Connect to ServiceNow

TL;DR

• Connect your ServiceNow instance to receive and manage incidents automatically
• Choose between Basic Authentication (username/password) or OAuth 2.0 (token-based, recommended for production)
• Once connected, your agent acknowledges, investigates, and updates ServiceNow incidents

Time: 15 minutes

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

• An Azure SRE Agent created and running
• A ServiceNow instance with admin access
• For OAuth 2.0: An OAuth application registered in ServiceNow (see Prepare ServiceNow for OAuth below)
• For Basic Authentication: A ServiceNow user with incident management permissions

Choose your authentication method

Method	Security	Best for	Setup time
OAuth 2.0	Token-based, automatic refresh, no stored passwords	Production environments, security-conscious teams	~10 min
Basic Authentication	Username and password stored	Quick setup, dev/test environments	~5 min

Recommendation

OAuth 2.0 is recommended for production use. Tokens refresh automatically through Azure API Connections, and no passwords are stored in your agent configuration.

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Option A: Connect with OAuth 2.0

Prepare ServiceNow for OAuth

Before connecting from the portal, register an OAuth application in your ServiceNow instance:

1. In your ServiceNow instance, navigate to System OAuth → Application Registry
2. Click New → Create an OAuth API endpoint for external clients
3. Fill in:
   • Name: A descriptive name (e.g., Azure SRE Agent)
   • Redirect URL: You will get this from the portal in the next section — use the format https://logic-apis-{region}.consent.azure-apim.net/redirect (where {region} is your agent's Azure region, e.g., eastus2)
   • Active: Checked
4. Click Submit and note:
   • Client ID — displayed on the application page
   • Client Secret — click the lock icon to reveal; copy it immediately

warning

The Client Secret is shown only once in some ServiceNow versions. Copy it before navigating away.

Configure in the portal

1. Navigate to your agent in the Azure SRE Agent portal
2. In the left navigation, go to Settings → Incident platform

3. Select ServiceNow from the Incident platform dropdown

Switching platforms

If another platform is already connected, a confirmation dialog appears. Confirm to disconnect the current platform before proceeding. Only one incident platform can be active at a time.

4. Set Authentication Type to OAuth 2.0

5. A yellow info box appears with a redirect URL. Copy this URL and add it to your ServiceNow OAuth application (from the previous section)

   The redirect URL follows this pattern:

   https://logic-apis-{region}.consent.azure-apim.net/redirect

6. Enter your ServiceNow details:

   • ServiceNow endpoint: Your instance URL (e.g., https://your-instance.service-now.com)
   • OAuth Client ID: From your ServiceNow OAuth application
   • OAuth Client Secret: From your ServiceNow OAuth application

7. Click Authorize

Authorize the connection

1. The portal creates an Azure API Connection and opens a ServiceNow sign-in popup
2. Sign in to ServiceNow in the popup window to authorize the connection
3. Wait for authorization to complete — a spinner appears on the form while the connection is being set up
4. When authorization succeeds, the Authorize button changes to Save, indicating the connection is authorized
5. Click Save to save the configuration

Verify your connection

After authorization, the settings page shows a green status indicator with "ServiceNow is connected." Your agent can now receive and manage incidents from ServiceNow.

Checkpoint: You see Edit and Disconnect buttons on the incident platform settings page, confirming the connection is active.

What you unlocked

Your agent can now automatically receive, investigate, and update ServiceNow incidents. Set up response plans to control which incidents your agent handles.

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Option B: Connect with Basic Authentication

Create a ServiceNow integration user

Create a dedicated user in ServiceNow for the agent:

1. In ServiceNow, go to User Administration → Users
2. Create a new user with:
   • A recognizable username (e.g., sre-agent-integration)
   • A strong password
   • Roles: itil and incident management permissions (or equivalent)

Configure in the portal

1. Navigate to your agent in the Azure SRE Agent portal
2. In the left navigation, go to Settings → Incident platform
3. Select ServiceNow from the Incident platform dropdown
4. Leave Authentication Type as Basic Authentication (default)
5. Enter your ServiceNow details:
   • ServiceNow endpoint: Your instance URL (e.g., https://your-instance.service-now.com)
   • Username: The integration user's username
   • Password: The integration user's password
6. Click Save

Verify your connection

The portal validates connectivity automatically. You should see a green status indicator with "ServiceNow is connected."

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Set up response plans

Once ServiceNow is connected, create response plans to define how your agent handles incidents.

You can optionally enable Quickstart response plan during setup, which creates a default response plan for high-priority incidents automatically.

When you enable Quickstart response plan, your agent creates a default plan based on the platform:

Platform	Default plan handles	Autonomy level
ServiceNow	High (Priority 2) incidents	Autonomous
Azure Monitor	Sev3 alerts	Autonomous
PagerDuty	P1 incidents	Autonomous

ServiceNow priority values:

Priority	ServiceNow value	Label
Critical	1	Critical
High	2	High
Moderate	3	Moderate
Low	4	Low
Planning	5	Planning

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What your agent can do with ServiceNow

Once connected, your agent interacts with ServiceNow incidents throughout their lifecycle:

Capability	Description
Read incidents	Fetch incident details, related records, and discussion history
Post discussion entries	Add investigation findings and updates to incident work notes
Acknowledge incidents	Mark incidents as acknowledged when investigation begins
Change priority	Adjust incident priority based on investigation findings
Resolve incidents	Close incidents with resolution notes after successful mitigation

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Change credentials

To update your ServiceNow connection:

1. Go to Settings → Incident platform
2. Click Change credentials
3. Update your endpoint, authentication type, or credentials
4. Click Save (or Authorize for OAuth)

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Disconnect ServiceNow

To disconnect your ServiceNow integration:

1. Go to Settings → Incident platform
2. Click Disconnect
3. Confirm the disconnection

warning

Disconnecting permanently removes the connection. Your agent stops receiving and managing ServiceNow incidents. For OAuth connections, the associated Azure API Connection resource is also deleted.

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Troubleshooting

OAuth authorization fails

• Verify the redirect URL in your ServiceNow OAuth application matches exactly: https://logic-apis-{region}.consent.azure-apim.net/redirect
• Confirm your OAuth application is set to Active in ServiceNow
• Double-check your Client ID and Client Secret
• Ensure your ServiceNow instance allows external OAuth connections

Connection shows "Not Connected" after setup

• OAuth: The Azure API Connection may need re-authorization. Click Change credentials to re-authorize
• Basic auth: Verify the endpoint URL, username, and password are correct
• Confirm the ServiceNow endpoint is reachable from Azure (no firewall blocking)

"Unable to connect to ServiceNow endpoint"

• Verify the endpoint URL format: https://your-instance.service-now.com (no trailing slash)
• Confirm your ServiceNow instance is accessible from the public internet
• Check that the integration user has sufficient permissions

"Invalid OAuth credentials"

• Regenerate the Client Secret in ServiceNow and try again
• Verify the Client ID matches the one in your ServiceNow OAuth application
• Confirm the OAuth application is active and not expired

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Related

• Incident platforms — How incident platforms work with your agent
• Automate Incident Response — Configure response plans and automation

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What you learned

In this tutorial, you:

• Connected your ServiceNow instance to Azure SRE Agent using OAuth 2.0 or Basic Authentication
• Verified the connection is active and healthy
• Learned how to set up response plans for ServiceNow incidents
• Understood what your agent can do with ServiceNow (read, post, acknowledge, resolve incidents)