Ever had a problem with an app that runs on your central system (i.e., used to manage problems with all your other IT systems)? If that rings a bell, then you are certainly familiar with the ServiceNow syslog table.
That scenario didn’t resonate with you? Well maybe you were in a test cycle with a deadline to ship your awesome new custom app. Or maybe you were evaluating a ServiceNow app from Innovation Lab. Once you knew there was an issue you started trying to provide a fix by first analyzing logs in the ServiceNow syslog table.
In other words, you were doing a great job of reacting to issues and solving them ASAP.
What if you could proactively solve those same issues before there is a noticeable impact? As of the August 2024 ServiceNow store release (i.e., Xanadu family release), you can! We now have a fully supported, out-of-the-box solution that will identify application issues on your behalf, create a generative AI (GenAI) prompt for you and with one simple click provide GenAI-powered analysis!
How it works! (example use case)
You are implementing AI Search, but the technology is new to you. So far so good! You of course have other projects to attend to.
Since you are the proactive type, you have a habit of going to the AIOps Express List to see if there is any anomalous behavior within platform applications. From the express list view, you can see Health Log Analytics has detected an anomaly associated with AI Search.
However, the actual log entry was very technical and not the easiest to understand. But fear not! You can now leverage GenAI-powered alert analysis.
Using Machine Learning (ML) and GenAI to solve issues with an AI app would have been pure science fiction not that long ago, but it is now today’s reality with ServiceNow!
Getting Started!
Health Log Analytics (HLA) ease of setup:
You need to have HLA1 from the ServiceNow store to take advantage of these latest benefits. Specifically, for ServiceNow syslog monitoring you do NOT need to install or leverage the MID Server. This is a key timesaver that decreases MTTR!
While we’re on the topic of timesaving, HLA offers a compressed list of alerts reducing what you sort through by up-to 90% or more! This is enabled by its automated detection based on ML (i.e., dynamic threshold and anomaly detection).
Figure 1: Express List compressed alert view and Now Assist Alert Analysis
Figure 2: View of an alert showing its description along with any noted anomalies
And with Now Assist Alert Analysis, you have an option to dive more deeply into an alert leveraging GenAI! Not only will it show a summary of the alert (so you don’t have to be an expert in reading log-language!), but it will also provide an analysis of the alert which includes a probable root cause. Just think of how quickly you can move from viewing a list of alerts to focusing right in on its cause! Game, set, match!
Benefits of Now Assist Alert Analysis:
- Pinpoints problem source within technical alerts
- Shifts admin effort from problem analysis to resolution actions
- Eliminates unnecessary collaboration moments
- Provides summary of discovered problem along with root cause analysis
Quick time-to-value:
Once it’s setup, you can leverage the enhanced Lucene Search capability built into Log Viewer. This provides faster search response times, further optimizing problem identification so you can efficiently switch your attention toward solving them.
Figure 3: View of Lucene Search capabilities in HLA Log Viewer
Benefits of the HLA Search:
- Utilizes Apache Lucene for blazing-fast advanced search
- Saves your queries for repeat use
- Defines alerts from the queries you write – provides a type of Known Error Response
- Note: the log data being searched is in the HLA log database, which is separate from the Relation database used by ServiceNow for record keeping
Recap of HLA benefits with ServiceNow Syslog:
- Ease of installation not requiring MID Server
- Compress log alerts by up to 90% or more
- Analyze alerts with GenAI for summary and probable cause
- Enjoy blazing-fast Lucene Search of log alerts
View additional resources to learn more!
- Documentation (Explore, Set up, Administer): ITOM Health Log Analytics
- Frequently Asked Questions: HLA FAQ
- Quick Start Guide: HLA Quick Start Guide
- Demo: ServiceNow AIOps - August 2024 Release
Footnotes:
- Part of AIOps Enterprise license for the Xanadu or Washington DC Patch 4 releases
