Process for Exports from IT Asset ManagementFlexNet Manager Suite to ServiceNow

A Windows scheduled task Export to ServiceNow triggers exports to ServiceNow at 3am every Sunday morning.

If you are in an administrator role, you can also trigger an export through the web interface for FlexNet Manager Suite. and choose System Settings > Integrations.Go to the page ( ) and select the Integrations tab. Expand the ServiceNow section.

Process Details

1. On the central application server, when the export is triggered, a utility is launched that:

   • Checks whether you have licensed the ServiceNow integration option from Flexera (if not, it shows an error in the same page of the web interface).
   • Tests your ServiceNow credentials in the ServiceNow export settings section of System Settings > Integrations. Tests your ServiceNow credentials in the ServiceNow export settings section of the Integrations tab in the page ( ).

2. Next, the utility checks whether ServiceNow is able to accept an import at this time:

   • It checks whether a record in Scheduled Data Imports, and another in Data Sources, have been created by the integration application. (Links to the relevant pages where you can inspect the records in ServiceNow are under Flexera Integration > Advanced.)
   • It ensures that no prior import is already in process, checking that there is no record in the Import Runs table or the Import Transactions table that are incomplete (that is, have a State other than Succeeded or Failed). Both lists are available for inspection in the FlexNet Manager Suite Integration History group.

   If either of the checks fails, the utility abandons the export and displays an appropriate error.

3. The utility checks the connection with the operations databases for FlexNet Manager Suite. (If there is any failure, the utility abandons the export and displays an appropriate error.)

4. All being well, the data export, transfer, and import processes are run for all data types (unless any of them have been specifically excluded) in the following order:

   1. Hardware inventory

   2. Contracts

   3. Installed applications

      The data collected is differential (that is, collecting only additions and changes since the last export). The data is collected in the way specified by the command-line options, for which see ../reference/SNI-CommandLine.htm#reference_fxm_ftr_d4. To prevent timeout issues, each data set is split into segments for transfer to ServiceNow. Each segment is identified with a transaction ID, transaction type, and the data in an XML chunk. ServiceNow returns a return code for each segment of data.

      • If the return code shows a failure, the segment is retransmitted for a maximum number of tries (the default value of 10 can be changed in the configuration file), after which the utility exits (skipping any remaining exports) and returns 1 to the command line. displays an appropriate error.

      • While success continues, the utility waits for each data type to complete before commencing the next data type.

5. In ServiceNow, as the first data chunk is received, the integration application creates a record in the Import Runs table. (For details of the main columns in the Import Runs table, see SNI-ImportRunsProperties.htm#topic_fpc_dxt_rw.)

   note

Note: If you have selected to store installed application data to SAM Foundation Plugin tables but the SAM plugin is not found, then ServiceNow logs an error in the Application Log and returns an error code. In FlexNet Manager Suite, the utility abandons the export and displays an appropriate error in the log file. :::

6. For each data chunk (including the first), ServiceNow creates a record in the Import Transactions table. (For details of the main columns in the Import Transactions table, see SNI-ImportTransactionsProperties.htm#topic_cx3_db5_rw.)
7. When the transaction record is created, it returns a success code to FlexNet Manager Suite, which then processes and transmits the next data chunk. This loop continues until all the records of a particular export type have been transmitted.
8. In ServiceNow, the inbound data chunks are written to staging tables (visible in the navigation panel under Flexera Integration > Staging Records) based on the transaction type:

   Transaction type	Import Set Table
   inventory_export	Inventory Imports (note that this is hardware inventory)
   application_export	Application Imports
   contract_export	Contract Imports
   connection_test	Not applicable
   export_status	Not applicable

9. In ServiceNow, the integration application uses the Scheduled Data Imports and Data Sources records to process each Import Transaction record. The integration application queues the transaction records, and as each record is processed, it sets its State to Succeeded. When all the transaction records for an Import Run are completed, the integration application also sets its State to Succeeded.
10. During this processing loop, FlexNet Manager Suite continues polling the API for status. Only when it receives a successful completion message does it resume the process with the next selected data type.
11. When the data has been collated from the individual transactions to the staging tables, transform maps are executed to map the fields in the import set tables to fields in ServiceNow database tables. The final tables for data from each transaction type are shown below. (For a complete set of the transform mappings, see ../reference/SNI-TransformMaps.htm#reference_ggk_1ml_g4.)

Transaction type	Ultimate Data Tables in ServiceNow
application_export	Software Model, Discovery Model, Software Installation, and Software Instance. The tables used are the SAM tables for installation.
contract_export	Contract and Lease Instance Tip: Check the Contract used by tab near the bottom of the page of contract properties. This references all computers linked to the contract.
inventory_export	Product Model, Virtual Machine Instance, Computers

At the completion of this process, data exported from FlexNet Manager Suite is reflected in your ServiceNow data set.

FlexNet Manager Suite (On-PremisesCloud)

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