Service Graph Connector Central (SGCC): Best Practices and FAQs

Anvesh Manthri · ‎05-31-2025

Introduction

SGC Central is a modern, unified console for managing Service Graph Connectors. It is designed to streamline the full life cycle of Service Graph Connectors. This includes managing them from installing to configuring, operating, and debugging, aiming for minimum effort.

With SGC Central, users can seamlessly configure their Service Graph connectors using an intuitive, single-interface experience. The primary purpose of this configuration is to populate technology data into the ServiceNow CMDB. Additionally, the application helps ensure complete visibility into the health and status of connected data sources, which aids in quick issue resolution and improved data accuracy.

Below are some guidelines and best practices which can help users get the most value out of SGC Central.
1. Use the SGC Central playbook for connector setup

To avoid configurations issues always follow the connector-specific playbook provided by SGC Central.

Use the "Create Connection" button from Dashboard or All connections page, select your desired connector, to launch the associated playbook. If a playbook experience is not supported for a particular connector, you would follow the guided setup instructions instead.

2. Use connections overview cards to stay ahead of failures

Within the Connections overview section on the SGC Central Overview page, you can leverage the three cards as follows:

Look at the Connection status card and the table below for an immediate health check of the fundamental connection state, showing the percentage of connections successfully tested and highlighting any connections currently in an Error or Unknown status, which points to issues like incorrect credentials or network problems at the source level.

Processing Status card and table provides you with the success or failure results of the latest data import runs, indicating if the data pipeline itself is encountering errors during processing, with details on the number of successful versus error runs and an error summary.

Ongoing Execution card and table gives you real-time visibility into active import jobs, showing which connections are currently running and helping to detect potential performance issues or hung processes if a scheduled job is taking longer than expected.

3. View and remediate errors and using Now Assist
To identify if a connection has errors in the SGC Central Overview page, start by reviewing the "Connections Overview" cards, which display the success/error status and details for each connection. A connection marked with "Error" indicates setup or configuration issues, while a processing error suggests problems during data import. Additional sections, like "Processing Errors" help pinpoint top failing connections and error trends.
For deeper investigation, The Errors tab in Connection details page contains the errors associated with the connection. You can select this tab to see these errors. If the Service Graph Connector diagnosis skill is enabled and an error count is displayed, you can select a specific error from the list and click the "Diagnose error" button. This launches Now Assist, which analyzes the error and presents an Explanation along with a Recommendation to resolve it—sourced from relevant knowledge articles.

4. Leverage dashboard metrics to monitor data quality and performance
"Ingested and Processed Data" and "Data Processing Performance" sections are essential for maintaining visibility into integration health and ensuring high-quality data flows into the CMDB. As a best practice, regularly reviewing these charts can help teams stay proactive in identifying issues before they escalate. By tracking the number of import sets (categorized by status), total imported rows, and Configuration Items (CIs) added or updated, users can validate the scale and success of data ingestion. Additionally, monitoring partial or incomplete CIs helps uncover data quality concerns early, such as payload gaps or mapping issues that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Equally important is analyzing data processing performance to understand the behavior and reliability of your integrations over time. Trends in added/updated CIs and error rates provide historical context to spot patterns or anomalies, while identifying the top connections by processing time and error count helps prioritize optimization efforts.
To get the most value, use the built-in dashboard filters (Connector Type, Connection, Data Source, and Date Range) to narrow down and troubleshoot specific scenarios. Following this practice ensures better operational visibility, faster issue resolution, and ultimately a more accurate and reliable CMDB.

5. Discover and update connectors regularly
Leverage SGC Central to discover new Service Graph Connectors available through your entitlements and to identify updates for installed connectors. Regularly updating connectors is critical because external systems frequently change, and keeping connectors current ensures accurate and effective data mapping. Additionally, the latest connector versions often include important performance improvements and issue fixes that enhance integration stability and CMDB data quality. Proactively managing connector updates helps maintain seamless third-party data ingestion and prevents disruptions in your service infrastructure visibility.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

As more customers adopt Service Graph Connector Central (SGC Central), a few recurring questions and edge cases come up. Below is a curated list of frequently asked questions, based on real customer conversations—along with clear, actionable answers.

1. The SGC Central tab isn’t appearing in the CMDB workspace. Why?

Access to the SGC Central tab is role-based. To view the tab, the logged-in user must have either the cmdb_inst_admin or admin role assigned. Additionally, clear the browser cache and try accessing the view again. Make sure you are on the latest version of CMDB Workspace.

2. Why doesn’t my connector show up in SGC Central?

For a connector to appear in SGC Central, it must be CCF compliant. If the connector isn’t built on the Common Connector Framework (CCF), it will not be discovered by SGC Central.

To verify CCF compliance:

Refer to the connector’s product documentation for compatibility details.

Check the sn_cmdb_int_util_service_graph_connector_metadata table. If the connector is not listed there, it is likely not registered correctly or not CCF compliant.

In addition, ensure:

You are using the latest version of both SGC Central and the connector.

No errors are present in system logs related to plugin registration or from SGC Central.

3. If I set up a connector before installing SGC Central, will it appear in the dashboard?

Yes, provided the connector is SGC Central compliant. Connectors will show up in the dashboard even if installed prior to SGC Central.

To verify the connector's presence within SGC Central after installing SGC Central, you can check the "All connections" tab, which displays both installed and draft connections. So, the connector and its configuration should be visible there.

4. Can I resume a half-completed setup for a connector?

Yes. Once a connector progresses past the "Create Connection" step in the playbook, SGC Central retains the configuration state. Draft connections can be found in “All connections” page and selecting the Drafts tab. From there, you can select "Configure" or "Resume setup" to finish creating the connection.

Best Practice:
Avoid mixing the Guided Setup and Playbook during connector onboarding, as this may cause discrepancies in the playbook’s progression.

5. Why is data not showing up in the SGCC dashboard after installation?

There are several factors that may delay or prevent data from appearing on the dashboard:

Connector scheduled jobs may not have run.

The initial data load might have failed or returned no results.

Data could be hidden due to filters.

To resolve:

Manually trigger the connector job to verify data flow.

Use the Processing status card and Executions context to check job status.

Ensure at least one connection is successfully set up and executed.

The data displayed on the dashboard is collected by scheduled jobs, such as "SGC central collection" and "SGC central collection onDemand with lookback", which read from the imports brought in by connectors. The historical lookback job, by default, collects data for the past 30 days. Therefore recent historical data from your pre-existing connector would be displayed after SGC Central installation and job execution. Note that configuring scheduled jobs for data collection is a key step after installing SGC Central to ensure data appears on the dashboard.

6. Can SGC Central monitor connectors in multiple environments or instances?
SGC Central supports multiple environments. However, not all connectors are multi-instance compatible. For connectors that support only a single instance, the “Create Connection” modal will show a banner indicating the single-instance limitation. Always consult the connector documentation to verify multi-instance support.

7. What’s the difference between System Properties and Connection Properties in a connector

In SGCC Central, connectors can have two types of configurable properties—System Properties and Connection Properties, each serving a different purpose:

System Properties are instance-level configurations. These affect the behavior of the connector across all connections that use them. Because of their broader impact, they are typically set once and reused. These properties are shipped as part of the connector and can be accessed from the "Settings" option in the left navigation pane of SGCC Central.

Connection Properties are connection-specific configurations. These settings apply only to an individual connection and are stored in the sn_cmdb_int_util_service_graph_connection_property table. You can define or modify connection properties during the "Set configuration properties" step in connector onboarding process or in the “Connection properties” tab in connection record view.