Service Graph Connector for Microsoft SCCM 3.0 Setup Guidelines - Support and Troubleshooting

Service Graph Connector for Microsoft SCCM 3.0 Setup Guidelines Service Graph Connector for Microsoft SCCM 3.0 Setup Guidelines

Introduction

Service Graph Connector for Microsoft SCCM (SG-SCCM) 3.0 release allows users to import data from multiple SCCM instances into a single ServiceNow CMDB.

Service Graph Connector for Microsoft SCCM 3.0 has a different initial configuration from the previous versions of the connector. This document describes the best practices for customers that are upgrading to Service Graph Connector for Microsoft SCCM 3.0.

Whether importing data from a single SCCM instance or multiple SCCM instances, all users of SG-SCCM 3.0 are expected to go through the steps of the Guided Setup to create new connections and generate corresponding data sources and scheduled data imports. These generated data sources and scheduled data imports are used for data import.

Key Steps

Grant permissions for SG-SCCM to create data sources and scheduled data imports dynamically. For each SCCM instance to import from: Create a new connection and credential to the SCCM instance. Create a new set of data sources and scheduled data imports. Validate the data sources to confirm connectivity.

Complete the is following steps through the guided setup to configure SG-SCCM 3.0.

Guided Setup: Configure Data source and Scheduled data import access

Unlike previous versions of SG-SCCM, Service Graph Connector for Microsoft SCCM 3.0 does not directly execute the out-of-box data sources and scheduled data imports. Instead, SG-SCCM 3.0 creates a new set of data sources and scheduled imports for each SCCM connection, which are copied from the out-of-the-box data sources (also called Prime Data Sources) and scheduled imports. These newly copied Data Sources are identified with a unique prefix that is provided by the customer during configuration.

After creating a connection and credential alias user , the connector generates corresponding data sources and scheduled data imports. However, scoped applications do not have the capability to create data sources or scheduled data imports by default on the ServiceNow platform. Therefore, t o enable the generation of data sources and scheduled data imports , the user needs to create access on the following tables:

Data source [sys_data_source] Scheduled data import [scheduled_import_set] The first step in the guided setup, "Configure Data source and Scheduled data import access", enables these required permissions.

Follow the steps to configure the required access, as shown below.

The following figure shows the "Application Access" for Data source [sys_data_source] table.

The following figure shows the "Application Access" for Scheduled data import [scheduled_import_set] table.

Guided Setup: Configure the connection

In this step, we create a new connection, using the Flow Designer Connection Credentials interface. Please note that there are two different connection options in the guided setup:

Configure connection Configure connection (Integrated authentication) It is only required to configure one or the other of these two, based upon whether or not you wish to use the Integrated Authentication feature.

Clicking on the Configure button takes us to the Flow Designer Connections page.

Connection and credential setup

Whether this is a new install of SG-SCCM or an upgrade from SG-SCCM 2.5, the expectation of SG-SCCM 3.0 is that a new connection and credential alias will be created for each SCCM connection, including the first connection. User s that are upgrading from an older version of Service Graph connector for Microsoft SCCM are expected to create a new connection and credential alias.

In the Flow Designer Connections interface, do not configure the Default Connection. Rather, click on the Add Connection button to add a new connection.

Configure and create the connection. It is suggested to give a meaningful name for this connection to differentiate it from other SCCM connections that may be created later.

Note: Mid Server is configured as a part of guided setup step of "Configure Data Source and Scheduled Data Import".

After the new connection is created, you should see it in the list of Connections in Flow Designer.

Navigate back to the guided setup to continue the configuration process.

Guided Setup: Configure Data Source and Scheduled Data Import

In this step, we generate a set of data sources and scheduled data imports for the newly created connection. Users need to create a new set of data sources and imports to allow for separate scheduling and customization for each SCCM connection.

Generating corresponding data sources and scheduled data imports

Service Graph Connector for Microsoft SCCM 3.0 uses generated data sources and scheduled data import s instead using of out-of-box data sources and scheduled data imports. The g uided S et up step "Configure Data Source and Scheduled Data Import" generates data sources and scheduled data import associated with the connection and credential alias.

The first configuration element, "Prefix to Data source and Scheduled data import sets", is a mandatory item. This prefix is an identifier (max 8 characters) that is appended to all of the data source and scheduled import names for this distinct SCCM connection. In a Multi-Instance deployment, this prefix should be a short, meaningful identifier that allows you to identify a set of related data sources. For example, if you have two different SCCM instances for AMS and EMEA regions, you could choose "AMS" and "EMEA" as your instance prefixes, for easy identification and differentiation between the sets of data sources and schedules.

Note: MID Server is mandatory if "Connection and Credential Alias" created for Integrated authentication connection type.

After configuring the connection, click "Create/Update Imports". If the prefix is a new unique value, the SG-SCCM guided setup will create a new set of data sources and scheduled data imports, copied from the default (Prime) SG-SCCM data sources and scheduled imports, using the prefix plus the identified connection, MID and Run As User parameters.

If the prefix value corresponds to an existing set of SG-SCCM Data Sources, then those data sources and scheduled data imports will be updated with the newly specified configuration parameters.

After creation, the new data sources and scheduled data imports are shown as below. Note that these items have their name s prefixed with the p refix value specified in the previous step.

Validate Data Sources

After the new data sources are created, they should be validated to confirm connectivity. On the guided setup step "Validate Data Sources", click on the Configure button.

Select the newly created data source based upon SG-SCCM Computer Identity. Then click on "Test Load 20 Records".

Confirm the connection was successful with a non-zero number of records processed.

Generated data source and connection and credential information

Microsoft SCCM uses an internal identifier called Resource ID to uniquely identify computers inside SCCM. This ID is used in SG-SCCM as part of the Source Native Key to identify records. However, Microsoft SCCM does not guarantee that Resource IDs are unique across multiple SCCM instances. It is known that SCCM Resource IDs can and will overlap between different SCCM instances. Unless handled correctly, this can cause data from different SCCM instances to combine together in incorrect and undesirable ways inside the CMDB.

To differentiate data from different SCCM instances, d ata imported using a generated D ata S ource has a connection and credential alias identifier (sys_id) embedded in the SQL select statement. This information is used to associate CIs with a specific SCCM instance.

When SG-SCCM guided setup creates the sets of data sources as described in the steps above, it will dynamically add this SQL clause, based upon the configured connection and credential alias.

The following figure shows the generated data source SQL statement that has connection and credential alias information embedded in it.

The following figure shows the import set row with connection and credential alias information sys_id as a distinct import data column.

The following figure shows the Sources [sys_object_source] table records with the connection and credential alias information associated with all of the records.

Regarding Out of the Box Data Sources and Scheduled Data Imports

Users should not directly configure or use the out-of-the-box (OOTB) scheduled data imports or data sources (which have names starting with 'SG-SCCM') because of following reasons:

OOTB scheduled data imports or data sources are used as a template for generating an instance of data sources and scheduled data imports. Any customization of SQL statement in out of box data sources will copied to generated data sources, which may not be desired. Guided S etup no longer provides the ability to set credential and other configuration for out-of-box data sources. Data imported using OOTB data sources will be missing connection and credential alias information, so there is no way to associate CIs with a specific SCCM instance.

Instead, it is recommended to follow the guided setup steps as described above to add a new connection and create the copies of data sources and scheduled data imports for execution.

Deactivating the existing 'SG-SCCM Computer Identity' scheduled data import

In a SG-SCCM upgrade scenario, the existing SG-SCCM Computer Identity Scheduled Data Import may still be active. User s must deactivate the existing "SG-SCCM Computer Identity" scheduled data import because in this version of SG-SCCM, the OOTB data sources and scheduled data imports (which ha ve a name starting with 'SG-SCCM' ) are used as a template when creating a set of data sources and scheduled data imports.

Instead, u ser s should configure the generated scheduled data import as described above, and then use that for the SCCM data import.

Skipped data source records during upgrade

Customer who are upgrading from a previous version of the SG-SCCM connector will have data sources record s as S kipped Changes in the upgrade process . This happens because in previous versions of SG-SCCM, the credential and connection detail s are saved in directly on the Data Source [sys_data_source] record. Thus, it is identified as a "customized" record that cannot be automatically merged on upgrade.

These skipped updates must be resolved to ensure that all new features of SG-SCCM 3.0 are installed on the customer instance. It is expected that all the records in "Skipped Changes to Review" will need to be resolved.

The following figure shows out-of-box data sources records as the skipped 'Customizations Unchanged' records.

Users should review these skipped Data Source [sys_data_source] record and "Revert to Base System".

Note: " Revert to Base System" for out-of-box data sources record is required because these data sources are used as templates for generating an instance of data sources.

If there are existing customizations of the SG-SCCM SQL statements that are desired to be preserved, these SQL statements should be saved (such as to a text file), before reverting to the Base System. They can then be remerged using the following guided setup step.

Guided Setup: Customize Instance Data source SQL statement

SQL statement customization is an optional step. If users want to customize the SQL statement, they must modify the instance member "Custom SQL Statement" instead of modifying data source SQL statement directly. This is because the SQL statements in the data sources can be overwritten during data import.

To customize, click the Configure button in the "Customizing Data source SQL statement" section of guided setup.

This presents a list of "SCCM Instances". Each of these corresponds to a single connection/instance, identified by the specified prefix, such as "AMS" in the example below.

Click on the instance prefix to see the list of "Instance Members" for this prefix. Each instance member represents the derivation of the specific instance data source from the Prime (OOTB or default) data source.

In the Instance Members, there is a column "Custom SQL Statement". This is where a custom SQL statement can be set, for a specific data source associated with a specific instance/prefix. For example, you can specify a custom SQL statement for the "AMS-SG-SCCM Computer Identify" data source, which is derived from the prime (default) SG-SCCM Computer Identity data source. This custom SQL statement overrides the default SQL, for this data source.

In a Multi-Instance scenario, you can have different custom SQL statements for different instance sets, e.g. one custom SQL statement for "AMS-SG-SCCM Computer Identity", a different custom SQL for "EMEA-SG-SCCM Computer Identity", and so on.

To add a custom SQL statement for a specific instance member data source:

Click on the Instance Member record. On this form, you can populate the Custom SQL Statement field. For convenience, you can populate the custom SQL statement field with the current default SQL statement (from the corresponding Prime data source) by clicking the "Copy Prime SQL Statement" link. This gives a recommended starting point for any intended customization. Click Update to save the changes.

Note: The Connection ID field does not need to be added to the SQL statement. It will be inserted automatically during import execution.

The following is the order in which SQL statements are used:

"Custom SQL Statement" - 1 st Preference if specified. "SQL Statement" field of "Prime Data Source" if "Custom SQL Statement" is not specified.

In the example above, "AMS-SG-SCCM Computer Identity" will use the custom SQL Statement. Meanwhile, "AMS-SG-SCCM Disk" will use the default SQL statement defined on SG-SCCM Disk.

Note: Upgrading c ustomer s who have customized "SQL Statement" in the previous SG-SCCM are required to manually move their SQL statement customization to the "Custom SQL Statement" field of "Instance Member".

ServiceNow Software Asset Management Professional data source

If the "Software Asset Management Professional" plugin is activated before the Guided Setup step of "Configure Data Source and Scheduled Data Import" is performed, then the following additional data sources and scheduled data import are generated:

-SG-SCCM SAMP Usage -SG-SCCM Software Edition -SG-SCCM Software Last Used

But if the user activates "Software Asset Management Professional" after performing the guided setup step of "Configure Data Source and Scheduled Data Import" and want to use above data sources and scheduled data import then they must re-execute the guided setup step of 'Configure Data Source and Scheduled Data Import' to re-generate these data sources and scheduled data import.

Editing or deleting generated data source and scheduled data import

If the user performs "Configure Data Source and Scheduled Data Import" guided setup step using an existing "Prefix" then instead of generating new data source or scheduled data import existing, the previously generated data sources and scheduled data imports are modified.

If the user wants to delete any generated data source or scheduled data import, they can delete these based on their need and re-generate it by performing guided setup step of "Configure Data Source and Scheduled Data Import".

Adding a second SCCM Instance

As stated previously, Service Graph Connector for Microsoft SCCM (SG-SCCM) 3.0 release allows users to import data from multiple SCCM instances into a single ServiceNow CMDB.

The process of defining a second (or third, etc.) SCCM instance connection is the same as defining the first connection, as described above.

Key Steps:

Create a new connection and credential to the SCCM instance, using the guided setup "Configure the Connection" step as described above

Create a new set of data sources and scheduled data imports with a new and unique prefix.

Validate the data sources to confirm connectivity

The new data sources can be customized through the same process as described previously.

List of terms

Name

Definition

SCCM Instance

Set of data sources associated with a single SCCM source. (Connection and credential alias)

SCCM Instance Member

Data source associated with 'SCCM Instance'.

Prime data source

Template data source (out of box data source) that is used as origin for the cop y process for generating data source s associated with a specific SCCM connection.

Post Configuration Execution

Once all configuration has been done following the recommendations above, there is a final step to ensure a smooth transition to multi-instance execution: Running SG-SCCM with a full data load.

As the above configuration will change the values used for Source Native Key for SG-SCCM (as stored in sys_object_source.id field), it is important to do an execution of SG-SCCM doing a full load of data. This will reestablish all the new values for the source native keys for all records coming from SG-SCCM.

To do so is simple: For any SG-SCCM data sources that have incremental processing enabled (e.g. "Use last run datetime" == true), the value for "Last run datetime" field should be cleared/emptied. By doing this, it will force SG-SCCM to load all data from SCCM. For all the data, the new Source Native Key values will be persisted into sys_object_source during data processing into the CMDB. Note that running in non-incremental mode may elongate the overall end-to-end run time. Note also that this is a one-time change, and any SG-SCCM data sources that have "Use last run datetime" == true will go back to incremental mode after this execution has completed.