Unified Map

Release version: Xanadu

Updated April 4, 2025

4 minutes to read

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Summary of Unified Map

The Unified Map feature in ServiceNow provides a graphical, hierarchical visualization of Configuration Items (CIs) and their relationships within the CMDB. It integrates capabilities from Dependency Views and Service Mapping into one comprehensive map experience, helping users understand CI connections and assess impact for various ITSM processes.

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Unified Map is included in the CMDB Workspace and visually represents CIs as nodes and their relationships as connecting lines. This visualization aids products like Change Management, Incident Management, and Event Management by revealing service instance compositions and CI dependencies.

Accessing Unified Map

To enable Unified Map, activate the system property snsmscopedapp.sa.unifiedmap.enabled. Access the map through:

CMDB Workspace’s Quick Links by selecting Unified Map.
The "Open Map" option on a CI form that is in an operational state (with customizable operational statuses).

Map Work Areas and Controls

Unified Map consists of several interactive work areas:

Map: Displays selected CIs and their relationships. Solid lines indicate relationships with arrows showing dependency direction; dashed lines indicate references. Multiple relationships between two CIs are aggregated with badges.
Content Controls: Allow searching for a home node, setting relationship levels, filtering CI and relationship types, toggling related item timelines, and opening the map editor to modify CIs and connections.
Toolbox: Provides controls for zoom, layout mode, and exporting the current map view as a PDF.
Contextual Side Panel: Contains multiple tabs including Overview (summary data of CIs downstream of the home node), Attributes (CI or relationship metadata), Service Instances (details of associated service instances), Related Items (changes, incidents, problems), and Changes (historical operational status or other changes).
Mini-map Navigator: Facilitates zooming and panning to areas of interest on the map.
Timeline: Visualizes related items like incidents, problems, and changes over time for the selected CI, helping track historical changes and their impact on the CMDB topology.

Practical Benefits

By using Unified Map, ServiceNow customers can:

Visually explore CI relationships and dependencies to better understand service impacts and infrastructure topology.
Improve change impact analysis by identifying connected CIs and service instance composition.
Access historical change data and related ITSM records directly from the map interface for informed decision-making.
Customize map views and filters to focus on relevant CIs, relationships, and lifecycle stages aligned with operational needs.
Export visual maps for reporting or documentation purposes.

The Unified Map feature displays a graphical hierarchical map of the CMDB — CIs and the connections between them. Unified Map combines some of the capabilities of Dependency Views and of Service Mapping into a single map experience.

Unified Map

Unified Map is included in CMDB Workspace.

Nodes on the map represent CIs in the CMDB and lines represent connections between CIs. The connections help you, for example, to assess the impact of a change to a selected node by showing CIs that are connected to it through relationships. Products such as Change Management, Incident Management, and Event Management benefit from such information.

The map also shows the composition of service instances — useful with products such as Event Management and Incident Management. For example, you can view all CIs that are members of the 'Revenue App' service instance. You can review historical changes and then, for example, filter the CIs so that only application CIs appear on the map.

Accessing Unified Map

To enable Unified Map, enable the sn_sm_scoped_app.sa.unified_map.enabled system property.

Use either of the following methods to open a map:

Navigate to Workspaces > CMDB Workspace. In the Quick Links section on the CMDB Workspace, select Unified Map.
On a CI form for a CI in an operational state, select Open Map to open a map with the CI as the home node.
Note:
An admin can specify additional operational status values for this option. For more information, see Configure CIs to appear based on life cycle stage value.

Work areas on the map

Elements of the Unified Map.

A: Map

The map displays specified CIs and their connections. In the example, the CRM CI is the home node and the connections represent relationships with other CIs. Select any node to view details like related service instances, change history, and so on. For more information, see Controlling Unified Map contents and appearance.

Two CIs might be connected by one or more relationships (stored in the CI Relationship [cmdb_rel_ci] table). For example, two CIs might be connected by the Runs On::Runs, Depends On::Discovered From, and by the Owned By::Owns relationships.

A solid line indicates a relationship. The arrowhead indicates the dependent node.
A dashed line indicates a reference.
A badge on a line indicates the number of relationships between the CIs.

B: Content controls

Search for and select the home node, specify the number of relationship levels to display for service instances, and reload the map after making changes. For more information, see Controlling Unified Map contents and appearance.
Use filters to limit CI types and relationship types that appear on the map. For more information, see Use filters to specify which nodes should appear on a map.
Show or hide the timeline of related items (typically events) for the selected CI. For more information, see Viewing related items on the Unified Map timeline.
Open the map editor () to add or remove CIs and to update relationships in the CMDB. For more information, see Editing maps in Unified Map

C: Toolbox

Use the toolbox to control visual aspects of the map, such as zoom level or layout mode. For more information, see Controlling Unified Map contents and appearance.
In the toolbox, select the Export map icon to save the current appearance of the map as a PDF document on your local drive.

D: Contextual side panel

The Overview panel () displays summary data for all CIs that are associated with and downstream of the home node — counts and types of CIs and connections, discovery sources, and so on. For more information, see View a summary of map contents on the Overview panel.
The Attributes panel () lists attributes like location and operational status for the selected CI or relationship. For more information, see View the attributes of a CI or a relationship.
The Service instances panel () lists details of service instances associated with the selected CI. For more information, see View service instances for a CI.
The Related items panel () shows related items such as changes, active incidents, or active problems for the selected CI. For more information, see View related items for a CI.
The Changes panel () lists changes such as changes to operational status for the selected CI. For more information, see View historical changes for a CI.

Changes are also indicated on the timeline. For more information, see Viewing related items on the Unified Map timeline.

E: Mini-map navigator

Use the navigator to set the zoom level or move the view to an area of interest. Select the icon to show or hide the navigator. For more information, see Controlling Unified Map contents and appearance.

F: Timeline

The timeline indicates related items like incidents, problems, and changes over a specified period of time for the selected CI. You can use the timeline to visualize the history of changes to a CI and how they affect the topology of the CMDB. For more information, see Viewing related items on the Unified Map timeline.