Unified Map

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated April 4, 2025
  • 4 minutes to read
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    Summary of Unified Map

    Unified Map is a feature included in the CMDB Workspace that provides a graphical hierarchical map of Configuration Items (CIs) and their connections within the CMDB. It integrates capabilities from Dependency Views and Service Mapping into one unified experience, helping users visualize the relationships and impacts between CIs. This is especially valuable for products like Change Management, Incident Management, and Event Management, enabling better impact assessment and service instance composition analysis.

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    Key Features

    • Graphical Map Display: Nodes represent CIs and lines represent their relationships, showing dependencies and references with visual indicators such as solid or dashed lines and arrowheads.
    • Content Controls: Users can search and select home nodes, specify relationship levels, apply filters to limit CI and relationship types, toggle timelines of related events, and access a map editor for updating the CMDB.
    • Toolbox: Controls for zoom, layout, and exporting the map as a PDF for documentation or sharing purposes.
    • Contextual Side Panel: Multiple panels provide detailed information including overview summaries of all related CIs, attribute details, associated service instances, related incidents or changes, and a historical changes timeline.
    • Mini-map Navigator: Facilitates navigation across large maps by enabling zoom and view adjustments.
    • Timeline: Visualizes related items such as incidents, problems, and changes over time for the selected CI, aiding in understanding change history and topology effects.

    Access and Configuration

    To enable Unified Map, the system property snsmscopedapp.sa.unifiedmap.enabled must be set. Users can access Unified Map via the CMDB Workspace Quick Links or directly from a CI form in an operational state. Administrators can configure which operational states qualify for map access.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Enhanced visibility into CI relationships and service compositions to better understand dependencies.
    • Ability to assess impact of changes accurately by visualizing connected CIs and their historical changes.
    • Streamlined incident and event management by correlating issues with affected CIs using the timeline and related items panels.
    • Improved CMDB management by editing relationships directly from the map interface.
    • Exportable map views for reporting or stakeholder communication.

    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
    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
    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.