Remedial actions using Playbook

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 4 minutes to read
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    Summary of Remedial actions using Playbook

    ServiceNow's Remedial Actions using Playbook feature enables you to resolve Configuration Item (CI)-related issues directly from the Investigate tab in the Service Operations Workspace. This capability leverages playbooks to provide an interactive, step-by-step UI that guides the execution of remedial actions such as ending processes or restarting services on devices and servers.

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    To use these remedial actions, the Investigation Framework and Remedial Actions Framework applications must be installed and properly configured. The remedial actions appear on the Investigate tab only when configured to display in the UI.

    Key Features

    • Interactive Playbook Panel: Accessible from the Incident record’s contextual side panel, it shows Current and History tabs for managing ongoing and past remedial actions respectively.
    • Remedial Actions Types:
      • End Process: Stops a running process on a CI. For devices, user approval is required before execution; for servers, a standard change request must be created.
      • Restart Service: Restarts services running on a CI with similar approval and change request requirements as End Process.
    • Action Management: You can cancel ongoing remedial actions and view cancellation reasons unless certain conditions apply.
    • Scope of Actions: By default, actions apply to the primary or current CI, but you can toggle to show actions on all CIs associated with the incident.
    • Concurrency Controls: Concurrent or duplicate remedial actions on the same CI are blocked by default until the prior action completes. This behavior can be changed via configuration.

    Practical Use for ServiceNow Customers

    This feature streamlines incident investigation and remediation by integrating automated, guided remedial steps within the Incident record, reducing manual effort and errors. It supports governance through required approvals and change requests, especially for servers, aligning remediation with ITIL best practices.

    Customers can expect:

    • Improved efficiency in resolving CI-related issues by executing remedial actions directly within the Incident workspace.
    • Visibility into ongoing and historical remedial actions via the playbook panel.
    • Enhanced control of remediation steps through playbook guidance and concurrency settings.

    Requirements and Next Steps

    • Ensure the Investigation Framework [sninvestfwk] and Remedial Action Framework [com.snc.snreacf] applications are installed and configured.
    • Configure remedial actions to display on the Investigate tab and customize the tab as needed.
    • Familiarize yourself with managing change requests for remedial actions on servers.
    • Refer to configuration guides for setting up playbooks and adjusting concurrency options based on your organizational policies.

    Resolve the CI-related issues using the remedial actions using Playbook in the Investigate tab.

    The Investigate tab includes the following types of remedial action to resolve CI-related issues:
    • End process
    • Restart service
    These remedial actions are available on the Investigate tab only if the following conditions are met:
    Remedial actions use playbooks to resolve CI issues. Playbook provides you with an interactive UI to guide and execute the remedial actions step by step. With a playbook, you can control every execution step of the remediation process. Playbook is available on the contextual side panel of the Incident record page. When any remedial action is performed, that remediation process is added to a playbook. You can then select the playbook (Playbook icon) icon on the contextual side panel to open the playbook on a separate panel and execute the process. The playbook panel displays the following tabs:
    • Current: Displays the current list of playbooks that trigger the remedial action, including both processes and services that have the status New and In Progress.
    • History: Displays the historical list of playbooks, including both processes and services that have the status Completed, Canceled, or Failed.
    You can cancel an ongoing End process or Restart service remedial action playbook. To cancel a remedial action playbook, select the remedial action playbook and select the menu (Menu icon) icon and then select Cancel action option. After the remedial action playbook is canceled, the corresponding action is also canceled. Then, the status of the remedial action is displayed as Canceled in the History tab of the playbook panel. To view the reason for cancellation, select the View reason option on the playbook. This option isn’t available if any of the following are true:
    • The remedial action is already in Canceled status.
    • The corresponding CI action record of the remedial action is already in progress.
    • The change request has already moved to implement state for actions associated to CIs of type server.

    The Remedial actions section on the Investigate tab also contains the Current and History tab to display the list of remedial actions performed. By default, this section displays the list of remedial actions for the primary CI or current CI. You can switch the Show actions performed on all CIs in this incident toggle to display the list of remedial actions for all the CIs associated with the Incident.

    Playbook is available only if both the Remedial Action Framework [com.snc.sn_reacf] application and the Investigation Framework [sn_invest_fwk] application are installed and configured, as well as if the remedial actions are triggered. For more information on Playbook, see Configuring playbooks.

    Note:
    You can't execute concurrent or duplicate remedial actions when a remedial action is in progress on a process or service for a CI type device or server. You also can't execute concurrent or duplicate remedial actions on the same CI until the previous remedial action execution is completed. You can change this behavior and allow concurrent execution of the remedial action by selecting the Allow concurrent execution option for Remedial Action Type. For more information, see Configure the Remedial Actions Framework.

    End process

    The End process remedial action is available with the following metric information cards:
    • Top processes By Memory
    • Top processes By CPU
    Select the CI and then select End process to stop the process running on the CI. The remediation process then is added to the playbook. Select the Playbook (Playbook icon) icon from the contextual side panel to open the playbook on a separate panel and execute the process. You can execute the End process remedial action for the following CI classes:
    • Device: For this CI class, a two-step process is executed where you must get the user approval before the End process remediation process can be executed. After it’s approved, you can directly stop the process on the device, which is also known as the endpoint.
    • Server: For this CI class, you must create a change request before the End process remedial action can be executed using a standard change request. You must also provide additional information to create a change request.

    Restart service

    The Restart service remedial action is available with the Services metric information card.

    Select the CI and then select Restart service to restart the services running on the CI. The remediation process then is added to the playbook. Select the Playbook (Playbook icon) icon on the contextual side panel to open the playbook on a separate panel and execute the process. You can execute the Restart service remedial action for the following CI classes:
    • Device: For this CI class, a two-step process is executed where you must get the user approval before the Restart service remediation process is executed. After it's approved, you can directly restart the services on the device, which is also known as the endpoint.
    • Server: For this CI class, you must create a change request before you can execute the remedial action using a standard change request. You must also provide additional information to create a change request.