Skip to main content

ServiceNow

post-installation tasks

Post-installation tasks, which include verification checks and mandatory and optional configuration tasks.

Required tasks

The following tasks must be performed post-installation of SGC for 1E.

App Settings

Some application settings need to be defined for the 1E Virtual Assistant before it can be used. To navigate to theApp Settingspage, search for1e virtual agentin the navigation pane and the selectApp Settings, as shown in the picture opposite.

233275727.png

The following table describes the fields available on the App Settings page:

Field

Description

Tachyon username and Password

A Tachyon username with the domain and password must be configured on the App Settings page. This user is responsible for fetching and executing instructions in Tachyon.

Loopback URL

The 1E Virtual Assistant can use the Shopping Loopback URL to get the FQDN of the device where the browser accessing ServiceNow is running. If you have the 1E Client with the Shopping agent installed you will need to set this as the location for the loopback. The default value for this is:https://localhost:8000/shoppingClientAgent/machineInfo.

Log files keep days

When a user tries to fix the Low Disk Space issue on their system using Virtual Assistant, it actually deletes all necessary files from the system to free up some space. Log files can be important some time, that is why it does not delete log files if the value of this property is <=0. In other words, while cleaning disk, it will remove all *.log files from system drive those are not modified since specified days. Specify 0 if you don't want to remove log files.

Minimum free disk space threshold

This property is used by the Computer Slow topic. It allows the admin user to configure what is the minimum MB disk space he wants to ensure on the end-users system drive. Any non-numeric, invalid and empty values will be treated as 0.

Minimum days to reboot

This property is used by the Computer Slow topic. It allows the admin user to configure what are the minimum number of days after which he wants to recommend a reboot to the user? Any non-numeric, invalid and empty values will be treated as 0.

Critical CPU usage

This property is used by the Computer Slow topic. It allows admin user to configure What % would he suggest the critical CPU usage would be for a bad performing device? Virtual agent then will ask the user to close apps that have a high CPU consumption. Any non-numeric, invalid and empty values will be treated as 0.

Critical Memory usage

This property is used by the Computer Slow topic. It allows admin user to configure What % would he suggest the critical Memory usage would be for a bad performing device? Virtual agent then will ask the user to close apps that have a high Memory consumption. Any non-numeric, invalid and empty values will be treated as 0.

VPN name

This property is used by the Add a VPN Connection topic. The value in this property will be the name of VPN connection when a user asks the app to add a VPN connection. It supports VPN name up to 128 characters.

VPN Server Name

This property is used by the Add a VPN Connection topic. VPN will be configured for this server (the value in this property).

Is instance synced with Azure AD?

This property is used by the Reset my Windows password topic. It is a Yes/No type of property that determines whether the ServiceNow instance is synced with Azure AD,

Local admin access duration

This property is used by the Local admin access topic and contains a numeric value (minutes). When a user requests local admin access on a device, they will get local admin access for this number of minutes.

FQDN of machine that has shared drive/folder

Specify the FQDN of the machine that has shared folders. This value is used by the Access a shared folder topic.

Connection URI for exchange server

This property contains the URI of the Exchange server, in the following format: http://<machineFQDN>.

This property is used by the following topics:

FQDN of machine from where connection to Exchange server will be established

In some cases it may happen that the 1E client is not installed on an on-premises Exchange server. To run an Exchange server topic, you can use another machine that has the 1E client installed and can excess the Exchange server machine. This property contains that device's FQDN.

This property is used by the following topics:

Folder path of CredentialsManager.exe and other required files on machine from where connection to Exchange server will be established

Before executing the Exchange server topics we need to store the Exchange server username and password in windows credentials manager. And for this activity we need few pre-req files. This property contains folder path of those files.

This property is used by the following topics:

Shopping server URL

This property contains the URL of Shopping server. This property is used by the Install Software using Shopping topic.

Shopping user name

This property contains username (Shopping Admin) for the Shopping server mentioned in above property. It requires a username and AD groups are not accepted due to certain limitations from Shopping.

Shopping user password

This property contains password for Shopping server's admin user mentioned in the above property.

Test Sever Connection Button

This button is used to test whether the settings saved on the page are functional or not. As soon as this button is hit, ServiceNow tries to establish a connection with Tachyon server. If there was a successful connection, then a success message is displayed on the page else an appropriate error message is displayed. It may happen that settings are correct on this page, but an error is still displayed, in this case you will need to check the Configuration settings in the 1E Core app.

Retrieve Instructions Button

This button is used to retrieve the instructions from Tachyon and cache them all in the 1E Core app. It fetches all the instruction assigned to the user configured in the Tachyon Username field. On successful retrieval of the instructions a success message will be displayed on the page. Otherwise an appropriate error message is displayed.

Retrieve Applications Button

This button is used to retrieve the list of installable applications from Shopping (1E Product). On successful retrieval of applications a success message is displayed on the page. In case of failure no message will come up but this button will get disabled.

Save Buttons

There are two Save buttons on the page. They save all the modifications made to the fields on the App Settings page.

Logs

The logs for are maintained under Logs tab as shown in the picture below. This page provides the details of the log created date and time stamp, level, message and source of log (here in our case is Virtual Assistant).

Note

Only a user with admin role have access to this screen to perform required configuration.

233275720.png
Post-installation tasks to enable individual topics

Topic

Configuration Steps

Add a Printer

The following Tachyon instructions must be added to your Tachyon system:

  • 1E-Explorer-ServiceNow-OpenAddPrinterWindow

When this instruction is executed it opens the Add Printer and Scanner control panel on the requested device.

Add a VPN Connection

The following Tachyon instructions must be added to your Tachyon system:

  • 1E-Explorer-ServiceNow-VPNAddOrUpdate

This instruction takes two parameters, VPN name and VPN server name as inputs, and verifies if there's an existing VPN connection on the device with these details. If a VPN connection exists, the VPN connection is updated with the predefined default configuration. Otherwise it adds a new VPN connection to the device with the specified VPN name and VPN server name. The parameter VPNName is passed to set-up the connection on the device and the parameter VPNServer is passed to configure the connection to the server.

Prerequisites

The following are required:

  • A Virtual Assistant Administrator has configured the VPN name and VPN server name on the App Settings page of 1E Virtual Assistant, the VPN server name should not exceed 128 characters

  • It works only for Microsoft VPN client

Note

If an error is displayed, check whether a VPN has already been added to VPN Name. If this is the case, delete the entry manually and try to add the entry again.

Local admin access

The following Tachyon instructions must be added to your Tachyon system:

  • 1E-Explorer-ServiceNow-ElevateUserAsLocalAdmin

This instruction takes UserName as an input to identify the user. When this instruction is executed it elevates the end-user privileges to local admin on the assigned device.

  • 1E-Explorer-ServiceNow-RemoveUserAsLocalAdmin

This instruction takes UserName as an input to identify the user. When this instruction is executed it removes the allocated local admin access of the end-user on the assigned device.

Assumptions

  1. A pre-approved change request is created upon user requests for local admin access.

  2. The change request is designated to the respective team for further process.

  3. The end-user is given local admin access for the defined time, default value is set to 120 minutes. This value can be updated from App Configuration.

  4. In case there is no value provided, then by default Virtual Assistant provides local admin access for 10 minutes to the end-user.

  5. The email address available in ServiceNow sys_user table is used to identify the end-user on the physical machine.

  6. The change request opens-up two tasks, Elevate and Remove.

  7. The status of the task can have either of two values, New or Closed.

    1. The task status remains New, if the Tachyon instruction fails or Virtual Assistant is unable to get any response from Tachyon server

    2. Only upon successful completion of the task the status is changed to Closed.

  8. Initially start time and end time for the change request is same as planned start time and planned end time of Elevate task respectively.

  9. The time gap between the planned start time and planned end time for Remove task is 5 minutes.

  10. Once the Remove task is triggered, the end time of the change request is set to end time of this task.

Remove invalid desktop shortcuts

The following Tachyon instructions must be added to your Tachyon system:

  • 1E-Explorer-ServiceNow-RemoveInvalidDesktopShortcuts

When this instruction is executed it removes all invalid shortcuts from the end-user's desktop.

Assumption

  • This instruction removes all the invalid desktop shortcuts from the current logged-in end-user on the device.

Reset my Windows password

No Tachyon instructions are required for this topic.

The current instance supports Azure AD. The property given on the App Settings page decides whether the instance is synced with Azure AD or not.

Access a shared folder

The following Tachyon instructions must be added to your Tachyon system:

  • 1E-Explorer-ServiceNow-GrantAccessOnNetworkFolder

When this instruction is executed, it provides end-user with the requested access to the required shared folder.

This instruction takes the following three parameters:

Parameter

Description

User

It accepts either domain name/user name or email id as values.

FolderPath

It accepts path of network folder, to which end-user wants access. The folder path can be in the format MachineName\\folder_path.

AccessType

It accepts Read/Change/Full as values. The end-user access type is decided based on this value.

Assumptions

  1. A pre-approved change request will be raised for user to access a network folder.

  2. Virtual Agent identifies the end-user by looking at the property 'x_1e_virtual_agent.user_identification_field'.

Create a distribution list

The following Tachyon instructions must be added to your Tachyon system:

  • 1E-Explorer-ServiceNow-AddDistributionGroupToOnPremExchangeServer

When this instruction is executed it adds a distribution group (list) to an on premises Exchange server and Active Directory.

This instruction contains these parameters:

Parameter

Description

ConnectionURI

This parameter expects the URI to the exchange server. Generally it is FQDN of the device where Exchange server is hosted.

SourceFolderPath

This contains the file path.

DistributionGroupName

The name of the distribution list you want to add.

This topic is based on the following considerations:

  • It's tested on an on-premises Exchange 2019 server setup

  • When Distribution Group is added, it will not contain any members

  • This topic will open a pre-approved (standard) change request

  • This topic will open a change task in the above opened change request

  • The status of the change task will be closed if the user reports the issue as resolved.

The properties of the change request will be:

  • State - implement

  • Category - Business Service

  • Assignment group - LDAP Admins

  • Planned start date - current date time

  • Planned end date - current date time plus 5 minutes.

Please ensure the Exchange Server credentials are saved in Windows credential manager with the MyExchangeCred name on the device where the Tachyon instruction is executed.

The following settings must be completed on the 1E Virtual Application App Settings page. Please refer to 1E Virtual Assistant post-installation tasks for more details.

Tachyon Exchange settings

Delete a distribution list

The following Tachyon instructions must be added to your Tachyon system:

  • 1E-Explorer-ServiceNow-DeleteDistributionGroupFromOnPremExchangeServer

When this instruction is executed it deletes a specified distribution group (list) from an on premises Exchange server.

This instruction contains these parameters:

Parameter

Description

ConnectionURI

This parameter expects the URI to the exchange server. Generally it is FQDN of the device where Exchange server is hosted.

SourceFolderPath

This contains the path of the file on the device.

DistributionGroup

The name of the distribution list you want to delete.

This topic is based on the following considerations:

  • It's tested on an on-premises Exchange 2019 server setup

  • If user (being added to DL) doesn't exist in AD then it will throw an exception.

  • This topic will open a pre-approved (standard) change request

  • This topic will open a change task in the above opened change request

  • The status of change task will be closed if the user reports the issue as resolved.

The properties of the change request will be:

  • State - implement

  • Category - Business Service

  • Assignment group - LDAP Admins

  • Planned start date - current date time

  • Planned end date - current date time plus 5 minutes.

Add user to distribution list

The following Tachyon instructions must be added to your Tachyon system:

  • 1E-Explorer-ServiceNow-AddUserToExchangeServerDistributionGroup

When this instruction is executed it adds a user to an Exchange Server distribution group.

This instruction contains these parameters:

Parameter

Description

ConnectionURI

This parameter expects the URI to the exchange server. Generally it is FQDN of the device where Exchange server is hosted.

SourceFolderPath

This contains the path of the file on the device.

DistributionGroupName

The name of the distribution list you want to add the user to.

UserToBeAdded

Name or email of the user being added into the distribution list.

This topic has the following considerations:

  • It has been tested on an on-premises Exchange 2019 server setup

  • If the user (being added to DL) doesn't exist in AD then it will throw an exception.

  • This topic will open a pre-approved (standard) change request

  • This topic will open a change task in the above opened change request

  • The status of change task will be closed if the user says the issue is resolved.

The properties of the change request will be:

  • State - implement

  • Category - Business Service

  • Assignment group - LDAP Admins

  • Planned start date - current date time

  • Planned end date - current date time plus 5 minutes.

Share folder

The following Tachyon instructions must be added to your Tachyon system:

  • 1E-Explorer-ServiceNow-ShareFolder

When this instruction is executed it shares a local folder on their assigned device.

This instruction contains three parameters:

Parameter

Description

User

Username to provide access to, this parameter expects domainName\userName or user's email ID.

FolderPath

Absolute folder path.

AccessType

The possible values for this parameter are Read, Change, Full

Based on the value of this parameter, user will get that type of access.

Revoke Folder Access

The following Tachyon instructions must be added to your Tachyon system:

  • 1E-Explorer-ServiceNow-RemoveAccessSharedFolder

When this instruction is executed it removes access to a shared folder on an absolute or network path.

Install Software

An admin user can fetch the list of installable applications available for installation from "Retrieve Application" button given on the App Configuration page. The data is saved in the "Installable Application" table. The admin user have to check the application's active field to true as shown in the picture below and this adds the name of the respective software as a keyword to the topic list.

233275721.png

The following Tachyon instructions must be added to your Tachyon system:

  • 1E-Explorer-ShowNotification

When this instruction is executed it sends a success or failure notification to the requested device.

This instruction contains the following parameters:

Parameter

Description

Message

Username to provide access to, this parameter expects either the user's domainName\userName or their email address.

Header

Header text of the notification dialog box.

Type

This controls the Color and UI theme of the dialog box, possible values are error, warning or information.

The scheduled Job 1E Virtual Agent - Update Installation Order status is configured to run at a default setting of one hour and ten minutes (This setting is configurable as needed) and updates the change task status. The job queries the software installation order status from the Shopping module. If the installation is a success, the task is marked as Successful and closed with a closure note of Installed. If the installation is interrupted due to an error, the task is then marked as Unsuccessful and closed with a note of Order Failed.

This topic is based on the following considerations:

  • If an instruction fails an incident is created

  • The chatbot uses the x_1e_virtual_agent.user_identification_field property to get the user's identity.

Delete a user from a distribution list

The following Tachyon instructions must be added to your Tachyon system:

  • 1E-Explorer-ServiceNow-RemoveUserFromExchangeServerDistributionGroup

When this instruction is executed it removes a specified user from a specified distribution group from an on premises Microsoft Exchange server.

This topic has the following considerations:

  • It's developed and tested on an on-premises Microsoft Exchange 2019 server setup

  • If distribution group doesn't exist when this topic is executed, it will throw an exception message

  • A pre-approved (standard) change request will be opened

  • Will open a change request

  • Status of change request will be set to closed if a user says the issue is resolved.

The properties of the raised change request will be:

  • State - Implement

  • Category - Business Service

  • Assignment group - LDAP Admins

  • Planned start date - current date time

  • Planned end date - current date time plus five minutes.

Computer Slow

The following Tachyon instructions must be added to your Tachyon system:

Sl. No.

Tachyon Instruction

Parameters

Description

1

1E-Explorer-ServiceNow-PerformanceStats

N/A

This instruction when executed returns useful information to analyze the performance of a device. This information includes CPUUsagePercent, MemoryUsagePercent, FreeDiskMb, LastRebootDays and CurrentPowerScheme of the device. The result of this instruction defines the information displayed to end-user.

2

1E-Explorer-ServiceNow-FreeDiskSpace

NoOfDays

  • If the value is 0, then no files are deleted.

  • Else for non-zero numeric value, the unwanted files are deleted those of which are not modified for the specified number of days.

This instruction when executed frees up disk space on the system drive. It removes unwanted files from Recycle bin, Temp folder, event logs etc. It also runs auto clean by using Windows Cleanmgr command. It removes log files available on system drive and those files which are not modified since end-user has defined NoOfDays parameter.

The resulted free space is completely based on whether there are unwanted files that can be deleted or not.

3

1E-Explorer-ServiceNow-TopCPUMemoryConsumingProcs

N/A

This instruction when executed returns the information about the top five CPU and Memory consuming processes. It also provides respective details like who has initiated the process and the usage percentage.

4

1E-Explorer-ServiceNow-ChangeCurrentPowerScheme

PowerScheme

  • Its a value picker and the possible values are Balanced, Power Saver and High Performance.

This instruction when executed returns the power plan of the selected device.

5

1E-Explorer-ServiceNow-OpenStartUpWindow

N/A

This instruction when executed opens a Window from where end-user can turn on/off any start-up application. These start-up applications starts running from the moment the device is turned on and are sometimes the main cause of device being slow.

6

1E-Explorer-ServiceNow-RebootSystem

RebootTimeInSeconds

  • The value is in seconds.

This instruction when executed reboots the selected device in specified seconds. The selected device restarts after the given time.

7

1E-Explorer-ServiceNow-LatestExperienceData.xml

Minutes

  • The value is in minutes.

This instruction when executed returns the latest 1E Experience information about the selected device for specified minutes.

The options displayed for end-user are based on the result of 1E-Explorer-ServiceNow-PerformanceStats instruction and configuration defined on App Settings page. The properties which are used in Computer Slow topic are defined as shown below -

233275722.png

The properties are defined as -

  • Minimum free disk space threshold: If the end-user has 5000 MB or more free memory space on the system drive, then Virtual Agent will not give Free up disk space option.

  • Minimum days to reboot: If the end-user has rebooted the device in past 5 days, then Virtual Agent will not allow Reboot device option. As an exception, if end-user has Open an Incident as the only available option left, then Reboot device has to be performed first in case its not done.

  • Critical CPU usage/Critical Memory usage: If the value of either Critical CPU usage or Critical Memory usage is more than 70, then Virtual Agent will display Show resource intensive applications option to the end-user.

Note

Change power plan - High Performance option is displayed to the end-user only when the current power plan of the selected device is not set to High Performance.

Enable Remote Connection

The following Tachyon instructions must be added to your Tachyon system

  • 1E-Explorer-ServiceNow-RDPStatus

This instruction when executed returns the status of RDP whether enabled or disabled on the selected device.

  • 1E-Explorer-ServiceNow-RDP-EnableOrDisable

This instruction takes only one parameter Enable. This parameter is a value picker and and the possible values are Enable and Disable. This instruction when executed enables or disables RDP on the selected device.

  • 1E-Explorer-ServiceNow-StartWindowService

This instruction takes only one parameter ServiceName. This parameter accepts free text as name of the Remote Desktop service as shown in the picture below. This instruction when executed starts the Remote Desktop service on the selected device.

Assumption

It is assumed that the end-user is already added to the remote desktop users' list. If end-user is not added to the list, then even after enabling RDP settings on the selected device the end-user will be unable to access the remote connection on the device.

Low Disk Space

The following Tachyon instructions must be added to your Tachyon system:

  • 1E-Explorer-ServiceNow-FreeDiskSpace

This instruction takes a parameter NoOfDays. If the value is 0, then no files are deleted. Else for non-zero numeric value, the unwanted files are deleted those of which are not modified for the specified number of days.

This instruction when executed frees up disk space on the system drive. It removes unwanted files from Recycle bin, Temp folder, Event logs etc. It also runs auto clean by using Windows Cleanmgr command. It removes log files available on system drive and those files which are not modified since end-user has defined NoOfDays parameter. The resulted free space is completely based on whether there are unwanted files that can be deleted or not.

Microsoft Recovery Assistant

The following Tachyon instructions must be added to your Tachyon system:

  • 1E-Explorer-ServiceNow-MicrosoftSupportRecoveryAssistant

This instruction when executed launches Microsoft Recovery Assistant wizard on the selected device. If Microsoft Recovery Assistant is not installed, then it returns the URL for installation.

Outlook Issue

The following Tachyon instructions must be added to your Tachyon system:

  • 1E-Explorer-ServiceNow-FixPstOstOutlookFiles

This instruction takes a parameter called delOST. This parameter is a value picker that accepts two possible values True and False. By default it takes the value False, as the OST file has to be deleted only upon request.

This instruction when executed deletes OST/PST files from Outlook to fix the issue raised.

  • 1E-Explorer-ServiceNow-MicrosoftSupportRecoveryAssistant

This instruction when executed launches the Microsoft recovery assistant wizard on the selected device. In case the Microsoft recovery assistant is not installed on the device, then it returns the URL to download it.

  • 1E-Explorer-ServiceNow-DeleteFileByPath

This instruction takes a parameter called path. The path value is received from 1E-Explorer-ServiceNow-FixPstOstOutlookFiles instruction.

This instruction when executed deletes the required file on the specified location. Here in this case it deletes the specified OST file.

The following process is followed by the virtual assistant to resolve the issue raised with respect to Outlook:

  1. At first it tries to fix the corrupted PST file, if there exists any PST file.

  2. It then look for OST files.

  3. An error occurs, if there exists multiple OST files on the device.

  4. If there exists only one OST file, then it asks user for confirmation to delete the file.

  5. If the Outlook issue is not resolved even after deleting the OST file, then Microsoft Recovery Assistant wizard is launched on the selected device.

  6. In case the Microsoft Recovery Assistant wizard is not installed on the device, it provides a URL to download from the web location.

Upgrade Operating System

The following Tachyon instructions must be added to your Tachyon system:

  • 1E-Explorer-ServiceNow-RunWSA

This instruction takes refId as a parameter. This parameter contains an identifier that is used when data syncs back from Shopping to ServiceNow.

This instruction when executed opens a WSA wizard on the requested device.

Assumption and Prerequisite

  • The Virtual Assistant only launches the WSA wizard but it will not perform the data sync action from Shopping to Service Now.

  • The environment requirements has to be fulfilled as listed under Builds.

Add widgets to the ServiceNow Service Portal

Two widgets must be added to the Service Portal to get 1E Virtual Assistant to work correctly. To do this:

Open Service Portal

Browse to the Service Portal using a URL with the following format https://<ServiceNowInstance>.service-now.com/sp - where <ServiceNowInstance> is the name of your ServiceNow instance. For example: https://dev19162.service-now.com/sp.

Access the designer

On the Service Portal page, press the <ctrl> key and right-click, a popup will be displayed.

Select the Page in Designer item.

ServiceNow portal

When the Designer screen opens, search for the two widgets listed below and add them to the page. You can add the widgets anywhere by using drag and drop, but make sure you are in Global scope:

  • 1E Populate logged in device

  • Virtual Agent Service Portal Widget.

When you have placed the widgets, close this tab and refresh the Service Portal home page.

Service Portal Designer

You should now see a Virtual Agent callout icon in the bottom-right corner of the Service Portal home page.

ServiceNow chatbot icon
User roles provided by

In a custom app in ServiceNow, access to features can be controlled by roles. 1E Virtual Assistant provides only one custom role, and that is for admin. Details of this role are shown in the following table:

Role

User Persona

Additional Role Required

Inherited Role

Description

x_1e_virtual_agent.admin

App Administrator

<None>

x_1e_core_connect.user

User will be able to configure and set up the App.