Exploring Hermes Messaging Service

  • Release version: Washingtondc
  • Updated February 1, 2024
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Exploring Hermes Messaging Service

    The Hermes Messaging Service integrates your Apache Kafka environment with your ServiceNow® instance, facilitating efficient data exchange across business systems. Built on Apache Kafka, it is designed for high-volume data transport and queuing, enabling your instance to produce and consume Kafka events seamlessly.

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    Key Features

    • Multi-Tenant and Multi-Cluster: Supports diverse environments for managing data flows.
    • Asynchronous Data Transport: Simplifies data transport, allowing for the publication and consumption of Kafka events at scale.
    • Performance Management: Provides diagnostic tools to manage message delivery health and performance effectively.
    • Admin Capabilities: Hermes administrators can define namespaces, create topic records, and monitor message payloads.

    Key Outcomes

    By utilizing the Hermes Messaging Service, ServiceNow customers can:

    • Export data from ServiceNow to external applications through Flow Designer.
    • Securely export log data to external data lakes for reporting and compliance using the Log Export Service.
    • Trigger flows based on incoming Kafka events using Stream Connect for Apache Kafka.
    • Enhance the efficiency of Instance Data Replication (IDR) by upgrading replication sets to leverage Hermes capabilities.

    Limitations: Maximum message size is 2 MB, with a cap on message throughput and number of topics supported.

    Next Steps

    To configure and optimize the Hermes Messaging Service, you can explore additional resources on managing namespaces, topics, and administration tasks.

    Learn about the Hermes Messaging Service and how it helps you manage the flow of data between your Kafka environment and your instance.

    Hermes Messaging Service overview

    Apache Kafka is an open-source data streaming platform that provides a single integration point for exchanging data across business systems in your organization. The Hermes Messaging Service enables you to integrate your Apache Kafka environment with your ServiceNow® instance to exchange data with these business systems.

    The Hermes Messaging Service is a multi-tenant, multi-cluster, data transport, and queuing service built on Apache Kafka that enables your instance to produce and consume large volumes of Kafka events.

    • Simplify and standardize asynchronous data transport between your Kafka environment and your ServiceNow instance.
    • Publish and process Kafka events at scale. Publish events to your Kafka environment from your ServiceNow instance and consume Kafka events from your external systems at a high volume with low latency.
    • Effectively process spikes and bursts in message volume to minimize performance impacts on your instance.
    • Manage the health and performance of message delivery using Hermes diagnostic tools.

    Hermes Messaging Service users

    Table 1. Users
    User Description
    Hermes administrator The Hermes admin defines namespaces for each Kafka cluster or domain and creates topic records in the instance or through the command-line interface (CLI). The Hermes admin monitors topics and views the payload of a message in a Hermes topic using the Hermes Messaging Service topic inspector.

    Hermes Messaging Service workflow

    1. In a domain-separated instance, the Hermes admin creates namespace records for different domains.
    2. The Hermes admin creates topic records in the instance or through the CLI.
    3. The Hermes admin updates or rescans topic records as needed in the instance.
    4. The Hermes admin monitors topics and views message payloads using the Hermes Messaging Service topic inspector.

    Benefits

    Different integration points and applications in the ServiceNow platform can use the Hermes Messaging Service to publish and ingest events.

    The Hermes Messaging Service is a ServiceNow AI Platform capability that is available as part of Stream Connect, Log Export Service (LES), and Instance Data Replication (IDR).

    Benefit Application Users
    Export data from your ServiceNow instance to an external application using the Hermes Messaging Service with Flow Designer. Flow Designer Administrator
    Export log data securely from your instance to your external data lake for reporting, auditing, or regulatory purposes by using the Hermes Messaging Service with the Log Export Service. Log Export Service (LES) Administrator
    Trigger flows from incoming Kafka events and trigger outgoing messages to your Kafka environment using the Hermes Messaging Service with Stream Connect. Using Stream Connect for Apache Kafka Administrator
    Improve the performance and processing efficiency of Instance Data Replication (IDR) by upgrading replication sets that you created prior to the Utah release to use the Hermes Messaging Service. Instance Data Replication Administrator

    Limitations

    • Maximum message size: 2 MB
    • Maximum message size per second: 2 MB (produced or consumed)
    • Number of topics: 30 topics per instance
    • Maximum number of partitions: 32 partitions per topic
    • Retention policy: 36 hours
    • Supported compression types for producing messages to Hermes: GZIP, LZ4, and NONE.

    What to explore next

    To learn more about configuring and using the Hermes Messaging Service, see: