Exploring MetricBase
Summarize
Summary of Exploring MetricBase
MetricBase enables ServiceNow customers to efficiently collect, retain, analyze, and act on large volumes of time-series data, particularly machine-generated data. It achieves this by storing summarized time-series data in its dedicated database, facilitating integration with ServiceNow IoT applications and allowing actionable insights through automated workflows and alerts.
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Key Features
- Data Collection and Storage: MetricBase collects data samples at defined intervals (e.g., every 4 seconds), averages values during each sampling period, and stores this summarized data until its expiration.
- Integration with ServiceNow Workflows: Users can configure triggers in Workflow Studio to automate actions such as sending emails or generating alerts based on time-series data conditions (e.g., high CPU usage, data gaps, or memory thresholds).
- Visualization and Reporting: MetricBase supports time-series charts and integrates with the Reporting application, enabling users to graphically analyze stored data.
- Anomaly Detection: Administrators can train predictive machine learning models within MetricBase to detect anomalies in data and automatically trigger workflows when abnormal patterns are identified.
- APIs for Data Interaction: Data can be sent to and retrieved from MetricBase using REST or JavaScript APIs, facilitating custom integrations and development.
Roles and Responsibilities
The primary user role is the Administrator, responsible for defining time-series metrics, configuring data collection, setting up triggers and workflows, training anomaly detection models, and monitoring data through visualization tools.
Benefits
- Enables efficient summarization and storage of vast time-series datasets.
- Provides actionable insights through automated workflows triggered by real-time data conditions.
- Improves operational awareness by detecting anomalies and data gaps proactively.
- Facilitates integration with ServiceNow IoT applications, enhancing machine data monitoring and response.
Next Steps
To fully leverage MetricBase capabilities, customers should explore detailed guidance on configuring MetricBase, defining and collecting time-series data, triggering workflows with MetricBase data, and managing the MetricBase environment.
Collect, retain, analyze, and act on time-series data using MetricBase.
MetricBase overview
MetricBase helps you work with large amounts of data by using a smaller summary of that data that is stored in the MetricBase database.
- Integrate MetricBase seamlessly with ServiceNow IoT-based applications that monitor or act on large amounts of machine-generated data.
- Trigger flows in Workflow Studio based on time-series data in MetricBase.
- Generate an email if the average CPU usage is more than 85% in the last 5 minutes.
- Generate an email if MetricBase detects a gap in data submitted for 10 minutes or more.
- Generate an alert if the average of the collected data is less than 10 or greater than 500 in the last 5 minutes.
- Generate an alert if memory usage is likely to exceed 90% in the next 10 minutes.
- Visualize MetricBase data using time-series charts.
- Use the Reporting application to graph the time-series data that is stored in MetricBase.
- Detect anomalies by training a machine language model and execute a Workflow Studio trigger when an anomaly is detected.
- An instance that stores machine-generated data
- A server that has the MetricBase application and database
MetricBase users
| User | Description |
|---|---|
| Administrator | An administrator collects, retains, analyzes, and acts on time-series data using MetricBase. |
MetricBase workflow
The following figure shows that machine-generated data is sampled every 4 seconds. You send the average of the values in each sampling period to the MetricBase database, which stores the data until its expiration date.
- The administrator specifies a metric to store and how often to collect it by creating a time-series definition in MetricBase.
- The administrator sends data from the instance to the MetricBase server using the MetricBase REST or JavaScript APIs.
- The administrator configures trigger definitions that execute flows based on time-series data in MetricBase.
- The administrator configures and trains predictive models in MetricBase to detect anomalies and execute flows when new data is significantly different than the trained data.
- The administrator monitors collected data using time-series charts in MetricBase. Time-series data remains in the MetricBase database for a prescribed amount of time, after which MetricBase deletes the data.
MetricBase benefits
| Benefit | Feature | Users |
|---|---|---|
| Store time series summary of a large collection of data | Create a time-series definition in MetricBase | Administrator |
| Insert and retrieve time-series data from the MetricBase database | Developer resources | Administrator |
| Access and visualize time-series data in the MetricBase database | Accessing MetricBase data | Administrator |
| Trigger flows when new data is significantly different than the trained data | Detecting anomalies in MetricBase data using predictive models | Administrator |
| Trigger flows that can log incidents, send emails, and create other alerts | Triggering flows using MetricBase data | Administrator |