Service Observability release notes
Summarize
Summary of Service Observability release notes
The ServiceNow® Service Observability application, introduced in the Yokohama release, enables operations teams to efficiently triage and manage incidents in complex, distributed production environments. It consolidates telemetry and platform insights from multiple observability tools into a unified workflow within the Service Operations Workspace (SOW), enhancing agility and reliability through centralized critical signals.
Show less
Service Observability helps reduce mean time to resolution (MTTR) by calculating the blast radius, showing the impact of changes on applications and their underlying infrastructure.
Key Features
- Data Mapping and Integration: Map CMDB Workspace services to application performance monitoring (APM) data from supported tools including Dynatrace, New Relic, and starting version 1.7.3, Datadog. This allows visibility into metrics from deep system components such as databases and hosts that affect service health. Business Services and Service Offerings can also be mapped to APM data (except in the Xanadu version).
- Service Health Visualization: The Overview tab provides RED (rate, error, duration) metrics along with related open alerts, incidents, and change requests from the CMDB to help identify root causes and assess blast radius.
- Extended Metrics: The Observability tab displays detailed health metrics and host/database metrics based on configured mappings when issues arise.
- Customizable Dashboards: Starting from version 1.6.4, dashboard templates in the Overview and Observability tabs can be customized to suit operational needs.
- Domain Separation: Version 1.6.4 introduced the ability to run Service Observability in separate domains for organizational segmentation.
- User Interface Enhancements: New Overview and Observability tabs in the SOW Service Details page provide integrated views of reliability metrics from Service Reliability Management (SRM) and connected APM vendor data.
- Admin Center Support: Administrators with the Service Observability admin role can activate services and connect/map APM data sources directly from the Admin Center without needing higher-level admin involvement. Since version 1.6.4, service activation is streamlined where any supported CMDB service type can be used.
Activation and Requirements
Service Observability is available for installation via the ServiceNow Store. For optimal functionality, an APM instance should be installed and configured with an API Key Credential on the ServiceNow platform. Supported APM tools include Datadog, Dynatrace, and New Relic.
Related Applications
- Service Operations Workspace for ITOM: Service Observability can be accessed through the Service Details page in the SOW.
- Service Reliability Management (SRM): Provides reliability metrics integrated with Service Observability views, offering a holistic perspective on service health. From version 1.6.4, services do not need to be separately registered with SRM for use in Service Observability.
The ServiceNow® Service Observability application helps operations teams triage and manage incidents in a complex and distributed production system. Service Observability combines telemetry and platform insights from multiple observability tools into a single workflow in the Service Operations Workspace (SOW). Service Observability is a new application in the Yokohama release.
Service Observability highlights for the Yokohama release
- Connect operators with subject matter experts (SMEs) using critical signals from existing monitoring tools and the ServiceNow platform.
- Centralize critical signals and bridge workflows to help increase agility and reliability.
- Calculate the blast radius and help reduce mean time to resolution (MTTR) by viewing changes to your application and the underlying infrastructure.
See Service Observability for more information.
Service Observability features
- Create and manage data mappings
- Map services in the CMDB Workspace to the data from a connected application performance monitoring (APM) data source. Service Observability supports Dynatrace and New Relic. This mapping lets you view metrics from entities deep within your system, like a database or host, that might be affecting the health of a service.
- View overall service health
- Use the Overview tab to view rate, error, and duration (RED) metrics from the APM related to a service. You can also view related open alerts, incidents, and change requests from the Configuration Management Database (CMDB) to help identify possible causes and blast radius.
- View service health metrics
- View the extended health metrics for a service on the new Observability tab when issues are found on the Overview tab. In addition to the extended health metrics, you can view host and database metrics related to the service based on the configured data mappings.
- Customize dashboard templates
- Starting in version 1.6.4, customize the templates used to display dashboards in the Overview and Observability tabs.
- Domain separation
- Starting in version 1.6.4, Service Observability can be run in separate domains.
UI changes
- New Overview tab in the SOW
- After services are activated for the Overview tab in Service Observability, the Service Details page in SOW now shows reliability metrics from Service Reliability Management (SRM) as well as metrics from Service Observability.
- New Observability tab in the SOW
- The Observability tab on the Service Details page in SOW shows related metrics from connected APM vendors.
- Admin Center support for activating services and data sources
- You can activate services to use in Service Observability and then connect and map APM data sources to those services.
Starting in version 1.6.4, you no longer need to activate services. Any of the supported service types in the CMDB can be used
Starting in version 1.6.4, the Service Observability admin role can configure Service Observability in the Admin Center without involving an administrator.
Activation information
Install Service Observability by requesting it from the ServiceNow Store. Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.
Additional requirements
For the best experience, an APM instance should be installed and an API Key Credential for that instance should be configured on the ServiceNow® platform. Service Observability supports Datadog, Dynatrace, or New Relic.