User Manual

Table of contents

1. Introduction

The SnowMirror Drive application reduces footprint of live attachment data in a ServiceNow instance, by automatically moving it to alternative cloud storage.

The end users still access the attachments through ServiceNow, without noticing that the data is stored somewhere else.

The objective of the application is to improve ServiceNow performance and optimize storage cost.

SnowMirror product comparison

	Replica	Archive	Drive	Backup
Use Case	Reporting based on ServiceNow data in BI tools	Reduce footprint of obsolete data	Reduce footprint of live data	Keep a copy for data recovery
Typical Sync Frequency	Near real-time	Weekly/Monthly	Daily upload, Real-time download	Daily
App Type	On-premises agent	On-premises agent	ServiceNow App	On-premises agent
Supported Storage	Database, Data lake, Cloud storage, File system	Database, Cloud storage	Cloud storage	Cloud storage

Archive vs Drive

	SM Archive	SM Drive
Data Recency	Obsolete data	Live data
Data Type	Any table, including attachments	Only attachments
Browsing Data	Offline browser within atchived storage	Through ServiceNow only, Transparent to users
Restoring Data	Manual	Seamless, Data is accessible from ServiceNow
User Impact	Medium (obsolete data not available)	None (data always accessible)

2. Main Data flow

Attachment is uploaded to ServiceNow table (e.g. Incident)
SnowMirror Drive waits for the attachment pass time that admin wants to keep it in the instance
SnowMirror Drive offloads attachment's data to Alternative Cloud Storage (e.g. AWS, Azure) on daily schedule and adds prefix to the attachment's names (eg. [External Storage]) for better visibility of the status.
User accesses the attachment through a record it is attached to (eg. Incident or KB article)
SnowMirror Drive automatically downloads attachment's data from external storage, rebuilds it and removes the prefix.

3. Manual Installation through Update Sets guide

Each release has 2 different version PATCH and FRESH INSTALL

Fresh Install:

Should be used when the application is not yet installed on the instance
Contains all the changes for the specific version, contains all system properties, but some have empty values that needs to be filled as part of the installation
Ensures that the application can be installed on a brand new instance, contains everything
Includes 4 XML files

Installation Steps

Go to "Retrieved Update Sets" > Click on "Import Update Set from XML" > Select the XML file that contains the version you want to upload and upload it

1 - Import the Offloader Admin user by going to the sys_user table and and Import XML file - You can confirm the user is imported by going to the Users table

2 - Import the Global XML file - If the XML has been imported successfully imported open the record with it's name that is on state "Loaded"

Preview the record

If there are any conflicts, just click on "Accept remote update" for each
Once there are no conflicts commit the update set

3 - Import the Scoped XML file - If the XML has been imported successfully imported open the record with it's name that is on state "Loaded" - Preview the record - If there are any conflicts, just click on "Accept remote update" for each - Once there are no conflicts commit the update set

4 - Swap to "Data offloader" scoped application, needed to edit properties in the configuration and to run the fix script without any issue

5 - Go to "SnowMirror Drive > Workspace > Settings"

6 - In the "Basic Setup" menu go through each section:

The first is "Delete attachment data". Check the checkbox if you want to delete them after the upload (checked by default).

Then specify how many days attachments should remain in ServiceNow (7 days by default).

In the next section define the tables you want to exclude from the upload (only entitlement_data by default).

The last setting is to enter the SnowMirror Drive application license key. Please reach out to SnowMirror Drive support to acquire a license key.

7 - In the "Storage Setup" menu click on "New" and setup at least 1 Azure or AWS remote storage for the application by going through the steps. You can find detailed scenarios under Configuration of Storages.

8 - (Optional) In the "Advanced Setup" menu go through the settings and change them if needed.

9 - Go to "SnowMirror Drive > Workspace > Attachment rules" and click "Create New Attachment Rule". You can find detailed scenarios under Configuration of Attachment Rules.

10 - Fill the Name, Storage and Table fields, and add condition if needed. Click "Submit"

11 - Enable the Attachment Rule by the Enabled/Disabled toggle on the panel.

12 - Go to "SnowMirror Drive > Workspace > Home" under the "Transfer status" tab enable the automatic upload of attachments

4. Configuration of Attachment Rules

Set up basic Attachment Rule

I want to set up an Attachment Rule, which uploads all attachments, which are bigger than 1MB. The attachments should be stored in AWS external storage.

1 - Go to "SnowMirror Drive > Workspace > Settings > Attachemnt Rules" and click "Create New Attachment Rule".

2 - Give the Attachment Rule a name, define the Storage (AWS) and leave Attachment in the Table field.

3 - Click on "Set condition" and add: "Size bytes", "greater than or is" and 1048576 (1 MB in bytes). Click "Set".

4 - On the New Attachment Rule form click "Submit".

5 - Enable your new Attachment Rule by the toggle on the right side of the tile.

6 - Go back to "Home" and enable Transfer Status by the toggle.

7 - You can see the progress of the upload under "Transfer progress".

Set up process-based, advanced Attachment Rule

I want to set up an Attachment Rule, which uploads all attachments, connected to closed Inclidents. The attachments should be stored in Azure external storage.

1 - Go to "SnowMirror Drive > Workspace > Settings > Attachemnt Rules" and click "Create New Attachment Rule".

2 - Give the Attachment Rule a name, define the Storage (Azure) and select "Incident" as Table.

3 - Click on "Set condition" and add: "State", "is" and "Closed". Click "Set".

4 - On the New Attachment Rule form click "Submit".

5 - Enable your new Attachment Rule by the toggle on the right side of the tile.

6 - Go back to "Home" and enable Transfer Status by the toggle. You can see the progress of the upload under "Transfer progress"

Set up Attachment Rule based on caller's location

I want to set up two different Attachment Rules, which upload the attachments, connected to Incidents to different storages based on the caller's department.

1 - Go to "SnowMirror Drive > Workspace > Settings > Attachemnt Rules" and click "Create New Attachment Rule".

2 - Give the Attachment Rule a Name, define the Storage (Azure) and select "Incident" as Table.

3 - Click on "Set condition" and first select field. Click on the small arrow next to "Caller" from the drop down list and select "Department". Finish the condition with "is" and "Customer Support". Click "Set".

4 - On the New Attachment Rule form click "Submit".

5 - Click "Create New Attachment Rule" again and fill the form with a Name, Storage (this time AWS!) and select "Incident" as Table.

6 - Click on "Set condition" and set "Caller > Department", "is", "Finance" the same way, as before. Click "Set".

7 - On the New Attachment Rule form click "Submit".

8 - Enable both Attachment Rules by the toggle on the right side of the tiles.

9 - Go back to "Home" and enable Transfer Status by the toggle. You can see the progress of the upload under "Transfer progress"

Disable and Delete Attachment Rule

I have multiple Attachment Rules enabled, but I want want to disable one of them, while keeping the rest enables, and keeping those Attachments in external storage.

1 - If you want to enable a rule go to "SnowMirror Drive > Workspace > Settings > Attachemnt Rules" and click the Enable/Disable toggle and click the Enable/Disable toggle for the rule you want to enable.

2 - If you go back to "Home", under "Transfer progress" you can see the progress of the download.

3 - If you want to remove the Attachment Rule, wait until the download finishes.

4 - Go to "SnowMirror Drive > Workspace > Settings > Attachemnt Rules" and click on the "Delete" button of the tile, then confirm that you want to delete, by clicking "Delete" again.

5. Configuration of Storages

Add Amazon S3 Storage

Before creating a Storage Provider record for AWS S3, you must first configure your Amazon S3 storage. See the Amazon S3 setup in the admin guide.

1 - Go to "SnowMirror Drive > Workspace > Settings > Storage Setup" and click "New".

2 - Enter "AWS" as provider and click "Next".

3 - Enter the credential alias name and click "Next".

4 - Enter Access Key ID and Secret Access Key, then click "Next".

5 - Enter Storage name, Service name, container and region, then click "Next".

6 - Click "Create Storage Record".

7 - The new storage appeared on the list.

8 - Select the row and click "Validate Connection".

Add Azure Storage with Authentication

1 - Go to "SnowMirror Drive > Workspace > Settings > Storage Setup" and click "New".

2 - Enter "Azure" as provider and click "Next".

3 - Select "OAuth Profile" as Authentication type and click "Next"

4 - On the next pages ("Application Registry", "OAuth Entity Scope", "OAuth Credentials", "Connection Alias" and "Connection"), you have to enter the details for your authentication: