Use the ServiceNow DevOps extension for Azure DevOps and Azure DevOps custom actions

Install and configure DevOps extension for Azure DevOps to send build and release notifications from your Azure pipeline to DevOps Change Velocity.

Before you begin

Role required: sn_devops.admin

About this task

You can use ServiceNow DevOps extension on Visual Studio Marketplace - Extensions for Azure DevOps to integrate your Azure pipeline with the ServiceNow DevOps application. For more information about artifacts and packages in DevOps Change Velocity, see Artifacts and packages.

• ServiceNow DevOps service connection

  Required to connect the Azure pipeline to ServiceNow

• ServiceNow DevOps Release Gate

  Required to enable change control in Azure release (CD) pipelines (in pre-deployment conditions only).

Azure build (CI) pipeline custom tasks:

• Agentless (server) job
  • ServiceNow DevOps Server Artifact Registration custom task

    Required for agentless (server) jobs to register an artifact in the ServiceNow instance

  • ServiceNow DevOps Server Package Registration custom task

    Required for agentless (server) jobs to register a package in the ServiceNow instance

  • ServiceNow DevOps Server Change Acceleration custom task

    Required for agentless (server) jobs to automatically create a change request in ServiceNow Change Management as part of the Azure pipeline.

    Note:

    The ServiceNow DevOps Server Change Acceleration task does not require ServiceNow DevOps Server Job Notification tasks.
  • ServiceNow DevOps Server Get Change custom task

    Required to retrieve the change request number in a pipeline based on specific change details for a server job.

  • ServiceNow DevOps Server Update Change custom task

    Required to update the change request details associated with a pipeline for a server job.

• Agent job
  • ServiceNow DevOps Agent Artifact Registration custom task

    Required for agent jobs to register an artifact in the ServiceNow instance

  • ServiceNow DevOps Agent Package Registration custom task

    Required for agent jobs to register a package in the ServiceNow instance

  • ServiceNow DevOps Agent Get Change custom task

    Required to retrieve the change request number in a pipeline based on specific change details for an agent job.

  • ServiceNow DevOps Agent Update Change custom task

    Required to update the change request details associated with a pipeline for an agent job.

  Note:

  The ServiceNow DevOps Agent Artifact Registration and ServiceNow DevOps Agent Package Registration tasks are not supported for Release pipelines.
• Software Quality scans (SonarQube/SonarCloud)
  • ServiceNow DevOps Build Sonar Registration custom task (for Build pipelines)
  • ServiceNow DevOps Release Sonar Registration custom task (for Release pipelines)
  Note:

  The ServiceNow DevOps Build Sonar Registration task is not supported for Release pipelines.
• Security scans:
  • ServiceNow DevOps Build Security Results custom task (for Build pipelines)
  • ServiceNow DevOps Release Security Results custom task (for Release pipelines)
  Note:

  The ServiceNow DevOps Build Security Result task is not supported for Release pipelines.

The ServiceNow DevOps Server Job Notification and ServiceNow DevOps Agent Job Notification tasks are not required pipeline tasks for ServiceNow to track Azure DevOps pipeline job executions. If either is used in your pipelines, you can remove them.

Procedure

1. Go to Visual Studio Marketplace, search for the ServiceNow DevOps extension, and click Get it free.

   

2. Select your Azure DevOps organization and select Install.
3. From your Azure DevOps project, navigate to Project settings > Pipelines > Service connections.
4. Select New service connection and from the list select ServiceNow DevOps.
5. Select Next and enter the following details:

   Authentication method	Select whether authentication is done through the token-based or basic method.
   ServiceNow instance	https://<your-instance>.service-now.com/
   Tool ID	The sys_id of the orchestration tool. You can copy this value using the Copy sys_id command on the Orchestration Tool form. If you are using the workspace, select More form options () > Copy sys_id on the Azure DevOps tool connection form. If you are using Service Catalog or Classic, select Additional actions () > Copy sys_id on the Azure DevOps tool connection form.
   Username	Enter devops.integration.user. Note: The step to enter the integration user name and password is required to configure only when DevOps Config is installed or the This property decides whether to create a Generic Connection on configure operation for Azure DevOps property is disabled. If this step is not required, webhooks are configured using token-based authentication.
   Password	Password for DevOps Integration User. Note: The step to enter the integration user name and password is required to configure only when DevOps Config is installed or the This property decides whether to create a Generic Connection on configure operation for Azure DevOps property is disabled. If this step is not required, webhooks are configured using token-based authentication.
   API Token	API token for connection to the endpoint.
   Service connection name	Enter DevOps Connection
   Grant access permission to all pipelines	Select check box.

Example

Figure 1. Azure pipeline - ServiceNow DevOps service connection basic authentication method

Figure 2. Azure pipeline - ServiceNow DevOps service connection token based authentication method

Set up an Azure build (CI) pipeline in DevOps

Use the ServiceNow DevOps extension for Azure DevOps to configure change control and artifacts and packages in your Azure build (CI) pipeline.

Before you begin

Role required: sn_devops.admin

Procedure

1. Navigate to Pipelines in your Azure DevOps instance.
2. Select the pipeline for which you want to enable change control.
3. Select View.
   The YAML editor for the pipeline is displayed along with the Tasks search pane on the right.
4. Search for the required custom action in the Tasks pane and select it.

   Custom action	Steps
   ServiceNow DevOps Server Change Acceleration	In the Display name field, enter ServiceNow Change Acceleration. In the ServiceNow endpoint field, enter My Connection. In the Upstream job executed field, enter the value that indicates the previous job in line. For example, the job before Server might be Test. In the Change request details field, set closure code and change request fields from within the pipeline. Select the information icon to view sample output. For more information regarding change acceleration, see change acceleration.
   ServiceNow DevOps Agent Artifact Registry	In the ServiceNow endpoint field, enter My Connection. In the Artifacts payload field, enter the JSON containing list of artifacts. For more information regarding artifacts, see Artifacts and packages.
   ServiceNow DevOps Agent Package Registry	In the ServiceNow endpoint field, enter My Connection. In the Package name field, enter the name of the package that contains artifacts. In the Artifacts payload field, enter the JSON containing build details and list of artifacts. For more information regarding artifacts, see Artifacts and packages.
   ServiceNow DevOps Server Get Change	Get and update change request details in Azure DevOps pipeline
   ServiceNow DevOps Server Update Change	Get and update change request details in Azure DevOps pipeline
   ServiceNow DevOps Agent Get Change	Get and update change request details in Azure DevOps pipeline
   ServiceNow DevOps Agent Update Change	Get and update change request details in Azure DevOps pipeline

5. Select Add, to add the custom task to the Tasks section of your Azure pipeline.

Example

Figure 3. Azure pipeline: ServiceNow DevOps Change Acceleration custom task

Figure 4. Change request details example

Set up an Azure release (CD) pipeline in DevOps

Use the ServiceNow DevOps extension for Azure DevOps to configure change control, and artifacts and packages in your Azure release (CD) pipeline.

Before you begin

Role required: sn_devops.admin

About this task

Note:

Change control in Azure release (CD) pipelines is supported in pre-deployment gates only. Pre-deployment gate change requests are mapped to the step execution of the first job in that stage.

Phases in an Azure release pipeline are mapped to a step. The step name for a multi-config or multi-agent job must include the phase name only, and not the actual job name derived at pipeline execution run time.

Task executions for skipped jobs are marked as failed.

Procedure

1. In Azure DevOps Pipelines, select Pipelines > Releases, and then select your release pipeline.
2. Select Edit to open the pipeline editor.
3. Select the pre-deployment ()icon for your stage, and then select the toggle button to enable Gates.
4. Select +Add, and select ServiceNow DevOps Release Gate.
5. Select ServiceNow DevOps Release Gate and select the ServiceNow endpoint.
6. Exit the release gate configuration, and expand the Evaluation options section to configure the following timing fields.

   The time between re-evaluation of gates	Re-evaluation interval in minutes, hours, or days. If the change request is canceled or rejected, the Azure pipeline release gate keeps re-evaluating the change request status at the configured interval until timeout. No user intervention is required for further attempts of re-evaluation after the change request has already been approved, rejected, or canceled.
   The timeout after which gates fail	Timeout value in minutes, hours, or days. If the pre-deployment conditions fail, the subsequent jobs of the stage are marked as failed, and the start and end time defaults to the current system time.

   Figure 5. Azure release pipeline pre-deployment gate configuration

   

7. Optional: Configure artifacts in your Azure release (CD) pipeline.
   To set up artifacts using the build pipeline as the source, these names must match.

   • Repository name, and build pipeline name (for example, DeployableRepo).
   • Name property of the build pipeline artifact, and source alias property of the release pipeline artifact (for example, BuildDrop).

   In addition to the build pipeline, you can select artifacts from any other eight sources. To track commit & work item details, follow these rules.

   • When the source is the build pipeline, the semantic version property of the artifacts should be in the format MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH (for example 5.1.3).
   • When the source is not the build pipeline, define a semantic version by implementing the DevOpsArtifactSemanticVersionAPI extension interface.

   See Artifacts and packages for more information regarding artifacts.

Example

Figure 6. Artifact setup - build pipeline source

Figure 7. Artifact setup - release pipeline