--- sourceDocument: Yokohama Impact sourceDocumentLink: https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/r/yokohama/impact Release : - yokohama ft:locale : - en-US ft:publication_title : - Yokohama Impact ft:clusterId : - ipact bundleId : - ipact --- # Impact Instance Observer # Impact Instance Observer {#ariaid-title1} * Release version: Yokohama * * Updated January 30, 2025 * * ![](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ico-clock) 3 minutes to read Summarize ![AI sparkle icon](https://servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ai-sparkle-icon) 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 Impact Instance Observer Impact Instance Observer (IO) is a cloud-based observability and performance monitoring tool designed to help ServiceNow customers monitor their instance health and performance in near real-time, with access to historical data. It is aimed at Instance administrators, Platform Owners, and DevOps teams to increase visibility, accelerate troubleshooting, and improve overall instance uptime and reliability. IO enables proactive management across multiple instances, helping organizations prevent end-user impact and drive faster, more confident innovation. Show full answer Show less ## Key Features * **24/7 Monitoring and Alerting:** Continuous instance performance monitoring with customizable alerts to notify teams before issues become critical. * **Multi-instance Visualization:** View performance telemetry across multiple instances to identify trends and potential issues proactively. * **Triage and Troubleshooting:** Access actionable point-in-time instance metadata that accelerates root cause analysis and issue resolution. * **Off-Instance Access:** IO is an off-instance, cloud-based application allowing access to performance data independently of instance availability. * **Reporting and Analytics:** Generate performance reports for stakeholders, compare metrics over time, and assess the impact of changes to optimize instance performance. * **User-configurable Dashboard:** Provides a snapshot of overall instance health and detailed drill-downs with recommended troubleshooting steps. ## Key Benefits * **Improved Instance Performance:** Real-time monitoring helps quickly detect and resolve performance issues before they affect end users. * **Increased Uptime:** Proactive alerts enable early intervention to avoid downtime. * **Enhanced Troubleshooting Efficiency:** Access to detailed metadata reduces time to identify and resolve issues. * **Reduced Operational Distractions:** Near real-time data availability allows teams to focus on driving business outcomes rather than searching for information. * **Multi-instance Management:** Visibility across multiple instances from a single interface supports better operational oversight. ## Feature Availability and Support IO features vary depending on the Impact package subscribed to: * **Guided Package:** Includes instance availability status, performance visualization, alerts (six predefined), and basic reporting with 45 days data retention. * **Advanced Package:** Adds full reporting capabilities and extended data retention (6 months). * **Total Package:** Offers full analytics, anomaly detection, comprehensive reporting, and 6 months data retention. Note that Instance Observer is accessible via web browsers but is not available on the ServiceNow mobile app. It supports customers in Commercial and Government Community Cloud (GCC) environments, but is not available in other regulated or on-premise environments. Instance Observer (IO) is an observability and performance monitoring tool that empowers you to track your instance health and performance in near real-time, while also providing historical insights. IO helps Instance administrators, Platform Owners, and DevOps teams accelerate value and drive their desired business outcomes by increasing visibility into instance performance, helping customers push innovation with speed and confidence. ## Features and Benefits {#io-overview__section_ps1_jlg_s5b} Key features : * 24/7 Monitoring: Instance performance monitoring provides awareness of issues within an instance before end users  are impacted. * 24/7 Alerting: Set up custom alerts to notify you when specific thresholds are crossed, so you can act before an issue becomes critical. * Multi-instance Availability: Proactively visualize performance  telemetry across instances. Empowering  organizations to identify trends before  end users are impacted. * Triage: Actionable point-in-time  instance metadata providing additional  context to instance performance and accelerating troubleshooting. * Off Instance Application: Access to instance performance  telemetry off instance. When an  issue does arise, organizations can  access actionable data independent of  instance availability. * Reporting: Visualize instance performance  telemetry over time and quickly generate reports to share with your business stakeholders, enabling organizations to manage instance performance faster, smarter, and better. * Analytics: Compare metrics over time to see how performance is trending in general or to assess the before and after impacts of certain changes. {#io-overview__ul_ibj_5rl_fwb} Key Benefits : * 24/7 availability: Instance Observer is an off-instance, cloud-based application enabling customers to visualize instance telemetry across instances in a single application. * Improve Instance performance: By monitoring instance performance metrics in real time, you can quickly identify and resolve issues that might be causing poor performance impacting end users. * Increase uptime: Proactive monitoring through Instance Observer alerting you can be notified of potential issues before they cause downtime, enabling you to act before it affects your users. * Improve troubleshooting: When issues do arise, have actionable point-in-time metadata accelerating root cause analysis and time to relief. * Remove distractions: With near real-time data at your fingertips, you and your team can spend less time trying to find the information you need and more time driving your desired business outcomes {#io-overview__ul_fhq_vsl_fwb} Note: Instance Observer is not available with ServiceNow® mobile, however, may be accessed with a browser on your mobile device. ## Instance Observer features {#io-overview__section_u1t_xhr_p5b} {#io-overview__table_rx1_t3r_p5b__entry__2} | Feature | Description | |-|-| | [Instance Observer user configurable dashboard](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/afqxEgMJDksT7KlO68E64w "Users can create their own dashboard according to their preferences of metrics that help users to analyze the health of their system in a snapshot.") | Provides a snapshot of the overall health of your instance. | | [Performance](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/fS9FzP~HM1nKV_O3JC_uWg "Monitor all your instances 24x7 in one place with near real-time metrics and alerts on performance and availability in Instance Observer. Generate various charts of overview Instance Health and Performance Metrics and drill down into specific data points with recommended troubleshooting.​") | Overviews Instance Health and Performance Metrics, and enables drill down into specific datasets with recommended troubleshooting. | | [Availability](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/Vif8jJCUxuiavD2rz12htQ "The Availability section shows instance level availability on a geographic map and instance level ServiceNow generated alerts (limited alert types) since the past 7 days.") | View live Instance Availability status tied to ServiceNow  monitoring--- Up/Down Status | | [Key alerts -- activation and notifications](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/mmqIEh3hLtOpCxnJci5lJQ "Use the Instance Observer Key Alerts Activation functionality for flexibility to set alerts with historical thresholds from four week increments specific to your business needs and configure who on your team receives notifications.") | Flexibility to set alerts with thresholds specific to your business needs, and configure who on your team receives notifications and the method. | | [Analytics](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/u25WN3gqRkv0ImRZUL7xsQ "View comparisons for performance of key metrics over time with the Impact Total package.") | View comparisons for performance of key metrics over time. | | [Triaged instance data](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/naeFiCSlOnkPRnslQ0cTPg "You can triage your instance to get instant information on transactions, jobs, nodes utilization, semaphores, schedulers and update sets. Minimal use of this feature is recommended as use of this consumes resources on your instance.") | Point-in-time instance snapshot providing metadata to troubleshoot live issues | | [Reports](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/2rRQL2kmAKZqU2oFotuOOg "Quickly generate reports to download and share with your business stakeholders, making  organizations faster, smarter, and better in their  instance performance management.") | Quickly generate reports to download and share with your team business stakeholders.​ | | [Help](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/L2VGcML5XZFMlVdgrTxceA "Access release notes, how to videos, and more from the Instance Observer Help Center page.") | Get assistance with Instance Observer tools, terminology review, how-to videos, and relevant documents. | [Table 1. Feature and description] {#io-overview__table_rx1_t3r_p5b} ## Support matrix according to Impact package {#io-overview__section_izs_5yx_hxb} Some Instance Observer reporting features vary between the Impact packages that you're subscribed to. Reference the support matrix chart or contact your account team for more information. * ✓ = Supported * X = Not supported {#io-overview__ul_vst_nqf_3xb} {#io-overview__table_qf3_yby_hxb__entry__4} | Feature | Guided | Advanced | Total | |-|:-:|:-:|:-:| | Instance availability (Up/Down status) See [Availability](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/Vif8jJCUxuiavD2rz12htQ "The Availability section shows instance level availability on a geographic map and instance level ServiceNow generated alerts (limited alert types) since the past 7 days.") for details. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | Performance Visualization Charts (KPIs) See [Performance](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/fS9FzP~HM1nKV_O3JC_uWg "Monitor all your instances 24x7 in one place with near real-time metrics and alerts on performance and availability in Instance Observer. Generate various charts of overview Instance Health and Performance Metrics and drill down into specific data points with recommended troubleshooting.​") for more details. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | Reporting See [Reports](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/2rRQL2kmAKZqU2oFotuOOg "Quickly generate reports to download and share with your business stakeholders, making  organizations faster, smarter, and better in their  instance performance management.") for details. | Selective | Full | Full | | Alerts See [Alerts in Instance Observer](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/zR7OjTjC_SijbLWoaKIX3A "ServiceNow Instance Observer provides a comprehensive set of alerts designed to monitor platform health, performance, and user experience. These alerts are categorized for easy consumption and actionability.") for details. | ✓ Note: Six alerts are available. For more information, see [Track instance performance with the top six timely alerts -- Guided users](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/dRXXezsOCmHWgnfUIkamgA "Use the Instance Observer alerting feature to receive notifications on the performance of your instance. Monitor the alerts that are system driven."). | ✓ | ✓ | | Analytics See [Analytics](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/u25WN3gqRkv0ImRZUL7xsQ "View comparisons for performance of key metrics over time with the Impact Total package.") for details. | X | X | ✓ | | Anomalies Detection | X | X | ✓ | | Data retention | 45 days | 6 months | 6 months | [Table 2. Feature and supported Impact package] {#io-overview__table_qf3_yby_hxb} Note: For more information on subscription support, see [Impact packages](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/DI3mQ~qw~P138kbOjkK3mg "ServiceNow Impact packages comprise support tools, self-help resources, human-led engagements, and credits, discounts, and additional benefits made available to you depending on the level of Impact package procured."). ## Serviceability limitations {#io-overview__section_n4j_4sl_fwb} Note: Instance Observer is available for customers in Commercial and Government Community Cloud (GCC) environments. IO is not currently available in other regulated or on-premise environments.