can be as simple as combining parts of a user’s name and/or HR data (e.g., firstName.lastName), but sometimes generator logic such as a uniqueness counter might be needed to find a unique value in the target system (e.g., firstName.lastName1 if firstName.lastName is already taken).

How about ditching an AttributeGenerator rule and using this? 

The UUID generator is a simple transform allows you to create a universal unique id (UUID) in the form of a 36-character string. The underlying code is written in such a way as to provide a 1 in 68,719,476,736 chance of creating a string that actually collides with another string within the tenant.

Generate UUID on the fly

The name normalizer transform allows you to clean or standardize the spelling of strings coming in from source systems. Most commonly, this pertains to names and other proper nouns, but the transform is not necessarily limited to those data elements.

Get rid of the WiERd CasINg

The get reference identity attribute transform is an out-of-the-box rule transform provided via SailPoint’s Cloud Services Deployment Utility rule. It allows you to easily get the identity attribute of another user from within a given identity’s calculation. As a convenience feature, the transform allows you to use “manager” as a referential lookup to the target identity.

Want the manager’s employee number, email, phone and other details listed easily on the profile?? so easy now!!!

And so many more added.. Do review the full list here and see what can benefit you from removing rules and going down the transform path

By Piyush Khandelwal, ago

Goodbye CSV… Welcome NELM!!!

This has been long time coming and an ask from many clients. We wanted to have a UI interface to be able to create non employees like contractors etc directly inside IDN (as a source). These type of records might not generally come from an HR source and are maintained directly in AD or other such places. Thus, we have got a new type of source called NELM (Non Employee Lifecycle Management) which has a UI interface where you can enter them. 

Currently its a two step release focusing on API based release happening over the weekend in the production orgs (already in your sandbox). Read more about it in this article.

You can

  • Have multiple sources – how about designing each via type like service account, contractors or say via departments? 
  • Approver for each creation – as above you can assign approvers per type or department and segregate.
  • Custom schema as per your liking
  • Manage these users as normal LCS and business rules like any other source.

Note: There is currently a launch limit of 20 NELM sources per org and 1000 identities per source. Also up-to 10 custom schema attributes. So take that into consideration of your design. I would see this lifted or eased in future as this is used more by customers.

Here is a screenshot of how it looks while creating a user for the source. 

 

A lot is currently via API but in a few months we will have more coming in UI.

You should start testing and possibly convert your csv sources and manual uploads of such users to a nice UI interface with better auditing and management. 

Let me know if any questions.

Edit: Documentation is live!!!

 

By Piyush Khandelwal, ago

Terminology Comparison: MIM vs SailPoint IDN

So I’ve been learning SailPoint IdentityNow (IDN) and I am rattling my brains trying to match what I know about MIM and make sense in my brain and relate to the terms and how they are the same/similar but have different names in each product.

I have done up a little comparison table showing the most common things I have understood till date and tried to put it in words the way they are termed differently in MIM and IDN.

I am not an expert in either and not saying they are essentially correct or which product is better than other (btw there is no right answer to that – each have clear pros and cons depending on what you want in a product) but just trying to bridge the gap on understanding what they are in each.

MIMSailPoint IDN
Data TypeHas various like integer, string etc.Everything is defined as string essentially.
ConnectionDirect via MA which has config parameters.Done via a VA (Virtual Appliance) which is a lightweight custom Linux VM deployed at customer side (think of it as a secure tunnel from cloud IDN to your network).
Management Agents (MA)Individual connectors connected to sources.Called a Source - Downstream or upstream.
Connector Space (CS)Staging area for data in a connector.Shows up in the Accounts tab in the Source.
DisconnectorsObjects which had not connected to MV.Called "Uncorrelated Accounts" under the import data tab of the source.
Metaverse (MV)Where all the identities are connected to each MA and the fullest form of it in essence.Identity List which has links to all the sources.
Projection & ProvisioningEach MA has the rules and mappings to project a CS into MV and to the external source as well.Each Identity Profile has a mapping against a source and also provisioning rules. Sources which have an Identity Profile are also called Authoritative Source and ones which't don't are called Non-Authoritative.
Join RulesRules which join CS objects to MV based on defined criteria.Called "Correlation" in the Source where we define those criteria.
GroupsAD or MIM GroupsCalled Entitlements. It doesn't show groups as MIM does i.e. Group Management is not a thing. You do User Management with entitlements i.e. group membership.
ImportImporting objects from a connector to CS.Called "Account Aggregation" or "Entitlement Aggregation" which brings in the data.
AD Password Sync from DCDone via PCNSDone via PWI (Password Interceptor)
AD WriteDirect via ADMANeeds a domain joined computer with IQService installed.
Automation of logicSets / MPR and Workflows in MIM Portal.Does it via Access Profiles , Roles and Identity Profiles in IDN Portal.
Advance RulesDone via Workflows and other advanced methods like MIMWAL etc.Called Rules written in JAVA/BeanShell wrapped with XML.
Under the hood configLot of config is exported and modified in XML.Extensive API access mainly giving JSON outputs with few XML as well.

Feel free to correct me where I am wrong and / or if you want me to add something else or explain something more in details, do reach out.

Hopefully it made sense to someone!!!

By Piyush Khandelwal, ago