This guide outlines the details required to connect your Liongard instance to HaloPSA & the subsequent options once a connection has been established.
In this lesson we will cover:
– What is the Liongard integration
– Connecting to Liongard
– Customer imports
– Asset Imports
-Sync customer updates to Liongard
– Enable automatic imports
– Viewing Outgoing Logs
What is the Liongard integration?
The Liongard integration allows you to import Liongard environments in Halo as customers and import Liongard systems in Halo as assets. These entities can either be imported manually or on a recurring schedule. Customers can also be automatically created in Liongard when created in Halo.
Connecting to Liongard
First head to configuration > integrations and enable the Liongard module using the '+' icon.
Fig 1. Enable module
Once enabled click into the module to begin configuring the connection.
Log into your Liongard instance and head to your profile (Top RHS) then to Account Settings:
Fig 2. Account settings in Liongard
In here, you will find an 'Access Tokens' Section. Generate a new Liongard API Token. When generating you will prompted to choose the expiry of the token, choose a sensible timeframe and note the date of expiry as when the token expires you will have to generate a new one and re-authorise the connection with Halo.
Fig 3. Generate access token in Liongard
Now copy the access key and secret, and input these details in Halo in the Liongard setup page. You will also need to enter your Liongard URL here too.
Fig 4. Enter connection details in Halo
Click 'Test Configuration' to ensure you have entered the correct details & connect to Liongard's API.
Now you have connected to your Liongard instance you can being configuring your customer and asset imports.
Customer imports
Head to the 'Customers' tab in the Liongard setup page in Halo to configure your customer imports.
Fig 5. Customer imports in Liongard
Here is a mappings table that allows you to map an existing Halo customer and site to a Liongard environment. This allows assets from Liongard environments to be imported to the correct customer account in Halo, even if the names do not match. All the assets at this environment in Liongard will be imported against the mapped Halo customer and site. As Liongard does not have a concept of sites, a Liongard environment can only be mapped to one customer/site in Halo (one-to-one relationship).
If the customer names in Liongard and Halo match exactly you do not need to add them to the mappings table, however, to avoid any risk of customer duplications we advise to completing mappings anyway.
If you have a customer in Liongard that is not yet created in Halo this customer will be created in your Halo instance when importing customers from Liongard. They will not be added to the mappings table as a Liongard ID will be stored against the customer in Halo. This is used to match this customer to the Liongard customer for future imports, even if you change the name of the customer so it no longer matches in both applications.
A 'Top Level for Customers' can be set, any customer created by Liongard will be created with this top level in Halo.
Note: If at any point you change/update these mappings you will need to complete a manual customer import (using the Import Customers button) to save the mappings. If this is not done the Halo integrator will complete the import using the old mappings.
When you are happy with your configuration hit 'Import customers' to complete a manual customer import.
Asset Imports
Head to the 'Assets' tab to configure how assets are imported from Liongard.
Fig 6. Asset import configuration
Default Site – Here choose the site you would like assets to be imported to if their Liongard environment has not been mapped to a Halo customer/site. This will also be the assets are assigned to if they are not linked to a site.
Asset Matching Field – Here choose the field is used to match Assets to existing records. This should be the unique identifier of the asset. If matched, the record will be updated. By default, the Liongard ID will always be checked first. (assets will be assigned a Liongard ID upon import).
Asset Matching Value Exclusions (v2.180+) – Here you can set assets to not be matched using the matching field if the matching field contains a certain value. For example, if two assets have the matching field set to be 'None' they would match even though they are separate assets. By adding the value 'none' to the matching value exclusions list you can ensure the assets are matched using their Liongard ID instead.
Field Mappings
Mappings can be configured to ensure data from Liongard fields are imported into a chosen Halo field. Create a mapping by adding to the 'Field mappings' table.
Fig 7. Field mapping
Field Type – This will be the type of Halo field the data will be imported into. See our lesson on Asset Fields if you are unsure on the difference between asset fields and custom fields in Halo.
Only apply this mapping to new Assets and Assets where the Asset field does not currently have a value – When this is enabled if the Halo field already has data within it, different to the data in the mapped Liongard field, the field data will not change. Fields will only be populated when they contain no data or when new assets are being created.
Metrics
Liongard metrics can be imported into custom fields against the asset in Halo.
To do this first you will need to import the metrics you would like to use in Halo, using the import metric buttons on the configuration page. You can either import all metrics or choose which metrics you would like to import (importing metrics alone will not make them visible in your Halo UI).
Once your metrics have been imported you can choose which field they will be imported to using the 'Field mappings' table. When adding a mapping you will need to search for the name of the metric (this will not show in the dropdown until you search) in the 'Liongard Field' field then choose the Halo field you would like this to be imported into.
Fig 8. Mapping metric to a Halo field
In the figure 8 example the metric 'Active Directory: Count of Joined Computers' will be imported into a new field against my assets, a new field will be created for this metric to be stored in.
Exclude mapped Metrics from new Asset field mappings – When this setting is enabled Liongard metrics can only be mapped to one field in Halo. When disabled a single metric can be imported to multiple HaloPSA fields.
Asset Types
Every asset in Halo must be assigned an asset type, as Liongard does not have a concept of asset types you will need to configure how the asset types of assets imported from Liongard are determined.
Fig 9. Asset Types
First set a 'Default Group for new Asset Types', if assets imported from Liongard are configured to create new asset types in Halo, this will be the asset group the new asset types are created under.
Now you will need to choose how imported assets' types are determined, using the 'Determining an Asset's type' field.
Fig 10. 'Determining an Asset's type' field
Use the same type for all Assets
If you would like all imported assets to have the same asset type when imported set the 'Determining an Asset's type' field to be 'use the same type for all Assets' then set the 'Default Asset Type' field to be the asset type you would like assets from Liongard to be.
Use a field to determine each Asset's type
If you would like all imported assets' types to be determined by a particular field, set the set the 'Determining an Asset's type' field to be 'Use a field to determine each Asset's type'. Then in 'Field for determining an Asset's type' choose the field you would like the type to depend on. The field you choose must contain the name of the desired asset type, if this name can be matched to an existing asset type in Halo, it will be assigned this asset type. If the name is not the same as an asset type in Halo, a new asset type will be created. Note that the names must be identical in order to match. This setting is used if you have a field in Liongard that already determines an asset's type and you would like the types to be consistent between Halo and Liongard.
In the figure 11 example new assets will be assigned to an asset type in Halo based on their 'Inspector Alias' field. If the data in the Inspector Alias field matches the name of an asset type in Halo this asset will be created under the matched asset type. If a match cannot be made a new asset type will be created, under the asset group 'Computing'.
Fig 11. Using field to determine asset's type example
Determine Asset type using rules
If you would like asset types to be determined by asset rules set the set the 'Determining an Asset's type' field to be 'Determine asset type using rules'. Now you will be able to set asset's types based on rules. These rules are based on field values, and if matched will assign an asset to the chosen asset type. When creating a rule first add criteria for the rule, select the Halo field that you would like to base the criteria on, then set the rule type and the outcome needed in the field to match the rule. If an asset matches this rule it will be imported as this asset type.
When using this method you will need to complete the 'Asset Type' field. If an asset is imported that does not match any of these rules, it will be created under the set default asset type.
When you are happy with your asset import settings hit 'Import Assets' to complete a manual import.
Enable Automatic Imports
To have customers and/or assets be imported automatically on a scheduled basis you will need to enable the Halo integrator for this integration.
Head to the 'Halo Integrator' tab and enable 'Enable the Halo Integrator for the Liongard integration'. Once enabled choose the entities you would like to be imported automatically on a schedule.
Fig 12. Enable Halo integrator for Liongard
Sync Customer updates to Liongard
When customers are created and updated in Halo they can be synced to Liongard so the customer is created/updated in Liongard too. This can be done either manually or automatically.
Note: Only the customer name and details field will sync to Liongard, no other customer details.
To enable customer syncing head to the 'Syncing to Liongard' tab and enable 'Sync Customers to Liongard'.
Fig 13. Enable customer syncs to Liongard
Once enabled you will need to choose how new customers are synced using the 'New Customer sync type' field.
Syncing Automatically – When automatic syncing is enabled the field 'Sync to Liongard' will be enabled by default against customer profiles. When enabled, customers will be created/updated in Liongard automatically as soon as they are created/updated in Halo.
Syncing Manually – When manual syncing is enabled the field 'Sync to Liongard' will not be enabled by default against customer profiles. If you would like a customer to be created/updated in Liongard you will need to enable this setting manually against each customer . To enable this setting head to the customer profile in Halo, under the customer details see the field 'Sync to Liongard'.
Fig 14. Sync customer to Liongard manually
When this is checked a pop-up message will display to confirm is the sync was successful and the customer has been created/updated.
Viewing outgoing logs
To assist with monitoring and troubleshooting you can view logs for each request passed from Halo to Liongard. To see these logs head to the 'Outbound Requests' tab under the Liongard configuration.
Fig 15. Outbound requests tab
Click into a log to view more details. If the request has failed an error message will usually appear in the 'Response' tab.
Fig 16. Log for failed customer sync to Liongard
In the figure 16 example the error indicates the customer could not be created in Liongard as their customer name is not unique. A customer in Liongard already has this name so I will need to change the name of either the customer in Halo or Liongard to allow this new customer to be created.
