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Site Integration Service

Hornbill’s Site Integration Service (SIS) is a software package installed on a computer that sits behind an organization’s firewall. It runs as a standard Windows service and, once paired with a Hornbill instance, the instance will make the Site Integration Server instance available for servicing the ITOM Job Queue.

When pairing a Site Integration Server with a Hornbill instance, you are creating a trust relationship between the SIS and your Hornbill instance. Once a trust relationship is established, there is an implicit bond made between your Hornbill instance and that SIS instance, ensuring that access to the SIS capabilities to execute integrations and automation jobs can only by orchestrated by your instance.

How it works

Communications between your instance and the SIS uses standard secure HTTPS protocol. For security reasons, all connections are established from behind the firewall (the SIS server) to the Hornbill instance (in the cloud). This means it is not possible for any instance other than the authorized Hornbill instance to make use of the SIS.

Jobs that are run by the SIS are queued on your Hornbill instance. The SIS will retrieve each job to be run and process it as required. There are currently two main job types: Discovery and IT Automation. Automation jobs are enabled through pre-built packages provided by Hornbill, and, for those customers using the DevOps edition, the packages can be custom-built using the ITOM Package Creator tools.

The SIS provides a simple web interface, which is accessible from within your network. This simple UI allows for the initial pairing configuration, and once paired, displays the service’s current status.

Software updates

The SIS is self-updating; it automatically detects if a new service or package version is available. When required, it updates the SIS software, components, and packages automatically.

Technical considerations

System requirements

  • OS: Windows Server 2012, 2012 R2, 2016, 2019 or 2022
  • RAM: 4GB
  • Free Disk Space: 10GB
  • CPU load is minimal
  • Can be run on virtual as well as physical machines.

Connectivity

  • The SIS communicates with a Hornbill instance using the secure HTTPS protocol. All connections are initiated from the SIS to the cloud service, so there is no need to make any special firewall configurations or open special ports (unless your internal network security policies block normal HTTPS web traffic) in order for the SIS server to function.
  • The pairing between a Hornbill instance and a SIS is a secure one-to-one binding scheme that makes it impossible for any job execution to happen that is not controlled by the bonded Hornbill instance.

Note

Because of the tight security requirements of the connection between a SIS and a Hornbill cloud instance, there is no support for communications via proxy services.

Discovery and package deployment

The SIS is capable of discovering the following devices on your network:

  • All Windows computers that are currently supported by Microsoft.
  • Unix/Linux/Mac computers that are SSH-enabled.

Individual packages you deploy may have additional OS requirements.

Firewall configuration

A Windows firewall rule for inbound traffic (local network traffic only) that allows any TCP traffic into the SIS is created on installation and named as follow:

  • Hornbill SIS Server - Context Callback (TCP - In).

The following outbound port between the SIS server and the cloud instance is required:

  • HTTPS TCP 443

The following ports between the SIS server and managed devices are generally used (the exact port(s) used depends on which method is used for communicating with the target devices):

  • WinRM - TCP 5985
  • DCOM - TCP 135
  • DCOM - Range of dynamic ports:
    • TCP 49152-65535 (RPC dynamic ports – Windows Vista, 2008 and above)
    • TCP 1024-65535 (RPC dynamic ports – Windows NT4, Windows 2000, Windows 2003)

Site Integration Service Discovery - This is dependent on the discovery mode used.

  • Active Directory / LDAP
    • TCP Port 389 (Between the SIS and the AD Domain Controller / LDAP Server)
  • Secure Shell (ssh)
    • TCP Port 22 (Between the SIS and target devices)

The discovery process will make use of ICMP (TCP Ping) during the discovery process.

Toolbar

  • Refresh. A refresh of the list may be required to display any new devices discovered while you are viewing the list.
  • Show. Displays connectors from the selected group.
  • + Create Group. (Selectable via the Default dropdown) Allows for the creation of SIS groups.
  • Paired / Not Paired. Toggle button that allows the display of Paired or Not Paired SIS.
  • Download Site Integration Server. Downloads the on-premise SIS Installer.
  • Move Selected To… . Moves the selected SIS entries to the selected group.
  • Add button (plus sign). Click this button to add a new SIS connector.
  • Delete button (trash can). Deletes the selected SIS entries.

Service details

  • Name. The name of the connector.
  • Group. The group that the connector belongs to.
  • Description. The user-provided description for the connector.
  • Service Type. The operating system architecture of the server hosting the SIS installation.
  • Service State. Toggle to enable or disable the SIS.
  • Online Status. The current status of the link to the SIS.
  • Service Build. SIS Server build version. Any service showing an older build may highlight that there is an issue with automatic updates for that service.
  • Last Seen On. The last time there was communication between the Hornbill SIS and the SIS Server.

Creating an SIS profile on the Hornbill instance

To create an SIS profile:

  1. At the bottom of the left-hand menu bar, click the cog icon to open Configuration. (A shortcut is to use CTRL+SHIFT+S on your keyboard.)
  2. Select Hornbill ITOM.
  3. Under Configuration, select Site Integration Services.
  4. Click the Add button (plus sign) to create a new SIS connector.
  5. Enter the following details:
    • Name. This is used to identify the SIS server to the Hornbill Instance.
    • Group. There should be a least one default group. Others can be selected via drop down if created previously.
  6. Click Add Site Integration Service Connector.
  7. Make a note of the authorization code displayed for later use.

    Note

    The authorization code is valid for 1 hour. Should the SIS connector and SIS installation not be paired during this time, the key will expire. To generate a new key, remove the SIS connector and recreate it.

  8. Follow the instructions to download and install the SIS.
  9. Follow the instructions to pair your SIS with your Hornbill instance. If you choose not to complete the pairing at this time, you can find the connector by filtering on Not Paired in your list of SIS connectors.

Downloading and installing the SIS

The Site Integration Service is installed as a Windows service called “ESPSisService”.

The Hornbill SIS is installed as a Windows service and will require local administration rights for installation on the target computer.

To download and install the SIS:

  1. In Configuration, select Site Integration Services.
  2. Click Download Site Integration Server.
  3. Locate the downloaded executable (.exe), and double-click to begin.
  4. Click Install.
  5. Click OK to confirm the installation.
  6. Close the Install dialog.
  7. Open the Services mmc console.
  8. Start the EspSisService if it isn’t already running.

Pairing an SIS server with a Hornbill instance

Once the EspSisService is running, the process of pairing the service with a Hornbill instance can begin, which requires the authorization code created in Creating an SIS profile on the Hornbill instance.

To pair an SIS server:

  1. Open a browser window on the computer where the SIS server is installed, and go to the URL http://localhost:11117. Here you will be presented with a form to enter the Instance ID and an authorization code needed to pair with your instance.
  2. Enter the Instance ID and authorization code.
  3. Click Pair with Instance.

Once the SIS is paired with our Hornbill instance, you can review the SIS status is on http://localhost:11117.

Grouping SIS servers

The creation of groups enables SIS connectors and SIS installations to be logically grouped; each SIS entry must belong to a single group. A default group is provided; you can create additional groups as required. Generally, the network infrastructure as well as the load-balancing and failover requirements will determine the number and grouping of SIS installations.

  • Load balancing. When more than one server is placed within a group, jobs sent to the group for processing will be processed by the next available SIS server spreading the load.

  • Failover protection. SIS servers poll the Job Queue for available jobs, and thus if a server fails, any other server within the same group will pick the next available job. Any job currently being processed by the SIS server will fail, and the status set accordingly. If the job has already been pushed to a client and executed, then it will potentially be orphaned, and the status set to Timed-Out.

    Tip

    If a standalone SIS server fails, then all jobs aimed at that server will be left in the Job Queue and will not be processed until the server is up and running again.

Creating a group

To create a group:

  1. In Configuration, select Site Integration Services.
  2. Click the Show dropdown, then click +Create Group.
  3. Enter a name for the new group.
  4. Click Apply.

Removing an SIS server installation

If you want to remove the SIS server from your instance, navigate to the SIS servers tab in the admin tool and delete the SIS server you want to remove.

The removal of the SIS server software from your server(s) requires manual steps in order to remove the service and all related files.

To remove an SIS server installation:

  1. Open Windows Powershell console as an administrator.
  2. Enter the following:
    • Stop-Service EspSisService
    • sc.exe delete EspSisService
    • Remove-Item "$env:ProgramFiles\Hornbill\Site Integration Server" -Recurse
    • Remove-Item "$env:ProgramData\Hornbill\Site Integration Server" -Recurse

    Note

    These steps will perform a recursive delete on the two folders specified.

  3. Once the service is removed, delete the SIS entry on the instance.
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