1. Product Description
The purpose of SnowMirror Monitor is to provide an overview of your synchronizations directly from ServiceNow instance.
Prerequisite for Monitor to show any data is at least one SnowMirror product up and running in customer’s environment. SnowMirror product handles communication between ServiceNow instance and a target database where customer wants his data to be migrated. This communication runs as a daemon process by SnowMirror product.
Communication with ServiceNow instance is done via web services. Monitor doesn’t need any additional rights to perform it’s job. Rights assigned to user used for SnowMirror product are sufficient.
Monitor watches status of all products connected to the same ServiceNow instance. It uses HeartBeat functionality to monitor server status. HeartBeats are periodically sending response requests to all SnowMirror products and Monitor lets products answer these requests. If answered properly the product status is recognized as "on" and as "off" on the contrary.
Monitor retrieves all synchronization definitions from all products. It proivdes to user very compact view on the definition itself including all details about scheduler and also also full load scheduler. List of single runs of the definition and also all synchronized columns are listed with each definition.
Monitor stores all runs of all synchronization in one single module. Available filtering makes this list very usable when users seeks for information about particular run.
On top of that Monitor provides various graphs and dashboards for monitoring SnowMirror product performance so user is able to take action whenever necessary.
1.1. Prerequisites
This chapter lists all prerequisites needed before installation of SnowMirror Monitor.
-
Target customer’s ServiceNow instance up and running.
-
SnowMirror product installed & setup & running in customer’s environment.
Monitor is not able to retrieve historical data from old synchronization’s runs. It starts loading data at the very moment of setting Monitor "on" in SnowMirror product.
SnowMirror monitor can watch several SnowMirror applications installed on different servers. In order to work correctly those SnowMirror servers have to have different names.
Minimal versions of related software versions:
Service Now |
Fuji |
SnowMirror |
3.0 |
2. Installation Instructions
Installation process is straight-forward. It consists of two basic steps. It is strongly recommended to keep the order as is:
-
Load the SnowMirror Monitor Application into ServiceNow instance.
-
Set up SnowMirror product to communicate with the monitor.
For correct installation of application please follow detailed instructions below. Screenshots below are taken from Geneva ServiceNoc version. They are also valid for Fuji version too, just graphic is very sligtly different.
-
Login to ServiceNow instance as a user with rights to install applications / load update set (usually with admin role).
-
In left navigation pane go to “Update sets" and select "Retrieved update sets”
-
On opened page select option ""Use Related links "Import update sets".
-
Click on "Browse" to find update set to load.
-
Locate the Monitor installation update set in installation folder of SnowMirror product. Usually product is installed into folder "c:\Program Files\SnowMirror\". In this folder navigate to "\snow-mirror\monitor\" and locate there update set "SnowMirror Monitor - part1 - X.X.xml" where vX_X stands for version and click on "Open". After finishing all the following steps repeat the process with the second part of the update set ("SnowMirror Monitor - part2 - X.X.xml").
-
Click on "Upload" to proceed the update set. Wait a short while to finish loading.
Please note that loading of the update set may take some time. After approx. 10sec you can see a timer right next to the logged username indicating that operation is in progress.
-
When loading is finished a Review Update Set module opens. Open the update set by hitting its name "SnowMirror Monitor".
-
Review the update set by click on button "Preview Update Set".
-
A pop-up window with loading progress bar opens.
When loading is finished a window stays there with 40-42 Errors. Those errors are reported during loading of database views. Click on "Close" to continue.
-
Retrieved update set screen is now opened two messages. First one says that all errors must be address before continuing installation (commiting the update set). Second one is summarizing problem counts.
All errors have to be accepted before continue. Scroll down on the list of errors and select all records using check box next to "Action" select box. As the action in the Action select box select "Accept remote update".
-
Repeat previous step until all errors are accepted. When done so a message "All problems have been addressed." appears on the top of the page. Continue installation by click on "Commit Update Set".
-
A pop-up window with progress bar opens.
Commit procedure is finished when a message "Update set committed in x minutes / seconds" appears. Click on "Close" button to finish installation process.
-
Installation of the monitor itself is finished now. State of the Update Set is now Committed. A new application is visible in the application navigator.
-
Login to SnowMirror product as user with rights to modify products settings.
-
Product go to "Settings" → "ServiceNow" → check box "Advanced Settings".
-
Check the option “SnowMirror Monitor Enabled” and "Save" the settings.
-
Repeat these steps for all SnowMirror products that should be overviewed by SnowMirror Monitor.
3. Update Instructions
Update process is straight-forward. Process for upgrading Monitor from older version to newer one is the same as installation process. The only difference between Monitor installation and Monitor update is in steps "i." and "j.". Update procedure do not require any changes into SnowMirror product as it is already setup.
For correct update process follow "Installation Instructions" steps from a. to h. and then continue with following step i..
-
A pop-up window with loading progress bar opens as during installation.
When loading is finished, a window stays there with 3 Errors. Those errors are known ones and doesn’t have any impact on the functionality.Click on "Close" to continue.
-
Retrieved update set screen is now opened two messages. First one says that all errors must be addressed before continuing installation (committing the update set). Second one is summarizing problem counts.
All errors have to be accepted before continue. Scroll down on the list of errors and select all records using check box next to "Action" select box. As the action in the Action select box select "Accept remote update".