Since we announced the Citrix ITSM Adapter service, we’ve continued to add more capabilities that enhance our customers’ IT productivity. To ensure we are addressing their critical business challenges, we’ve focused on reviewing customer feedback as we plan new features and innovations. Some of the most frequently asked questions we received were:

  • Can I share my VDA machine information from Citrix DaaS to ServiceNow? If so, will I be able to update the Configuration Management Database (CMDB) to serve as my single source of truth for asset management?
  • Can I execute PowerShell commands from ServiceNow to Citrix DaaS via the Citrix ITSM plug-in?
  • When I receive alerts and notifications about my Citrix environments in ServiceNow, can I filter them? Is it possible to assign these events to different teams in my organization according to their specific attributes?

We are excited to announce that beginning with the 22.6 release of the Citrix ITSM Adapter service, we have delivered additional features and functionality that address all these questions. Let’s look at the enhancements from this quarter.

Export VDA information into ServiceNow

If you have onboarded the Citrix ITSM plug-in in ServiceNow, you might have seen that the ITSM connector imports some of your deployment data from Citrix DaaS, including machine catalogs, delivery groups, application groups, and  published applications and desktops. See our product documentation for details on viewing your Citrix DaaS deployment information.

In prior versions, viewing VDA information was not easy through the ITSM plug-in, and customers would need to develop scripts to query the Citrix DaaS environment to pull the relevant information needed. Now, with the latest 22.6 plug-in, you can create a VDA data import policy and specify when you want the policy to run.

Within the policy, you can customize the fields you want to import from your DaaS deployment. Check out this Citrix resource for a list and definitions of the fields you can leverage. Be mindful that as you import additional fields, it will consume more resources such as performance, storage, and bandwidth on your ServiceNow and Citrix DaaS instance. We recommend importing fields that are most meaningful to your business.

Creating a VDA information import policy

Once the policy successfully runs, your VDA information will be imported to a table created by the Citrix ITSM plug-in in ServiceNow. Developers in your organization have several options provided by ServiceNow to access this table, such as querying the tables in script, using the Table API, or setting up a business rule. By leveraging this data, you can develop new workflows, update your ServiceNow Configuration Management Database (CMDB), or export the data as a report.

Execute PowerShell scripts remotely from ServiceNow

The Citrix DaaS Remote PowerShell SDK empowers your automation journey by providing a mechanism to automate complex and repetitive tasks. In the latest 22.6 release of the Citrix ITSM connector, we are excited to integrate the power of the Citrix PowerShell SDK with your ServiceNow instance to elevate your Citrix workflow design to new levels.

We have developed an out-of-box Citrix Remote PowerShell Custom Activity for your Workflow Editor environment. When you design your Citrix DaaS-related workflow, you can call the Custom Activity by simply providing authentication details, the target machine, and the script.

Configuration Steps

To run a PowerShell script on a machine, follow these steps:

  1. Ensure your target machine is ready to receive and execute PowerShell scripts and that you have a Citrix Cloud Connector deployment in your DaaS environment.
  2. In ‘Custom Activity,’ specify your CustomerID and location ID, machine name, proper credentials, and the script.
  3. The ITSM adapter service in Citrix Cloud will then leverage Citrix Cloud Connector to distribute the script to the target machine and get the acknowledgment back to your ServiceNow workflow.

For additional configuration details, please review our product documentation.

PowerShell activity in a ServiceNow workflow

Processing Citrix ADM Events by Leveraging Policies

Previously, the integration of Citrix Application Delivery Management (ADM) with the Citrix ITSM Adapter service provides the ability for ADM administrators to create rules that can send Citrix ADC events, SSL certificate expiry events, and ADM License events to ServiceNow. Once the event is sent, a corresponding ServiceNow incident is created. However, we’ve heard feedback from our customers that their ServiceNow incident systems could sometimes be inundated with too many incidents generated.

We’re pleased to share that starting with the Citrix ITSM Adapter service version 22.6, you can define policies that control how ServiceNow processes the ADM events it receives based on the event’s attributes, delivering greater flexibility for incident management. You can simply define a policy according to the listed attributes, a single keyword, or a regular expression. Then you can specify the action ServiceNow should take on the event, such as ignore the event, display the event in the dashboard, or create an incident.

If ‘Create Incident’ is the selected action, you can customize the incident parameters, such as its category, impact, and urgency. There is also the ability to specify an assignment group or assignee to follow up on the incidents. And if there isn’t a policy mapped to an event, then an incident will automatically be created with default attributes.

For more information on customizing ADM event policies, please refer to our product documentation.

Defining an ADM Event Policy

Get Started

Get started and try these new features today! If you are a Citrix DaaS Premium or Premium Plus customer, you are automatically entitled to the Citrix ITSM Adapter service. If not, contact Citrix Sales to upgrade your Citrix DaaS entitlement or to request a trial of the latest 22.6 release enhancements.