Configure crawl settings for a ServiceNow instance external content connector

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  • Aktualisiert 12. März 2026
  • 5 Minuten Lesedauer

    • Specify the content types that you want your ServiceNow instance external content connector to retrieve when running content crawls.

    Vorbereitungen

    A ServiceNow AI Platformconnector admin must have already created the ServiceNow® instance external content connector that you want to configure crawl settings for. To learn about this procedure, see Create a ServiceNow instance external content connector.

    Role required: ais_adminsn_ext_conn.xcc_admin

    Warum und wann dieser Vorgang ausgeführt wird

    This task is optional. By default, the ServiceNow instance external content connector retrieves all KB articles , Service Catalog items, and incidents from your ServiceNow AI Platform instance. You only need to perform this task if you want the connector to use inclusion or exclusion filters for the KB articles to retrieve when running content crawls.any of the following non-default settings:
    • Inclusion or exclusion filters for the KB articles to retrieve when running content crawls
    • Inclusion or exclusion filters for the Service Catalog items to retrieve when running content crawls
    • Inclusion or exclusion filters for the incidents to retrieve when running content crawls

    Content is only retrieved from the source system if it passes all of your configured crawl setting filters. If any crawl setting filter excludes a content item, the external content connector doesn't retrieve it.

    Wichtig:

    By default, each external content connector can index up to oneten million (1,000,00010,000,000) content items from its source system. When a connector exceeds this limit, it continues to crawl the source system, but only sends content item deletions and updates to AI Search for indexing, ignoring new content items. The connector logs an error message for every 10,000 content items it crawls beyond the indexing limit.

    When a connector's indexed content item count exceeds 800,000, a warning message appears in the connector's UI to indicate that it's approaching the indexing limit. If the connector reaches the indexing limit, an error message appears in its UI.

    External content connectors that support user permissions crawls can retrieve up to five hundred thousand (500,000) users.

    If one of your connectors reaches the content indexing limit, you can update its crawl settings and file inclusion/exclusion filters to reduce the number of content items it retrieves. Alternately, if you need a connector to index more than 1,000,00010,000,000 content items or to retrieve more than 500,000 users, you can create a Customer Service and Support case at https://support.servicenow.com/now to request a limit increase for the connector.

    Prozedur

    1. Navigate to All > External Content Connectors > External Content Admin Home.
    2. In the Connectors list, select the record for the ServiceNow instance external content connector whose settings you want to modify.
    3. In the connector editor's Configuration Settings tab, select Crawl settings (optional)Crawl settings.
    4. Select one of the following Short description filtering options in the KB articles section.
      • To crawl all KB articles from the source instance, select Crawl all short descriptions.

      • To crawl only a specified set of KB articles from the source instance, select Include only these short descriptions, then use the Add short description patterns to include field and Add button to enter Java regular expression patterns that match the short descriptions for the KB articles that you want to include in the crawl.

        As an example, you might enter Beginner's [Gg]uide to include all KB articles with short descriptions that contain the terms Beginner's Guide or Beginner's guide.

      • To crawl all except a specified set of KB articles from the source instance, select Exclude only these short descriptions, then use the Add short description patterns to exclude field and Add button to enter Java regular expression patterns that match the short descriptions for the KB articles that you want to exclude from the crawl.

        As an example, you might enter (?i)\[Legacy\] to exclude all KB articles with short descriptions that contain the terms [Legacy] or [legacy].

      Hinweis:
      To learn about Java regular expression pattern syntax, see the Javadoc for the java.regex.util.Pattern class.
    5. To specify the set of Service Catalog items crawled when you run content crawls, select one of the following Name filtering options.
      • To crawl all Service Catalog items from the source instance, select Crawl all names.

      • To crawl only a specified set of Service Catalog items from the source instance, select Include only these names, then use the Add name patterns to include field and Add button to enter Java regular expression patterns that match the names for the Service Catalog items that you want to include in the crawl.

        As an example, you might enter (?i)\blaptop\b to include all Service Catalog items with names that contain Laptop or laptop surrounded by word breaks.

      • To crawl all except a specified set of Service Catalog items from the source instance, select Exclude only these names, then use the Add name patterns to exclude field and Add button to enter Java regular expression patterns that match the names for the Service Catalog items that you want to exclude from the crawl.

        As an example, you might enter 1[3-5] inch laptop to exclude all Service Catalog items with names that contain 13 inch laptop, 14 inch laptop, or 15 inch laptop.

    6. Select one of the following Short description filtering options in the Incidents section.
      • To crawl all incidents from the source instance, select Crawl all short descriptions.

      • To crawl only a specified set of incidents from the source instance, select Include only these short descriptions, then use the Add short description patterns to include field and Add button to enter Java regular expression patterns that match the short descriptions for the incidents that you want to include in the crawl.

        As an example, you might enter Release2025Q[1-4] to include all incidents with short descriptions that contain the terms Release2025Q1, Release2025Q2, Release2025Q3, or Release2025Q4.

      • To crawl all except a specified set of incidents from the source instance, select Exclude only these short descriptions, then use the Add short description patterns to exclude field and Add button to enter Java regular expression patterns that match the short descriptions for the incidents that you want to exclude from the crawl.

        As an example, you might enter sprint\d{1,3} to exclude incidents with short descriptions that contain the term sprint followed by a one-digit, two-digit, or three-digit numeral.

    7. Select Save and validate.

    Ergebnisse

    The ServiceNow instance external content connector is updated with your modified crawl settings.

    Nächste Maßnahme

    To retrieve content from your ServiceNow AI Platform instance using your modified crawl settings, create and run a one-time content crawl for your ServiceNow instance external content connector. To learn about creating and running one-time content crawls, see Create a content crawl for an external content connector.