ServiceNow PagerDuty Integration Guide

Architecture Overview

Implementation Steps

var gr = new GlideRecord('u_pagerduty_service_mapping');
gr.initialize();
gr.servicenow_assignment_group = 'Database Team';
gr.pagerduty_service_id = 'P1234567';
gr.escalation_policy_id = 'EP123456';
gr.insert();

// In Flow Designer Data Transform
data.title = source.short_description.toString();
data.service = {
  id: source.u_pagerduty_service_id.toString(),
  type: 'service_reference'
};
data.urgency = source.priority <= 2 ? 'high' : 'low';
data.incident_key = source.number.toString();

(function process(request, response) {
  var payload = JSON.parse(request.body.dataString);
  var messages = payload.messages || [];
  
  for (var i = 0; i < messages.length; i++) {
    var incident = messages[i].incident;
    var gr = new GlideRecord('incident');
    gr.addQuery('u_pagerduty_incident_key', incident.incident_key);
    if (gr.next()) {
      if (incident.status == 'resolved') {
        gr.state = 6; // Resolved
        gr.work_notes = 'Incident resolved in PagerDuty by ' + incident.last_status_change_by.summary;
      }
      gr.update();
    }
  }
  
  return new sn_ws_int.RESTAPIResponse();
})(request, response);

// Webhook signature validation in Scripted REST API
var signature = request.getHeader('X-PagerDuty-Signature');
var requestBody = request.body.dataString;
var secret = gs.getProperty('pagerduty.webhook.secret');
var expectedSignature = GlideDigest.getMD5Hash(requestBody + secret);

if (signature !== expectedSignature) {
  response.setStatus(401);
  return;
}

var rm = new sn_ws.RESTMessageV2('PagerDuty', 'GET');
rm.setEndpoint('https://api.pagerduty.com/oncalls');
rm.setRequestHeader('Authorization', 'Token token=' + gs.getProperty('pagerduty.api.token'));
rm.setRequestHeader('Accept', 'application/vnd.pagerduty+json;version=2');

var response = rm.execute();
if (response.getStatusCode() == 200) {
  var oncalls = JSON.parse(response.getBody()).oncalls;
  // Process and store on-call data
}

// Integration health check script
var gr = new GlideRecord('incident');
gr.addQuery('priority', '1');
gr.addQuery('u_pagerduty_incident_id', 'ISEMPTY');
gr.addQuery('sys_created_on', '>', gs.hoursAgo(1));
gr.query();

if (gr.getRowCount() > 0) {
  gs.eventQueue('pagerduty.sync.failure', gr, 'Incidents not synced to PagerDuty', 'Integration health check');
}

Common Use Cases

Troubleshooting

Pro Tips

• →Implement custom incident correlation rules to prevent creating PagerDuty incidents for ServiceNow incidents that are duplicates or related to existing PagerDuty incidents. Use ServiceNow's Event Management module to correlate similar incidents before triggering PagerDuty escalation, reducing alert fatigue and improving incident response efficiency.
• →Create a ServiceNow dashboard that displays real-time PagerDuty incident metrics alongside ServiceNow incident data, providing unified visibility for incident managers. Use the PagerDuty Analytics API to pull incident response times, escalation frequency, and resolution metrics into ServiceNow reports for comprehensive incident management analysis.
• →Configure conditional escalation logic that considers ServiceNow incident assignment group availability before creating PagerDuty incidents, checking for active assignments or business hours. This prevents unnecessary PagerDuty notifications when ServiceNow teams are actively working on incidents and adds PagerDuty escalation as a fallback mechanism.
• →Implement intelligent priority mapping that considers both ServiceNow priority and impact fields when determining PagerDuty incident urgency, rather than relying solely on priority. Use ServiceNow's business rule conditions to adjust PagerDuty escalation based on affected configuration items, user VIP status, or business service impact levels.
• →Set up automated post-incident analysis by collecting PagerDuty incident metrics (response time, escalation levels reached, personnel involved) and correlating them with ServiceNow incident resolution data. Create scheduled reports that identify trends in escalation patterns and help optimize both ServiceNow assignment rules and PagerDuty escalation policies.
• →Use ServiceNow's Flow Designer error handling capabilities to implement sophisticated retry logic for PagerDuty API calls, including exponential backoff, alternate service routing, and graceful degradation. Configure integration circuit breakers that temporarily disable PagerDuty escalation when API errors exceed thresholds, preventing cascade failures.

Known Limitations

• —PagerDuty's REST API v2 has a rate limit of 120 requests per minute per API token, which can be exceeded during high incident volumes or when multiple ServiceNow instances share the same PagerDuty account. Organizations with large incident volumes may need to implement request queuing, throttling, or multiple API tokens to avoid rate limiting errors.
• —The Integration Hub Professional license is required to use the PagerDuty spoke and create custom integration flows, which may not be available in all ServiceNow licensing tiers. Organizations with Basic Integration Hub licenses must build custom REST integrations using Scripted REST APIs and outbound REST messages rather than the pre-built spoke actions.
• —PagerDuty webhook delivery is not guaranteed and uses eventual consistency, meaning ServiceNow incident updates may be delayed or missed if webhook endpoints are temporarily unavailable. Organizations requiring immediate synchronization should implement polling mechanisms or hybrid approaches that combine webhooks with periodic API polling for critical incident updates.

Frequently Asked Questions