NOTE: MY POSTINGS REFLECT MY OWN VIEWS AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT THE VIEWS OF MY EMPLOYER, ACCENTURE.
DIFFICULTY LEVEL: ADVANCED
Assumes having taken Orchestration training and has good advanced level of knowledge and/or familiarity with ServiceNow.
I did this for myself some time ago, and thought I would pass along the steps I used. Here I will detail how I created my own real (sic. non-virtual) server device.
I used an older computer case I had sitting around collecting dust, and re-purposed it. I obtained a Microsoft 2008 Server Enterprise license (via MSDN - This can be SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than buying just the operating system). Fortunately, I had all of the needed equipment and software on-hand (I only tricked it out a bit with a couple of LED case fans).
Assumptions
1. You know computer hardware and how to install and configure it.
2. You know how to create a workflow.
Design
- Build server.
- Install operating system.
- Install Fuji Mid Server, and configure to point at the personal instance.
- Install the Orchestration plug-in on your personal instance.
- Install Active Directory services.
- Create Domain Admin: Create AD credentials with new Domain Admin UserID and Password.
Implementation
1. Server (most any medium sized box should work - 4+ Gb of RAM, 100Gb disk minimum). My configuration:
Parts List
- Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA69VM-S2 (on-board VGA and 100 mbs ethernet). link
- CPU: AMD Sempron 3600+ (old 64 bit single-core, again, lying around collecting dust). link
- RAM: 6 Gb (667 DIMM 2x2, 2x1. All I had lying around. Have you priced this lately??? wow!)
- Hard drive: 100 Gb (an old unused drive sitting around)
- Operating System: Windows Server 2008 Enterprise (standard should work fine).
- I also downloaded all patches and updates including .Net 4.5. link <-- Just one vendor; you might look around.
- Old DVD drive sitting around.
- Power Supply: 500W.
- 2x new spiffy red-LED case fans. 🙂 link
- Dusty old Asus case.
NOTE: Did a lot of vacuuming! Everything had been sitting in a corner after all!
Steps
- Assembled the hardware. Validated that everything was working right. Spent some time poring over documentation to make sure I didn't need to make any BIOS updates or had any hardware incompatibilities.
- Installed the operating system. This was actually pretty straightforward. link
- Downloaded and installed the patches and updates (this took quite a bit of time).
So, totally bare bones! Here is what it looked like when I had finished. Those fans really made it look awesome!
3. ServiceNow Installation:
a. Installed the latest MID Server and configured it to point to my personal instance. link
b. Installed Discovery and activated Orchestration on my personal instance.
4. Followed this article in setting up my Active Directory services: link
5. Created a Domain Admin account that would provide the credentials for my personal instance to access the AD server. link
And that is all to get things up and running.
6. The final step is to create a quick-and-dirty test Orchestration workflow:
a. Go to the AD services and create a new user. I used myself. link
b. Go to your personal instance.
1. Create a new Workflow project.
i. Name: AD Server Test
ii. Table: Global
2. Add a Query AD activity.
i. Name: Check Local AD Server
ii. Domain Controller: the local IP of your AD Server (or 127.0.0.1)
iii. Search filter: (givenName=Steven) or the first name of your new user.
iv. Save your work.
3. Run the workflow
4. After the workflow completes navigate to Orchestration > ECC Queue and look for an input entry with the name: Windows - PowerShell (nodes: 3) with the source of your server's local IP.
- This title indicates that there was a successful run.
- Edit up the ECC Queue record and bring up the XML. You should see the query return with your user and all additional information.
So, it worked! Woohoo!
And that is all there is to it! 😎
Enjoy!
Steven Bell.
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Originally published on: 10-27-2015 08:43 AM
I updated the code and brought the article into alignment with my new formatting standard.
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