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Copy data from ServiceNow using Azure Data Factory or Synapse Analytics (legacy)

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APPLIES TO: Azure Data Factory Azure Synapse Analytics

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This article outlines how to use the Copy Activity in Azure Data Factory and Synapse Analytics pipelines to copy data from ServiceNow. It builds on the copy activity overview article that presents a general overview of copy activity.

Important

The new ServiceNow connector provides improved native ServiceNow support. If you are using the legacy ServiceNow connector in your solution, you are recommended to upgrade your ServiceNow connector at your earliest convenience. Refer to this section for details on the difference between the legacy and latest version.

Supported capabilities

This ServiceNow connector is supported for the following capabilities:

Supported capabilities IR
Copy activity (source/-) ① ②
Lookup activity ① ②

① Azure integration runtime ② Self-hosted integration runtime

For a list of data stores that are supported as sources/sinks, see the Supported data stores table.

The service provides a built-in driver to enable connectivity. Therefore you don't need to manually install any driver using this connector.

Getting started

To perform the Copy activity with a pipeline, you can use one of the following tools or SDKs:

Create a linked service to ServiceNow using UI

Use the following steps to create a linked service to ServiceNow in the Azure portal UI.

  1. Browse to the Manage tab in your Azure Data Factory or Synapse workspace and select Linked Services, then click New:

  2. Search for ServiceNow and select the ServiceNow connector.

    Screenshot of the ServiceNow connector.

  3. Configure the service details, test the connection, and create the new linked service.

    Screenshot of linked service configuration for ServiceNow (legacy).

Connector configuration details

The following sections provide details about properties that are used to define Data Factory entities specific to ServiceNow connector.

Linked service properties

The following properties are supported for ServiceNow linked service:

Property Description Required
type The type property must be set to: ServiceNow Yes
endpoint The endpoint of the ServiceNow server (http://<instance>.service-now.com). Yes
authenticationType The authentication type to use.
Allowed values are: Basic, OAuth2		 Yes
username The user name used to connect to the ServiceNow server for Basic and OAuth2 authentication. Yes
password The password corresponding to the user name for Basic and OAuth2 authentication. Mark this field as a SecureString to store it securely, or reference a secret stored in Azure Key Vault. Yes
clientId The client ID for OAuth2 authentication. No
clientSecret The client secret for OAuth2 authentication. Mark this field as a SecureString to store it securely, or reference a secret stored in Azure Key Vault. No
useEncryptedEndpoints Specifies whether the data source endpoints are encrypted using HTTPS. The default value is true. No
useHostVerification Specifies whether to require the host name in the server's certificate to match the host name of the server when connecting over TLS. The default value is true. No
usePeerVerification Specifies whether to verify the identity of the server when connecting over TLS. The default value is true. No

Example:

{
    "name": "ServiceNowLinkedService",
    "properties": {
        "type": "ServiceNow",
        "typeProperties": {
            "endpoint" : "http://<instance>.service-now.com",
            "authenticationType" : "Basic",
            "username" : "<username>",
            "password": {
                 "type": "SecureString",
                 "value": "<password>"
            }
        }
    }
}

Dataset properties

For a full list of sections and properties available for defining datasets, see the datasets article. This section provides a list of properties supported by ServiceNow dataset.

To copy data from ServiceNow, set the type property of the dataset to ServiceNowObject. The following properties are supported:

Property Description Required
type The type property of the dataset must be set to: ServiceNowObject Yes
tableName Name of the table. No (if "query" in activity source is specified)

Example

{
    "name": "ServiceNowDataset",
    "properties": {
        "type": "ServiceNowObject",
        "typeProperties": {},
        "schema": [],
        "linkedServiceName": {
            "referenceName": "<ServiceNow linked service name>",
            "type": "LinkedServiceReference"
        }
    }
}

Copy activity properties

For a full list of sections and properties available for defining activities, see the Pipelines article. This section provides a list of properties supported by ServiceNow source.

ServiceNow as source

To copy data from ServiceNow, set the source type in the copy activity to ServiceNowSource. The following properties are supported in the copy activity source section:

Property Description Required
type The type property of the copy activity source must be set to: ServiceNowSource Yes
query Use the custom SQL query to read data. For example: "SELECT * FROM Actual.alm_asset". No (if "tableName" in dataset is specified)

Note the following when specifying the schema and column for ServiceNow in query, and refer to Performance tips on copy performance implication.

  • Schema: specify the schema as Actual or Display in the ServiceNow query, which you can look at it as the parameter of sysparm_display_value as true or false when calling ServiceNow REST APIs. 
  • Column: the column name for actual value under Actual schema is [column name]_value, while for display value under Display schema is [column name]_display_value. Note the column name need map to the schema being used in the query.

Sample query: SELECT col_value FROM Actual.alm_asset OR  SELECT col_display_value FROM Display.alm_asset

Example:

"activities":[
    {
        "name": "CopyFromServiceNow",
        "type": "Copy",
        "inputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "<ServiceNow input dataset name>",
                "type": "DatasetReference"
            }
        ],
        "outputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "<output dataset name>",
                "type": "DatasetReference"
            }
        ],
        "typeProperties": {
            "source": {
                "type": "ServiceNowSource",
                "query": "SELECT * FROM Actual.alm_asset"
            },
            "sink": {
                "type": "<sink type>"
            }
        }
    }
]

Performance tips

Schema to use

ServiceNow has 2 different schemas, one is "Actual" which returns actual data, the other is "Display" which returns the display values of data.

If you have a filter in your query, use "Actual" schema which has better copy performance. When querying against "Actual" schema, ServiceNow natively support filter when fetching the data to only return the filtered resultset, whereas when querying "Display" schema, ADF retrieve all the data and apply filter internally.

Index

ServiceNow table index can help improve query performance, refer to Create a table index.

Lookup activity properties

To learn details about the properties, check Lookup activity.

Related content

For a list of data stores supported as sources and sinks by the copy activity, see supported data stores.