Cisco Catalyst Center is a complete software-based network automation and assurance solution and is the dashboard for control and management of Cisco’s intent-based networking system: Cisco Catalyst. Cisco Catalyst Center is also open and extensible. It provides broad support for external applications and systems to exchange data and intelligence, building upon Cisco Catalyst Center native functions.

Using the open platform capabilities and intent based APIs, Cisco Catalyst Center integrates with a pioneer IT Service Management (ITSM) system like ServiceNow. With such integrations between the networking world and the services paradigm, organizations can ensure alignment of network operations with their key business objectives. Some of the key use-cases addressed are as follows:

·       **Configuration Management Database** (**CMDB) Synchronization:** Scheduled synchronization of Cisco Catalyst Center discovered devices into ServiceNow Configuration Management Database (CMDB)  (utilizing Cisco Catalyst Center Inventory as a source of truth).

·       **Network Event Monitoring:** Provides a capability to receive the network event details in a REST end point in ServiceNow and then create Incident, Problem or Change ticket, based on the configuration picked by the user in Cisco Catalyst Center.

Cisco Catalyst Center - ITSM integration workflows provide the capability of closed loop integration, where,

1. The incident, problem or change\_request ticket status in ServiceNow will be updated based on the network/compliance event status in Catalyst Center.

2. Any change to status or assigned-to user on the ITSM ticket will be propogated to the Assurance Issue Dashboard in Catalyst Center

·      **Automation Events:** Provides the capability to monitor software image updates for compliance, security and other operational triggers, configuration changes to devices and group based policy updates by publishing events into a REST Endpoint/staging table in ServiceNow to create Change Requests.

Cisco Catalyst Center - ITSM integration workflows provide the capability of closed loop integration, where,

1.     The change request created with respect to the published event, can either be approved or rejected in ServiceNow, based on the schedule window provided in the change ticket

2.     The Approval information is propagated to Catalyst Center and the change is implemented (golden image is distributed and activated on the device(s))

3.     The status of the change is communicated back to ServiceNow. If all the devices have been successfully updated to the golden image, then the ticket in ServiceNow is closed.

·       **Ticket Enrichment with network context:** Enrich ITSM tickets with network and user context details from Cisco Catalyst Center , using a valid Network User id.

The Cisco Catalyst Center ITSM application, interfaces with Cisco Catalyst Center to integrate key insights from native applications and network events into ServiceNow ITSM workflow areas such as:

•       Incident Management

•       Problem Management

•       Change Management

•       CMDB Synchronization

Details:

The application leverages Cisco Catalyst Center ‘s physical network topology information through a scheduled job or trigger initiated by the user and then maps the relevant information into ServiceNow CMDB tables to create a granular view of the network components of CMDB.

Furthermore, the application relies on Cisco Catalyst Center Assurance insights. The network issues that are monitored and published as ITSM Events by Cisco Catalyst Center intent APIs and integration flows are then leveraged by the custom application to automatically trigger problem, incident or change workflows.

The Software Image Management (SWIM) events monitored and published by Cisco Catalyst Center Automation, can be leveraged by the application to automatically trigger a change workflow for software image update. This allows closed loop remediation by tying in Cisco Catalyst Center Automation workflows with approvals and change window information from ServiceNow.

Finally, ITSM tickets created in ServiceNow - are automatically enriched with additional information if required. This enrichment is of immense value to the user as more details allow association and correlation of issues that results in de-duplication. The details focus on network context, user context, neighborhood topology, impact metrics and potential remediation actions amongst many other insights.

This application automatically maps Network context data from Cisco Catalyst Center into a separate tab within the existing ServiceNow Ticket template eliminating the need for the ServiceNow operator to have deep network knowledge to parse the content. Active links into the Cisco Catalyst Center Application are provided for the Network Operator to directly go to the context in Cisco Catalyst Center for further troubleshooting.

This application is released with access to the source code that can be accessed from the ServiceNow App Studio. This mapping of network functionality to ITSM domain fields here will serve as a guide for your ServiceNow App developers to leverage the features here to fit them into your custom ITSM process flows.