SLA is not getting paused though it mets the pause condition

[mohanasaim41752]

Hello Community,

Greetings of the day. i hope you are doing good.

I observed strange behavior of SLA in production instance.

Issue : 

We have implemented SLA definition and given pause condition as state resolved now what we observed intermittently in some cases though incident state resolved but still TASK SLA status is not moving to paused and it's in in progress keeps on running and finally it's getting breached.

I have tried to replicate this in lower instances but it's working as expected even in production also 98% it is working as expected once in a while we are observing this behavior.

I did not observe any similarities or difference with the incidents where this issue is happening hence I am seeking for your assistance if some one come across this situation.

Kind regards

Mohan Krishna.

[Tanushree Maiti]

Hi @mohanasaim41752 

1. Ensure you have defined your STOP condition.

 In generic scenario When ticket Resolved , we mention it in SLA's stop condition.

Stop condition will evaluate first than Pause.  So try this approch.

Refer: KB0547356 Understanding SLA Conditions 

2.  Are you using incident state in your condition. In that case , recommendation is to use State field instead of incident state.

 Review your SLA Definition. Ensure your conditions rely on the global State field and that the condition is set to State is Resolved rather than is one of  operator.

3. Check if any customization on your task/incident table causing the issue.

Refer: KB0745555 TASK_SLA is not pausing when it meets the pause condition on the SLA definition. It pauses... 

4. SLA Stuck in 'Paused' Stage 

[vaishali231]

Hey @mohanasaim41752 

Since the issue is occurring only intermittently in Production and the SLA definition works correctly in most cases, this appears to be more related to SLA engine processing/timing rather than the pause condition configuration itself.

A few areas I would recommend checking:

Async SLA Processing
The SLA engine processes updates asynchronously. In high-load Production environments, sometimes SLA recalculation can be delayed or missed temporarily due to:

                      Event queue backlog

                Scheduler delays

               Heavy transactions

               performance issues

Please check:

System Logs > Events

Scheduled Jobs related to SLA

SLA repair queue

Node/scheduler health

Concurrent Record Updates
Sometimes the Incident is moved to Resolved, but another Business Rule, Flow, Integration, or Script updates the same record immediately afterward. This can occasionally cause the SLA engine to evaluate an intermediate state instead of the final state.

Please verify whether there are:

Async Business Rules

Flow Designer updates

Integration/API updates

Workflows updating the incident after resolve

Validate Pause Condition
Ensure the pause condition uses the actual state value rather than display text.

Example:

state = Resolved (actual backend value)

instead of scripted/display-value comparisons.

Check Customizations on task_sla
Review any custom Business Rules or scripts on:

task_sla

task

incident

especially scripts using:

current.update()

SLARepair

taskSLAController

as these can sometimes interfere with SLA processing.

Test Using SLA Repair
For an affected record, try running:

  Repair SLA
  or

 Repair Task SLA

If the SLA immediately moves to Paused afterward, it usually indicates the SLA engine missed the evaluation during processing.

Compare Production vs Lower Instances
Since lower environments are working consistently, it would also help to compare:

SLA-related system properties

Customizations

Active Business Rules

Node configuration/load

especially:

com.snc.sla.engine.async

Most likely this is an intermittent SLA engine timing/race-condition scenario caused by concurrent updates or Production load rather than an issue with the SLA definition itself.

*********************************************************

If this response helps, please mark it as Accept as Solution and Helpful.

Doing so helps others in the community and encourages me to keep contributing.

Regards

Vaishali Singh

Servicenow Developer
Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/vaishali-singh-2273361bb

[vaishali231]

hey @mohanasaim41752 

Hope you are doing well.

Did my previous reply answer your question?

If it was helpful, please mark it as correct ✓ and close the thread . This will help other readers find the solution more easily.

Thankyou & Regards

Vaishali Singh

Servicenow Developer
Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/vaishali-singh-2273361bb