Integrations and the Oomnitza Connector
Now that you have an understanding of how Oomnitza can be used for thing management, we can start to look at how Oomnitza aggregates information from your systems so you can start managing that data and using it along with what you've learned.
Contents
Accessing External Data
Oomnitza has two primary methods for fetching data from other services.
The Oomnitza Connector is how Oomnitza integrates with everything else. It allows us to fetch data from Jamf, SCCM, AirWatch LDAPs, and many others. After fetching data, it massages it and pushes it to Oomnitza. This "massaging" step is highly configurable and allows for custom mappings and data-conversions before the data reaches Oomnitza.
The full technical documentation on the Connector is available on GitHub and this article will go over it in more detail later on.
Native Integrations include software such as Slack, Jira, Zendesk, and a plethora of SSO options. These integrations are built into Oomnitza and the respective integrator, usually require installation in one or both systems and will have you enter the appropriate credentials or token in order to enable the integration.
Integrations
Integrations in Oomnitza are based out of the settings page. To access them, and see the list, click on Settings on the top navigation bar. You'll be taken to Integrations by default.
Clicking on any of the Integration blocks will bring you to details of the integration. For Native Integrations, you can click "Next" in the lower right to begin setup.
For Connector-based integrations, you'll see details on configuring the connector, and be prompted to view Sync Sessions, and view mappings.
The Oomnitza Connector
Depending on how you plan to use the Oomnitza Connector, there are two different implementations:
- Oomnitza hosts the connector on our servers
- You host the connector in-house.
We'd encourage letting us host. It gives us immediate access when we need to troubleshoot, and guarantees its kept up-to-date with the newest version of Oomnitza.
That said, because of the nature of the information the Connector aggregates, some organizations require keeping the connector behind their internal firewall with their other services, particularly Active Directory.
At the time of writing this article, the Connector supports the following services. We're always adding more, so don't hesitate to check back in with our support team.
- Airwatch http://www.air-watch.com
- Azure Users & Devices https://azure.microsoft.com
- BambhooHR http://www.bamboohr.com
- Casper (Jamf Pro) https://www.jamf.com/products/Jamf-Pro/
- Google Chrome devices https://developers.google.com/admin-sdk/directory/
- Google mobile devices https://developers.google.com/admin-sdk/directory/
- Chef https://www.chef.io/chef/
- Jasper http://www.jasper.com
- LDAP e.g., http://www.openldap.org, Active Directory
- MobileIron http://www.mobileiron.com
- Meraki Systems Manager https://documentation.meraki.com/SM/Systems_Manager_Quick_Start
- Okta https://www.okta.com
- OneLogin https://www.onelogin.com
- Open-AudIT https://www.open-audit.org/
- SCCM http://www.microsoft.com
- ZenDesk https://www.zendesk.com
- SimpleMDM https://simplemdm.com/
- Tanium https://www.tanium.com/
- Workday https://www.workday.com
- KACE Systems Management Appliance https://www.quest.com/kace/
- Plain CSV files
When you click on any of those panels on the Integrations page, you'll see a page that looks like this:
The act of turning a connector "On" occurs on the server-side either by running the connector manually, or more commonly, running it as an automated task. If Oomnitza hosts your Connector, we'll handle getting this task set up and determining when it runs.
You can see when the connector runs via the Sync Sessions tab. From here, you can monitor for any syncing errors. Errors include things like attempts to create duplicates of unique fields, or not being able to find Users, Locations, or values from enforced dropdowns.
By-and-large, Oomnitza's Connector-based integrations are set up through Mapping. You may recognize this concept from the previous article on imports, and rightfully so. The fields act largely the same, taking the data we receive from an external and mapping it to matching fields in Oomnitza.
These can be further modified through the configuration in the connector itself, but we'll go over that in another article.
Native Integrations
Unlike Connector-based integrations, Oomnitza's native integrations typically have a singular function that's tied to the integrated software, rather than solely pulling data into object fields.
For example, Oomnitza's Slack integration allows you to include Slack Messages in your Oomnitza Workflows. Zendesk lets you link Zendesk tickets to Oomnitza Assets, and the SSO Connectors allow you to use an SSO service to log into Oomnitza.
Each of these integrations has a somewhat different setup.
The biggest difference, in most cases, is the inclusion of the "Connect" screen. This also differs depending on the service, but each asks for either credentials or a token to allow Oomnitza to access the integrated software.
Conclusion
Don't worry if this seems like a lot of information to take in all at once. Your implementation manager or Oomnitza's support are here to guide you in getting your integrations set up to meet the specific parameters that you need to take full advantage of Oomnitza.
By reaching the end of this article, you've made your way through Oomnitza's getting started guide. You're well on your way to managing everything imaginable using Oomnitza.
If you wish to continue learning, we encourage you to explore our help center. We're constantly making changes and improvements, so if there's anything you need but can't find, or want to provide feedback, please let us know at support@oomnitza.com.
If you're ready to move forward, learn about Your Future with Oomnitza —>
0 Comments