Tag-Based Service Maps linking Business Service Offerings as Impacted Services

[Scott Barber]

Problem: Tag Based Map with a Change record on a Server is not identifying Business Service Offerings as an "Impacted Service".

We are running Zurich and have beat our heads against the wall to determine if this is possible or we have some type of configuration issue.

Server -> Service Instance -> DISCONNECT -> Business Service Offering -> Business Service.

If we create a Change Request against the Service Instance, no problem.  the Business Service Offering is listed on the Impacted Services panel.
If we create a Change Request against a tagged server that is part of the Service Instance the Business Service Offering is NOT listed on the Impacted Services panel.

What are we missing?  Is this possible out of the box?  We've tried a multitude of system properties, traversal rules, etc.  No luck.  If we create a top down service map, the above scenario appears to work no problem.  

Are we expecting something out of Tag-Based Maps that doesn't exist?
What troubleshooting steps or incremental scripts do you suggest to fine the missing link????

Thanks
Scott

[Mathew Hillyard]

Hi @Scott Barber 

Impacted Services are derived from records in the Service Configuration Item Association [svc_ci_assoc] table. Think of this table as a CMDB table-flattening table that gives a list of records relating a Service Instance to its connected CIs. All population methods for Service Instance put records into this table.

Can you see entries in this table for your chosen Service Instance (where the CI ID is not the Service Instance)? If so, the Impacted Services related list on a Change Request should contain your Service Instance when you enter one of its connected CIs. If you cannot see any records in Service Config item Association for the Service Instance other than the single record that has the Service Instance for both Service ID and CI ID, this suggests an issue with the tag based service's configuration.

If you can see an Impacted Service for the Service Instance, the next step is to ensure that the Change property to populate Impacted Service offerings is selected (it's under the Change Properties module).

If that is activated, I'm guessing you aren't populating the Service field on the Change form with a Business or Technology Management Service because if you were, then OOTB it populates the Service Offerings related list with all Service Offerings that have that Business/Technology Management Service as a Parent. This does not align with CSDM and makes no sense whatsoever, but it is the current state of play in the platform.

I would strongly recommend using the Service, Service Offering and Configuration Item fields on Incident, Change and Problem and to make life easier for users make the Service Offering mandatory, auto-populate the Service (it's the Service Offering's Parent reference) and auto-filter the Configuration Item field to only show CIs that are related to that Service Offering via its linked Service Instance(s) - and vice versa if you choose to enter the Configuration Item first.

Unfortunately, to align with CSDM you need to customise the population of the Service Offerings related list, which is done by the TaskOffering Script Include. This article tells you how to: https://www.servicenow.com/community/common-service-data-model/refresh-impacted-services-improved-ou...

...and while you are there, it's not a bad idea to re-label the Service Offerings related list to "Impacted Service Offerings" so it matches Impacted Services and Impacted Business Applications.

I hope this helps!

Mat