Add Azure to SaaS Agent

Task List

Task 1: Prepare Azure for use with CI Sync

This task explains how to prepare Azure for use with your customer specific instance of CI Sync.

Doing this allows your CI Sync SaaS Agent to authenticate to your Azure so you can run CI Sync jobs between Azure and your CMDB.

1. In the Azure Portal, navigate to Microsoft Entra ID -> App Registrations and click New Registration

2. On the Register an application form complete as follows:

   1. Enter the Name (Note: Syncfish recommend using “CI Sync SaaS Connector for Azure”)

   2. Under Supported account types select “Accounts in this organizational directory only ({Your Domain/Tenant Name} only - Single tenant)”

   3. Click Register

3. Using the left-hand menu, navigate and select Certificates & secrets.  Select “Client secrets (0)” in the middle of the form and then click the “New client secret” button.

4. Enter a unique Description for the secret associated with this CI Sync Connector for Azure App Registration (e.g. “CI Sync SaaS Agent Connector for Azure Client Secret”).

5. Then, select a suitable Expires duration based on your organisational policy.  Finally click the Add button

6. The form now displays the generated secret value (shown in the Value field). Use the copy option to make a copy of the value in the Value field.

7. Return to the Overview page for the App Registration. Use the copy option to make a copy of the “Application (client) ID” GUID value and the “Directory (tenant) ID” GUID value.

Now proceed with the remaining steps below.

8. In the Azure Portal, navigate to Subscriptions and select/click into the particular Azure Subscription you wish to grant CI Sync access via the App Registration object created above.

9. Select Access control (IAM) from the left hand menu, click the Add button and then select Add role assignment from the drop down menu.

10. On the Role tab, select the Reader role and click the Next button.

11. On the Members tab, click the “+ Select members” link, then use the Filter/Select box enter as sufficient amount of text to locate the App Registration created earlier (the one that represents the CI Sync Agent Connector for Azure), then the Select button (to select the App Registration) and finally the Next button.

12. On the Review + assign tab, click the Review + assign button.

You have now granted the App Registration object for CI Sync read permissions to an Azure Subscription which will allow you to use the CI Sync Web UI to schedule synchronization jobs using that same Azure Subscription as a synchronization source.

Task 2: Add Azure as a Source System using the CI Sync SaaS UI

1. Login to your CI Sync SaaS instance at https://YourCo.syncfish.app

2. In the CI Sync UI, navigate to Settings > Connections.

3. Find the “SaaS Agent” sub-heading under the Source Connections section. If you don’t see “SaaS Agent” it means your CI Sync instance hasn’t been configured for this feature. Please contact your Sync representative to discuss.

4. On the right hand side of the form, click the +Add button.

5. The New Connection form now appears. Use the Connection Type drop down list to select the source system you wish to add (in this case Microsoft Azure).

6. Update the fields using these instructions

   1. Connection name

      1. This is a friendly name that represents the source system connection.

      2. The name you enter here will appear when you create a new sync job and are selecting from the available source system list.

      3. Note: Syncfish recommend using a textual suffix on the connection name if for any reason you have setup multiple CI Sync Connections to Azure.

   2. Alias: Please ignore this field (it is not used for the CI Sync Cloud Agent and is being deprecated).

   3. Environments

      1. Select from the available choices Production, Test, or Production/Test (the latter being both).

      2. The selection you make for this field affects which source systems appear when you create a new sync job (i.e. when you are selecting the source system list based on the “Environment” you have chosen for the sync job). See this page for more details on creating a CI Sync job: Run a Small Initial Sync Job (then run more).

      3. FYI: CI Sync allows a source system to be both Production/Test because CI Sync only reads from a source system (it doesn’t write to it). Destination systems can only be Test or Production (not both).

   4. Directory (tenant) ID

      1. Paste the Azure/Entra Directory (tenant) ID captured by your Azure Admin in Task 1 above.

   5. Application (client) ID

      1. Paste the App Registration Application (client) ID captured by your Azure Admin in Task 1 above.

   6. Client Secret Value

      1. Paste the Client Secret Value captured by your Azure Admin in Task 1 above.

   7. Then click the Consent to update fields checkbox.

   8. Finally click the Create connection button.

You will be returned to the main settings screen and your new source system connection will appear in the list as shown below.

Task 3: Check status of new Azure Source System connection

1. To check the status of the newly added Azure Source System connection click the green Check Status link. This will test whether your CI Sync Azure connection can successfully reach and authenticate to the Azure Entra ID defined in the connection itself.

2. 

   If the connection is successful, you will see a green dot next to the source connection name.

3. 

   To test again in the future, you can click the green Refresh Status button.

4. If the test is unsuccessful, you will see a red dot next to the source connection name and an error message underneath. If you need assistance resolving an error, please contact Syncfish support.

This means you are ready to run a sync job using the new source connection using these high-level instructions: Run a Small Initial Sync Job (then run more).

Task 4: Perform Updates in ServiceNow (if required)

In this section your ServiceNow SME will assess various updates to ServiceNow to support this CI Sync connector:

• Task 4a: Assess if the CMDB CI Class Models plug-in is required

• Task 4b: Assess if additional permissions are required

• Task 4c: (Optional though recommended) Assess your ServiceNow CI forms and update to include additional Related Lists

Task 4a: Assess if the CMDB CI Class Models plug-in is required

Context

A number of record sets (asset types/resource types) available to sync using the Azure Connector rely upon CMDB CI Classes that are only available via the CMDB CI Class Models plug-in. 

You therefore need to install the CMDB CI Class Models plug-in to your ServiceNow instance.

If you already have the plug-in you may want to upgrade it to the latest version (as ServiceNow occasionally updates the plug-in to include extra CI Classes/tables).

Instructions

Follow these steps to add this plug-in (and similar steps to locate it and upgrade it if required):

1. Assess the use/inclusion of this plug-in within your ServiceNow (ensure you are comfortable installing this plug-in).

2. Search for Plugins via the ServiceNow navigation menu.

3. Locate the CMDB CI Class Models plug-in.

4. Click Add -> Install and follow the instructions provided.

Task 4b: Assess if additional permissions are required

Use Case #1 - If you are planning to use CI Sync to write Azure Tags to the CMDB

Context

CI Sync writes Azure Tags to the cmdb_key_value table in ServiceNow.

The standard/out-of-the-box roles provided by ServiceNow (and recommended by Syncfish during S3 - Configure ServiceNow for CI Sync) do not provide access to the cmdb_key_value table. Therefore, the CI Sync Integration User account created during S3 - Configure ServiceNow for CI Sync requires additional permissions to write to the cmdb_key_value table.

Syncfish provides a ServiceNow updateset to prepare your ServiceNow instance for CI Sync. The updateset does the following:

• Creates a read/write ACL on the cmdb_key_value table.

• Applies the ACL on the cmdb_key_value table and assigns the ACL to the ServiceNow role called “Asset” (which is one of the roles granted to the CI Sync Integration Account created during S3 - Configure ServiceNow for CI Sync).

Instructions

Follow these steps to apply the updateset provided by Syncfish:

1. Download the update set from Syncfish at the below URL:
   https://downloads.syncfish.app/servicenow/cisync-cmdb-key-value.xml

2. Login to your ServiceNow instance with Admin permissions.

3. Open a browser and navigate to your ServiceNow instance

4. In the left nav menu search for “Retrieved Update Sets” and click to open

5. Right click on the column heading row and select “Import XML”

6. Select “Choose File”

7. Select the downloaded file “cisync-cmdb-key-value.xml”

8. Click to open the Update Set

9. Click “Preview Update Set”

10. If there are no preview errors, Click “Close”.

11. Click “Commit Update Set”.

12. Your ServiceNow instance is now ready to receive Tag data from Azure via sync jobs from CI Sync.

Use Case #2 - If you are planning to use CI Sync to create Application Service Mapping relationships in ServiceNow

Context

CI Sync needs additional permissions to create/update Application Service relationships in ServiceNow.

The ServiceNow out-of-the-box role described in the instructions below provides the required permissions and therefore this role needs to be applied to your CI Sync Integration User if you intended to use CI Sync’s Application Service Mapping feature.

Instructions

1. Navigate to the cisync user account (e.g. “cisync.integration” or the name you used earlier in this page).

2. Select the Roles tab and click the Edit… button

3. Filter/Select the roles below and click the Save button

   1. app_service_admin

4. Click Save. Then use the “Roles” tab to check the above role has been applied.

Task 4c: (Optional though recommended) Assess your ServiceNow CI forms and update to include additional Related Lists

Context

CI Sync populates various child tables (related lists) associated with parent CIs. The following table shows the Related Lists (per CI Class) populated by the CI Sync Azure Connector.

Instructions

Below are the steps to modify a ServiceNow CI form to expose a new Related List.

1. Login to your ServiceNow instance with Admin permissions.

2. Navigate to any CI in the relevant CI Class (i.e. one/all of those listed in the table in the Context section above). For example, navigate to a Windows Server CI).

3. Right-click in the heading area of the form, then click Configure and then Related Lists from the sub-menus.

4. Identify the Related List you want to expose on the CI form using the table in the Context section above.

5. Find the Related List in the left hand column which lists all Available Related Lists.

6. Click the Related List and then click add (the selection arrow) to move the item to the Selected column and then click Save.

7. Repeat for each additional CI Class listed in the table in the Context section above.