What is ServiceNow Orchestration

The IT industry often finds itself tangled in diminishing productivity and value because of the time occupied by several manuals, and error-prone tasks that could have been automated. Rather than driving innovation, IT is consumed with storage provisioning, virtual machine provisioning, employee offboarding or onboarding, password resets, and other similar tasks. To help them out, ServiceNow Orchestration comes into the picture. It helps automate easy or difficult multi-systems hardware, server applications, and remote services. In this article, let’s find out more about ServiceNow Orchestration. 

ServiceNow Orchestration: Table Of Content

• What is ServiceNow Orchestration
• Orchestration Workflow
• Domain separation in Orchestration
• Orchestration Activity Packs
• F5 Network Management activity pack
• Activating Orchestration in ServiceNow
• Password Reset Application
• Benefits of ServiceNow Orchestration

What is ServiceNow Orchestration

ServiceNow Orchestration assists in automating tasks outside the ServiceNow instance. You can automate both simple and complex tasks on remote servers, services, hardware, and applications. It can cross corporate firewalls and communicate with the hosted services as well as infrastructure elements that are outside the ServiceNow environment.

With orchestration automation, you can rest assured of compliance and security. Furthermore, it assists the IT team in managing as well as automating tasks. ServiceNow Orchestration offers reusable data that you can use in workflows. It also offers versioning for teams to ensure easy collaboration. It also offers activities that allow you to connect to applications or systems. 

If you want to enrich your career and become a professional in ServiceNow, then enroll in "ServiceNow Online Training" - This course will help you to achieve excellence in this domain.

Orchestration Workflow

ServiceNow orchestration implements a workflow. The orchestration begins a probe and types a Recorded Probe to ECC Queue. The workflow ceases as the MID server takes the request and creates a probe. Once the probe resends a report, the work process is stopped as the output is evaluated. Alongside, the work is either stopped or begins again at this point. 

Domain separation in Orchestration

Domains are such logical groups wherein you can separate processes, data, and administrative tasks. You can then assign a specific user to each of the domains so as to regulate who is going to access certain data. In the basic subscription, you can get a feature for domain separation.

You can also use a Service Provider (SP) to modify or create processes for every customer. Therefore, multiple customers can adequately use the application in one single instance. The instance’s owner will have to configure the logic of the business that will allow access to certain tenants to an application. 

Orchestration Activity Packs

Orchestration offers a variety of activity packs that assist in developing your workflow. 

Related Article: ServiceNow Data Model

Orchestration - Active Directory

You can create, manage and delete objects in the Windows Active Directory. If you want, upon a user’s request, you can also reset a user password automatically. To execute these activities, your instance would need access to an MD Server configured adequately to use PowerShell. 

Orchestration - Azure Active Directory

You can automate several tasks on Azure AD, such as team member offboarding and onboarding functions among others. You can also remove or add users to the directory, and remove or assign Office 365 licenses for users. 

Orchestration - Exchange

Under this, you can regulate Microsoft Exchange mail systems. However, keep in mind that Powershell Remoting is enabled on the target Exchange server. Furthermore, you can also use such activities to connect to Microsoft Exchange Online.

Orchestration - SFTP

You can manage directories and files on the SFTP server. You can move these files from one server to another as well. And then, you also get to set specific conditions or specify the order in wherein the files have to be moved. 

Orchestration - Infoblox DDI Activity Pack

Through this activity pack, you can effortlessly manage Infoblox DDI. Apart from this, you manage the IP addresses of a network by implementing DHCP and DNS. 

F5 Network Management activity pack

With an F5 load balancer, you can configure a variety of its elements. Right from pools to pool members, servers of these pools, and much more can be managed. 

Orchestration - SSH 

With this pack, you can perform all of the SSH activities, be it reading, writing, or copying files from one host to another. You can also compare two files on the Unix or Linux servers. 

Orchestration - PowerShell

You can automate Windows applications and machines with this activity pack. Furthermore, you can also install an application from an MSI pack, add a Windows system to a domain, and more.

Activating Orchestration in ServiceNow

First, you will need an Orchestration subscription. To buy it, you would have to contact the ServiceNow account manager. And then, you can follow these steps to assess a sub-production instance without any charges:

• Open the instance
• Visit System Definition and go to Plugins
• An All Application Page will open up
• Click Request Plugin and open a new request
• Click Take me to the HI service Portal Activate a Plugin Service Catalog
• You will then get a form to activate the plugin request
• Give a name to the instance where you wish to activate the plugin
• And then, specify the plugin name, date, and time to enable it
• You can give extra information in the comments section as well
• Click Submit

You will have to wait a few days before your instance gets activated. 

Check Out: ServiceNow Interview Questions and Answers

Password Reset Application

Client Software Distribution Application

The administrators get the capability to distribute software available in the service catalog. You can create records to deploy software models as well as catalog items. Furthermore, you can also automate the deployment and revocation of software by using a custom SCCM activity pack. And then, you can also set lease periods for the distributed software and enable lease extensions as well. What’s more, you can also integrate CSD with Software Asset Management to acquire license counts of the deployed software. 

Benefits of ServiceNow Orchestration

Jotted down below are some benefits of using ServiceNow orchestration:

• Enhanced Agility: You can automate routine, manual, and error-prone tasks and create quicker results. This enhances service availability and speeds up the resolution time.
• Accelerate Time to Value: It offers a variety of pre-built orchestration activities, ready-to-use orchestration applications, and activity templates that reduce the time to develop the workflows. Therefore, an IT team can effortlessly allocate more time to offer strategic value solutions. 
• Measurement and Growth of Value: It provides an inbuilt ROI calculator through which you can evaluate benefits. You can then concentrate on areas that are generating the most value and such areas that need more attention. 

Conclusion

ServiceNow Orchestration is easily available as an extension of the workflow designer. You can buy it under a different subscription. Considering that it is a part of the ServiceNow platform, it is capable of leveraging all of the ServiceNow platform features. You can drag and drop the inbuilt activities and develop powerful automation and much more.