Domain Separation and HR Service Delivery

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 3 minutes to read
    • Summarize
    Summarized using AI
    This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete.

    Summary of Domain Separation and HR Service Delivery

    The ServiceNow® HR Service Delivery application enhances the employee service experience by automating HR interactions and centralizing HR services on a single platform. Domain separation within HR Service Delivery allows for data, processes, and administrative tasks to be segmented into logical groups known as domains. This feature enables organizations to define user access and visibility for data effectively.

    Show full answer Show less

    Key Features

    • Basic Domain Separation: This setup ensures that if data and configurations belong to a specific domain, HR Service Delivery operates correctly. However, it does not support complex hierarchical structures or shared data across domains.
    • Business Logic: Ensures that data is assigned to the appropriate domain, affecting user interfaces, reporting, and other runtime considerations.
    • User Access: Users can access data from their home domain and child domains, but not from parent or peer domains unless explicitly granted access.

    Key Outcomes

    HR Service Delivery is beneficial for customers who require strict data segregation, tailored business processes, and some shared global processes within a single instance. It allows for customized user experiences while maintaining the integrity of data across different business entities.

    For optimal use, records must be created at the correct domain level to ensure visibility for the appropriate users. If complete separation is necessary, separate instances are recommended over domain separation.

    The ServiceNow® HR Service Delivery application improves the employee service experience by automating HR interactions and providing a single platform for all HR services. Domain separation is supported in HR Service Delivery.

    Domain separation separates data, processes, and administrative tasks into logical groupings called domains within a single ServiceNow instance. You can then control several aspects of this separation, including which users can see and access data.

    To learn more about domain separation, see:

    HR Service Delivery provides the basic level of domain separation support. Basic domain separation (data separation ) implies that if the data and all the related configurations reside within a particular domain, HR Service Delivery will function as expected. Hierarchical domain structure, sharing of data/configurations and logic/process separation is not supported by default in HR Service Delivery as per the basic domain separation definition.

    Support level: Basic

    Note:
    To learn more about support levels, see Domain separation levels of support.
    • There is business logic to ensure data goes into the proper domain for the application’s service provider use cases.
    • In the application, the user interface, cache keys, reporting, rollups, aggregations, and so on, all consider domain at run time.
    • The owner of the instance needs to be able to set up the application to function normally across multiple tenants.
    Use case: As a Service Provider organization, when I receive a case or a chat from a tenant in the system, I should be able to see and resolve that case without other tenant customers being aware of the case or process.

    Overview of HRSD domain separation

    Domain separation is best for customers who:
    • Enforce absolute data segregation between business entities (data separation).
    • Customize business process definitions and user interfaces for each domain (delegated administration).
    • Maintain some global processes and global reporting in a single instance.
    These users can choose to expand or collapse the domain scope to show or hide data from other domains. For example, data from Company A can be separated from the data of Company B and Company C. Each domain using the HR Service Delivery application can have separate data that cannot be shared with other domains.
    Note:
    Based on the hierarchy, users can see data in their home domain and child domains of that home domain. Users will not have access to data in their parent domains, peer domains, or domains in other branches of the hierarchy. Users always have access to data from domains that have been explicitly granted to them by domain visibility and domain contains.

    Infographic explaining Domain Separation in HR Service Delivery

    How domain separation works in HR Service Delivery

    • While HR Service Delivery supports separation of data, separation of logic and process is not fully supported.
      Note:
    • When working in a domain-separated implementation, ensure that records are created at the right domain level so that it is visible to the right set of users.

      For example, domains that look like:

      • Global → TOP
        • Domain A
        • Domain B
        Note:
        Global is not a domain.

        When agents are shared across domains, agents should reside in global and have access to the remote HR cases of all onboarded consumers.

      • For any user in Domain A or Domain B to access an HR case, the HR case must be created at an global level.
      • If an HR case is created in Domain A, a user from Domain B cannot access it. Likewise, if an HR case is created in Domain B, a user from Domain A cannot access it.
      • For an HR case to be visible to the users in TOP and Domain A, create the HR case in Domain A.
      • For an HR case to be visible to the users in TOP and Domain B, create the HR case in Domain B.

    Use case: Domain separation in HR Service Delivery

    While the behavior offered with domain separation provides multi-tenancy support, multi-tenancy is still contained within a single instance. A few properties, data and processes are always global and shared across all domains. For example, the system’s “Remember me” option on the login page is global and cannot be specified per domain.

    If a complete and total separation of all system properties is needed and does not require global reporting or global processes, separate instances are the best option.