Integrating BMC Helix AIOps with Microsoft Teams for ServiceNow incident collaboration

For ServiceNow incidents, administrators can use the BMC Helix Ops Swarmer agent to integrate BMC Helix AIOps with Microsoft Teams.
This integration enables service desk agents and major incident teams to start a Microsoft Teams chat directly from an incident. This setup helps teams communicate within the context of the incident, exchange relevant information, and coordinate actions.

 As a result, it supports faster incident resolution and improves response time during major incidents.

Before you begin

• You must have a Microsoft Azure account with an active subscription and have application administrator permissions in Microsoft Azure.

• BMC HelixGPT must be enabled for your BMC Helix AIOps environment. For more information, see Setting up your environment to leverage agentic AI capabilities in BMC Helix AIOps.

Process overview

Task 1: To obtain a ServiceNow instance

1. Make sure you have an access to the ServiceNow instance.
2. Test the ServiceNow instance. 
   For more information, see the Personal Developer Instance (PDI) Guide in ServiceNow documentation.
3. In ServiceNow, configure an External Application Provider.
   1. Open a command-line interface and run the following command to generate a private certificate:
      openssl genpkey -algorithm RSA -out private_key.pem -pkeyopt rsa_keygen_bits:2048
   2. Use the above private certificate, generate a public certificate. 
      See the following example:
      bin\openssl req -config <path of openssl.cnf> -new -x509 -key private_key.pem -out public_cert.pem -days 3
   3. Log in to ServiceNow instance, navigate to System Definition > Certificates >  New.
   4. Enter the following details:

      Field name	Description
      Name	Enter a name for the certificate.
      Format	Select PEM.
      Type	Select Trust Store Cert.
      Active	Select the check box.

       

   5. Copy the public_cert.pem file and paste it into the PEM Certificate field in ServiceNow and click Save.
      
   6. Navigate to System OAuth > Application Registry > New.
   7. Select Create an OAuth JWT API endpoint for external clients and enter the following details and click Save.

      Field name	Description
      Name	Enter a name for the OAuth provider.
      Client ID and Client Secret	These fields are auto-populated. You can modify the values if required.
      User Field	Select a user field as required.

       

   8. In the JWT Verifier Maps related list and click New and enter the following details and click Submit.

      Field name	Description
      Name	Enter a name for the verifier map.
      Certificate	Select the certificate created earlier.

       

   9. Click Update to save the record.
      
   10. Navigate to the App Registry list.
   11. Add a new column named Public Client, if it is not already available.

   12. Locate the newly created app registry entry.
       The Public Client value is set to false by default.

   13. Click on the false value next to the Public Client column and change the value to true.
       
4. Create a Read-only user with the following roles and permissions:
   • The user must have read access to Incidents and Change Requests.
   • Assign the sn_incident_read and sn_change_read roles on the development instance.
   • The example user is aiops_ro. Use this user in in scenarios like 5 Whys and GetSituationId to workaround user access constraints.
5. Enable Knowledge API. 
   For more information, see Knowledge API in ServiceNow documentation.

Task 2: To configure ServiceNow integration

1. In BMC Helix Innovation Studio, enable ServiceNow as a data source and create a connection by using OAuth authentication.
   For more information, see Adding data sources in BMC HelixGPT.
   
2. Open Data editor and obtain the connection ID.
   
3. Open HelixGPT Agents Studio > Tools and add the connection ID to the following tools and toolkits.
   • Tools
     • Get_Situation_ID_ServiceNow
     • MFS_Tool_ServiceNow
     • KNOWLEDGE_SERVICENOW
   • Toolkits
     • ServiceNow Toolkit
     • Participant Recommendation ServiceNow
4. Configure the following tools:
   • Get_Situation_ID_ServiceNow tool configuration
     {"oauth_username": "user_name", "event_field": "xyz"}
     • oauth_username: The read-only ServiceNow account 
     • event_field: The ServiceNow attribute containing the Situation Event ID.  In most cases,it is the correlation_id.
   • BAR_SERVICENOW_xxxx" tool configuration
     xxxx is the connection identifier

     {"oauth_username": "user_name"} 
     oauth_username is the read-only ServiceNow account.
     

5. Configure the access key for the HelixGPT model.
   For more information, see Updating configuration parameters of a model.

6. In BMC Helix ITSM, create each user with their ServiceNow user_name as the identifier.
7. In BMC Helix Portal, confirm that the users you created in step 6 existand has permissions to access BMC Helix AIOps data.

Task 3: (Optional) To configure xMatters

 An administrator can configure the xMatters integration to send notifications and recommend participants. 

1. Set up the xMatter connection. For more information, see Adding data sources in BMC HelixGPT.
2. (Optional) Map support groups if the BMC Helix ITSM support group names differ from the group names in xMatters.
   1. Log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio.
   2. On the Workspace tab, click HelixGPT Agent Studio. 
   3. Click Records and then click Edit data.
   4. Select the xMatters record definition.
   5. In the Configuration field, enter the group mapping in JSON format.
      See the following example:
      {
         "xmatters_group_mapping": {
             "AU Support 1": "DSOM Helix Communication Managers APAC Weekdays DL",
             "CA Support 1": "DSM Support SaaS Weekend Americas DL",
             "DE Support 1": "ARC/Quickstart EMEA-AP on-call",
             "IN Support 1": "24x7 DSM Helix ITSM Manager OnCall APAC DL",
             "LA Support 1": "DSOM DWP Americas SME",
             "GB Support 1": "24x7 DSM Helix ITSM Manager OnCall EMEA DL",
             "US Support 1": "DBA-DS-AMERICAS-Evening-WEEKEND-DL"
         }
      }
3. Perform the following steps to enable xMatters in the participant recommendation agent.
   1. In HelixGPT Agent Studio, click the Agents tab.
   2. Select the Participant Recommendation Agent and click Edit.
   3. Click Tools, and add the xMatters tool to the agent.

Task 4: To create a Microsoft Teams bot

Perform the following steps in Microsoft Teams:

1. In the Microsoft Teams account, click the View more apps option. 

2. Search for the Developer Portal and launch it. Add the Developer Portal if it is not available.
3. Select Tools >  Bot Management > New Bot.
4. In the Add bot dialog box, enter a name for the bot.
5. In Bot management, select Configure.
6. In the Endpoint address field, copy the Webhook URL you have added in the Webhook URL field while adding Microsoft Teams as a channel through the HelixGPT Agent Studio.
   For more information, see  Enabling Microsoft Teams as a communication channel.
   The bot is successfully created.

Task 5: To create a Microsoft Teams application

 Perform the following steps in Microsoft Teams:

1. In the Developer Portal, click Apps > New app.
2. Enter a name for the application and click Add.
   
3. Review and update the Basic information screen.
   Note down the App ID. The App ID is required for BMC Helix ITSM integration.
   
4. In the Configure option, click App features and then click Bot.
5. From the Select an existing bot list, select the bot that you want to add to the application.
6. In Scope, select one of the following options:
   • Personal
   • Teams
   • Group Chat
7. From Publish, select Publish to org.
8. Click Publish your app.

Task 6: To configure the bot in the Microsoft Azure portal

1. Access the following URL with your administrator credentials:
   https://portal.azure.com/#home 
2. Click App registrations.
   Or
   If you do not see the App resigtration option in the new Microsoft UI, perform the following steps:
   1. Click Microsoft Entra ID.
   2. Click the number link displayed next to the Applications.
      
3. Click All applications and then click the bot you have configured.
   
4. Expand the Manage option and click Authentication.
   
5. Select Web.
6. Add the Redirect URIs and click Configure.
   Make sure that the URL is displayed as shown in the following screenshot.
   
7. From Supported account types, select Account in any organizational directory (Any Microsoft Entra ID tenant - Multitenant). 
8. Click Manage and then click API permissions.
   
9. Click Add a permission and then click Microsoft Graph.
   
    
10. Click Delegated Permissions and select the following permissions.
    • Chat.Create
    • Chat.ReadWrite
    • User.Read
    • User.Read.All
11. Click Application Permissions and select the following permissions.
    • Chat.ReadBasic.All
    • ChatMessage.Read.All
    • User.ReadBasic.All
12. Click Add permissions and then click Grant admin consent for ***.
13. Select Yes to grant permissions for all the permissions.
14. Click Overview and note down the details highlighted in the following screenshot.
    
15. Click Certificates & Secret > New client secret and add the required details.
    
     
16. Click Add and copy the highlight string.
    
     
17. Click Overview and note down the following details:
    • Application (Client) ID
    • Directory (Tenant) ID
      
       
18. Open Mid Tier and map the following values on the CFG:CR_ConfigurationSetting form:
    • Application (Client) ID  to the Client Id field
    • Directory (tenant) ID to the Tenant Id field
       

Task 7: To publish the application in the Microsoft portal

Perform the following steps in Microsoft Teams:

1. Access the following URL:
   https://admin.teams.microsoft.com/policies/manage-apps
2. Select All apps and identify the application you have created.
   Your application might be in the blocked status.
3. Select the application and click Publish.
   
4. Open All apps and verify that the Status is set to Unblock.
5. To provide consent for using the application, click the following link:
   https://login.microsoftonline.com/common/adminconsent?client_id=<clientID>&state=12345&redirect_uri= https://<host name>/arsys/pwa/assets/swarm/swarm.html

6. The application is published.

Task 8: To add a channel in HelixGPT Agents Studio

For information about adding Microsoft Teams as a channel, see Enabling Microsoft Teams as a communication channel.

Task 9: To add collaboration room configurations

You can resolve the incident in Microsoft Teams chat.
 

Related topic

BMC Helix Ops Swarmer