ServiceNow connector V1.0 - Amazon Kendra
Supported featuresPrerequisitesConnection instructionsLearn more

ServiceNow connector V1.0

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, and their attachments.

Note

Support for ServiceNow connector V1.0 / ServiceNowConfiguration API is scheduled to end in 2023. We recommend migrating to or using ServiceNow connector V2.0 / TemplateConfiguration API.

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:

  • ServiceNow instance versions: London, Others

  • Inclusion/exclusion patterns: Service catalogs, knowledge articles, and their attachments

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 ServiceNow administrator account and have created a ServiceNow instance.

  • Copied the host of your ServiceNow instance URL. For example, if the URL of the instance is https://your-domain.service-now.com, the format for the host URL you enter is your-domain.service-now.com.

  • Noted your basic authentication credentials containing 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 an OAuth 2.0 credential token that can identify Amazon Kendra and generate a user name, password, a client ID, and a client secret. The user name and password must provide access to the ServiceNow knowledge base and service catalog. 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 V1.0, and then choose Add data source.

  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.

    2. ServiceNow version—Select your ServiceNow version.

    3. Choose between Basic authentication and Oauth 2.0 authentication based on your use case.

    4. 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.

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

      3. Choose Save and add secret.

    5. 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.

    6. Choose Next.

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

    1. Include knowledge articles—Choose to index knowledge articles.

    2. Type of knowledge articles—Choose between Include only public articles and Include 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.

    3. Include knowledge articles attachments—Choose to index knowledge article attachments. You can also select specific file types to index.

    4. Include catalog items—Choose to index catalog items.

    5. Include catalog item attachments—Choose to index catalog item attachments. You can also select specific file types to index.

    6. Frequency—How often Amazon Kendra will sync with your data source.

    7. Choose Next.

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

    1. Knowledge articles and Service catalog —Select from the Amazon Kendra generated default data source fields and additional suggested field mappings 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 the following using ServiceNowConfiguration API:

  • Data source URL—Specify the ServiceNow URL. The host endpoint should look like the following: your-domain.service-now.com.

  • Data source host instance—Specify the ServiceNow host instance version as either LONDON or OTHERS.

  • 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 are using basic authentication, the secret is stored in a JSON structure with the following keys:

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

    If you are using OAuth2 authentication, 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:

  • 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.

  • Inclusion and exclusion filters—Specify whether to include or exclude certain file attachments of catalogs and knowledge articles.

    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.

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

    • Index knowledge articles and service catalogs, or both of these. If you choose to index knowledge articles and service catalog items, 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 and catalog items.

    • Use a ServiceNow query that selects documents from one or more knowledge bases. The knowledge bases can be public or private. For more information, see Specifying documents to index with a query.

Learn more

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