Set default Homepage refresh

chadlockwood · ‎04-08-2014

Is it possible to set the homepage refresh default to 5 mins for ITIL users only? Ours currently defaults to Off for all new users. Changes in the setting are captured in the home_refresh preference in sys_user_preference.

Regards,

Chad

adamjgreenberg · ‎04-16-2014

Hi Chad,

Currently there is no way to set a home refresh for specific groups of users as the user preferences are user specific. (NOTE: Bharath's above suggestion does work and is set for ALL users if that is acceptable for you)

Setting home refresh can be impactful as it has the potential to expose an internal security risk in that if the user leaves their browser open on the home page, the system will never log the user out automatically.

The home_refresh value (while on the home page) bypasses the default tomcat timeout of 30 minutes or the glide.ui_session_timeout property by keeping the session active. This is documented in our wiki - https://wiki.servicenow.com/index.php?title=Modifying_Session_Timeout

There has been a new property added (as of Dublin and later) to force a session timeout even with the home_refresh value set. (Read section 3: Notes and Limitations in the above wiki).

The performance team recommends to avoid the use of the home_refresh value unless absolutely necessary and only for specific users. The home_refresh alone does not cause any noticeable overhead to the system. However, if this is implemented and the user has a poorly formatted homepage, (read - long running due to excessive gauges, reports, etc) the home_refresh will negatively impact the entire system by attempting to reload the home page at set intervals.

For instance, the home_refresh is set to 300 seconds and the homepage in question takes 40-60 seconds on average to load (a poor homepage). This is not a big deal if you have one user since this is really only about 1/5 to 1/6 of the time before the refresh runs again. However, add this homepage to 10 users and vary the times at which the homepage loads, the potential to impact the system increases exponentially as the number of users increases.

This is further documented in - https://wiki.servicenow.com/index.php?title=Customizing_Homepages

Warning: Because homepages are dynamically generated on each view, loading the homepage with too many gauges may cause performance issues throughout the instance.

Last thought - You may have users (NOC/SRE, NetEng, SysEng, etc) that have a genuine need to refresh a specific homepage on a regular interval to monitor the instance. Here is a TIP on how to run any homepage outside of the frame. This eliminates the need to load the header and sidebar which reduces the load on the instance.

1. Find homepage required to refresh often and capture sys_id

Navigate to {instance_name}.service-now.com/sys_portal_page_list.do
Find the homepage required for refresh (i.e. system diagnostics) right click the name and select "Copy sys_id"
Place the sys_id in step 2 below

[optional if you cannot get to the portal page] - Go to the homepage and right click on the drop down menu "Switch to page" and select "inspect element". Expand out the page_selector and locate the sys_id of the page needed.

EXAMPLE - <option value="776fca35210154405c9a14efc29c0aa5">Change Advisory Board Dashboard</option>

2. {instance_name}.service-now.com/home.do?sysparm_userpref_homepage={home_page_sys_id}

EXAMPLE - https://yourinstancenamehere.service-now.com/home.do?sysparm_userpref_homepage=776fca35210154405c9a1...

** Using Chrome: Install the extension "Easy Auto Refresh" to your chrome browser and set the time in seconds to automatically refresh the page.

Best Regards,

-Adam

View solution in original post

Slava Savitsky · ‎04-16-2014

Although it may not be a very good idea to enforce homepage refresh for all ITIL users, there is a way to do it: You could create a business rule that would react to assignment/revoking of ITIL role to/from users and would set/delete the preference as necessary. Mind the risks explained by Adam, though.

Blog: https://sys.properties | Telegram: https://t.me/sys_properties | LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slava-savitsky/

chadlockwood · ‎04-16-2014

It never ceases to amaze me the configurabilty of ServiceNow. However, in the case I am inclined to err on the side of security. I appreciate that it can be done, but the benefit does not outweigh security concerns. Not to mention the fact that once the setting is changed by the user, it stays.

Thanks to Adam and everyone that commented.