Jira Accounts & Actions

This guide explains how to add a Jira account to Cloudaware and configure actions for Cloudaware to automatically discover Jira issues in the CMDB and/or create issues in Jira based on specified criteria.

Jira integration - CA_logo_black.png To see how Cloudaware seamlessly integrates with Jira in action, request a demo.

Introduction

Cloudaware offers several key capabilities of integrating with Atlassian Jira:

Auto-discovery of issues related to CMDB objects and importing them from Jira to Cloudaware
Creating a Jira issue whenever any specific criteria are met in Cloudaware (e.g. new incident, policy violation, vulnerability scan, etc.) and posting a comment to the existing Jira issue (e.g. new vulnerability has been detected as fixed, etc.)

Configure auto-discovery and import of Jira issues to Cloudaware CMDB

Add Jira account to Cloudaware

Cloudaware can discover Jira issues and automatically associate them with corresponding CMDB objects.

Follow these steps to integrate your Jira account with Cloudaware:

1. Log in to Cloudaware account → Admin

2. Find Jira Accounts & Actions in the list of Cloud Integrations, click +Add

3. Fill in the required information, click Save

*URL - insert your Company Jira URL from the browser address bar, e.g. http(s)://jira.cloudaware.com
**Password - use a token instead of a password if you are using cloud version of Jira

Ensure that the user whose credentials are used in the form has the appropriate level of access. All Jira projects that are visible for this user will be collected by Cloudaware.

***Trust Certificate - check this box only if your Jira runs on a private network and TunHub Gateway has been set up by Cloudaware

4. The green light in 'Status' means your Jira account has been successfully added. If there is a red light, please contact support@cloudaware.com

Add custom fields to Jira

For Cloudaware to associate a Jira issue with a CMDB object, a Jira issue should have two custom fields:

Object Type
Object Identifier

Object identifier is a cloud provider ARN for that object, for example:

Object Type: AWS ELB Load Balancer
Object Identifier (example): arn:aws:elasticloadbalancing:us-east-1:111111111111:loadbalancer/admin-s1-Elb-111XXX1XXXXXX

In order to view a list of CMDB objects, navigate to Setup → type Objects in the Quick search bar.

The custom Jira field you create should be a text/string.

Add these two fields to Jira issues using instructions provided by Atlassian here. It's possible to set the values for these fields manually or using internal Jira processes.

Configure auto-creation of Jira issues from Cloudaware

Cloudaware can send an outbound message to Jira whenever a specific criteria is met, which will automatically create a Jira issue in the appropriate Jira project. Cloudaware can also post a comment to your Jira issue once the conditions that have triggered the ticket creation change.

Use case: A seсurity team needs a Jira issue to be created in a specific project every time when a high risk vulnerability is found by Cloudaware. However, in order to avoid lots of manual work with checking and closing Jira issues, they also need to be notified if a vulnerability has been recognized as fixed. A comment posted to the issue may be a good marker for bulk closing tickets.

Manage permissions and create fields in Jira

1. Grant Cloudaware with user/project: ADD_COMMENTS permission (see Jira documentation).

2. Log in to Cloudaware account → Setup → Objects.

3. Select an object you want Jira issues to be created for (in this example, CloudAware Vulnerability Scan).

4. Review the section 'Custom Fields & Relationships' to define fields that should be displayed in an issue's description. In our use case we are using the following fields: Priority, Risk, Severity, CVSS Number, Host, Port, Protocol, Description, Disappearance Time.

Use Cloudaware Field Label names when creating fields in your Jira as fields names MUST match.

Set up Jira Actions in Cloudaware

Note that you should add your Jira Account to Cloudaware before setting up Jira Actions.

1. Log in to Cloudaware account → Admin.

2. Find Jira Accounts & Actions in the list of Cloud Integrations, click N Configured.

3. Select the tab 'Jira Actions'. Click +Add Jira Action.

4. Fill out the form:

WHERE

Name - name for your Jira action
Jira Account - select the pre-configured Jira account
Project - select your Jira project issues will be created in
Issue Type - select the issue type (managed in your Jira)
Summary - add summary for your Jira issues. In this example, we use sObject.Name to display full CloudAware Vulnerability Scan name
Description - add a description that will be added into Jira issue body
Comment - add a text that will be displayed as a Cloudaware comment

In our use case, we use sObject.CA10disappearanceTime__c, where CA10disappearanceTime__c is the API Name of the field showing the date and time when the vulnerability was deleted from the scanner.

Pay attention to using expression fields. The data type of the value returned depends on the elements used in the expression. Here below are sample outputs:

Expression	Output
test	test
sObject.Name	'the name of this field in your org'
'sObject.Name'	sObject.Name
'Hey, ' + sObject.Name	Hey, 'the name of this field in your org'

Field List - determine the fields you'd like to be displayed in a Jira issue and Cloudaware comment.

Use API names for fields. The integration must include all the fields you plan to use in notifications. The order you choose for the fields will be reflected in a Jira issue.

Click Save.

5. Copy and save the URL as it is required for further configuration in Cloudaware.

Configuring Cloudaware workflows to create issues and post comments in Jira

Once you have configured Jira Action, set up two different workflow rules － for creating a Jira issue (1) and adding a comment (2).

1. Workflow Rule for Jira issue creation:

From Cloudaware Admin go to Setup → Create → Workflows & Approvals → Workflow Rules → New Rule:

Select the object. In our use case we are using CloudAware Vulnerability Scan. Click Next.
Add Rule Name, set Evaluation Criteria and Rule Criteria as shown below:

Click Save&Next.
Add Workflow Action → New Outbound Message:

Object: CloudAware Vulnerability Scan
Name: Jira Notification: New Vulnerability Detected
Endpoint URL: paste the URL copied from the integration's details

Select the fields to be displayed as set up in the Integration details:

Note that Name is a mandatory field.

Click Done. Click Activate to activate your workflow.

2. Workflow Rule for posting a comment in Jira issue:

Go back to Workflow Rules → New Rule.
Select the object. In our use case we are using CloudAware Vulnerability Scan. Click Next.
Add Rule Name, set Evaluation Criteria and Rule Criteria as shown below:

Click Save&Next.
Add Workflow Action → New Outbound Message:

Object: CloudAware Vulnerability Scan
Name: Jira Notification: Vulnerability Fixed
Endpoint URL: paste the URL copied from the integration's details

Select the fields to be displayed as set up in the Integration details:

Click Done. Click Activate to activate your workflow.

Jira issue sample	Cloudaware comment sample

Jira issue in Cloudaware CMDB (sample)

Bulk close Jira issues with Cloudaware comments

Based on our use case, we can consider all issues with a comment as not requiring further actions since a vulnerability the Jira issue informs of has been fixed.

Follow these steps to configure automatic change of issue status to 'Resolved':

In your Service Desk project select Project settings → Automation.
Select Add rule.
Select Custom rule from the list, then select Next.
Give your custom rule a name and a description.
Configure your rule by defining the WHEN, IF, and THEN fields:
5.1. When comment added
5.2. If comment contains This vulnerability is fixed and deleted on
5.3. Then transition issue to status "Resolved"

Populate custom fields in Jira*

This option requires having custom fields Object Type, Object Identifier and fields that were created for Jira actions.

Based on our use case, we can consider having all custom field values populated automatically. This will also provide a great visibility in Cloudaware CMDB as each Jira issue will be linked to a CMDB record.

Follow these steps to configure automatic update of fields Object Type and Object Identifier.

Object Type

To populate this field, ensure that fields indicating the resource name or ID are created (e.g. AWS EC2 Instance ID, Physical Server, AWS IAM User).
Create a custom text field 'Object Type'.
In your Service Desk project select Project settings → Automation.
Select Add rule.
Select 'Custom rule' from the list, then select Next.
Give your custom rule a name and a description.
Specify:
7.1. WHEN: Issue created
7.2. Choose If/Else block
7.3. Add the condition, e.g.:

IF 'AWS EC2 Instance ID' field is not empty then edit 'Object Type' field with 'AWS EC2 Instance'
IF 'AWS EC2 Instance Name' field is not empty then edit 'Object Type' field with 'AWS EC2 Instance'

7.4. Add the second condition:

ELSE - IF 'AWS IAM User ARN' field is not empty then edit 'Object Type' field with 'AWS IAM User'
The automation summary will look the following:

Object Identifier
To populate this field, ensure that fields indicating the resource ID are created (e.g. AWS EC2 Instance ID, AWS IAM User ARN).
Create a custom text field 'Object Identifier'.
In your Service Desk project select Project settings → Automation.
Select Add rule.
Select 'Custom rule' from the list, then select Next.
Give your custom rule a name and a description.
Specify:
7.1. WHEN: Issue created
7.2. THEN: Edit issue fields. Paste the following condition as the value of the field 'Object Identifier':
CODE
```
{{Issue.fields.Custom_Field_name}}
```
where Custom_Field_ is the name of the field under question (e.g. AWS EC2 Instance ID, AWS IAM User ARN)
The automation summary will look the following:

Once you set the automation for both Object Type and Object Identifier, make sure to add these fields to the Jira issue.