ServiceNow

ServiceNow is a cloud-based platform that provides enterprise solutions. ServiceNow solutions fall into categories such as:

ServiceNow provide an ODBC driver which enables Windows applications such as SQL Server to query a ServiceNow instance. This ODBC driver can be used with the Easysoft ODBC-ODBC Bridge to enable ServiceNow to be accessed from Linux and UNIX applications.

Connecting to ServiceNow via ODBC from Windows

The ServiceNow ODBC driver gives you read-only access to the database associated with your ServiceNow instance. The ODBC driver supports SQL SELECT statements and read-only SQL functions. You cannot use it to modify your ServiceNow instance data.

The Service ODBC driver is available for Windows platforms, and requires a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) to be installed on the same machine.

Because the ODBC driver uses the web services interface, platform-wide access control (ACL) is maintained and data security is in place.

Before installing the ServiceNow ODBC driver:

  1. In ServiceNow, create an ODBC user account.
  2. Assign the ODBC role to this user.

    The ODBC role contains various additional roles, including the soap_query role required to make ODBC requests.

  3. Define an ACL rule for the ODBC role to provide access to the ServiceNow tables that you want to query.

Download and install the ServiceNow ODBC driver on your Windows client machine. The ServiceNow ODBC driver distribution includes both a 32-bit and 64-bit driver, and so you can use it with both 32-bit and 64-bit applications.

After installing the ODBC driver, configure it to connect to your ServiceNow instance and to communicate through a proxy server. Use the ServiceNow ODBC Management Console to do this.

You now need to create an ODBC data source, which will enable your client application to connect to ServiceNow. You configure ODBC data sources in ODBC Data Source Administrator. If your client application is 32-bit, run the 32-bit ODBC Data Source Administrator. To do this, in the Windows Run dialog box, enter:

%windir%\syswow64\odbcad32.exe

If your client application is 64-bit, run the 64-bit ODBC Data Source Administrator. To do this, in the Windows Run dialog box, enter:

odbcad32.exe

Choose the System Tab, and then choose Add. Complete the driver configuration dialog box.

After configuring the ODBC driver, check that you can use the driver to connect to your ServiceNow instance as the ODBC user and can query data from a ServiceNow table. Use the Test button in the ODBC driver configuration dialog box to test the connection. Use the ServiceNow Interactive SQL utility to issue some test queries.

The ODBC driver enables you to query your instance database from a variety of Windows client applications.

Connecting to ServiceNow via ODBC from Linux and UNIX

If you want to query ServiceNow from Linux and UNIX applications, you can use the Easysoft ODBC-ODBC Bridge to do this:

  1. Install the ODBC-ODBC Bridge Server on the machine where the ServiceNow ODBC driver is installed.
  2. Install the Server.
  3. If you configured a 64-bit ServiceNow ODBC data source, in Windows Services, stop the ODBC-ODBC Bridge Service (which is 32-bit) and start the ODBC-ODBC Bridge x64 service.
  4. On the Linux or UNIX machine, install the ODBC-ODBC Bridge Client.
  5. Create an ODBC-ODBC Bridge Client data source in /etc/odbc.ini. Point the data source at the ServiceNow ODBC driver data source. For example: 
    [LinuxServiceNow]
Driver = OOB
ServerPort = my_windows_server:8888
LogonUser = my_windows_username
LogonAuth = my_windows_password
TargetDSN = my_servicenow_odbc_data_source
  6. Use isql to test the new data source. For example: 
    cd /usr/local/easysoft/unixODBC/bin
./isql -v LinuxServiceNow
  7. At the prompt, type "help" to display a list of tables. To exit, press return in an empty prompt line.


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