What is Instance Observer, and How Do You Get Started with it?

Harsha Neerchal · ‎09-24-2025

What is Instance Observer, and how do you get started?

Get in front of issues before they slow you down

When something goes wrong with software you bought, it’s never a fun day at the office. For most ServiceNow customers those days are rare, but for the days they do happen, we built Instance Observer (IO for short 🙂) to help you get things sorted fast. It’s an observability platform that helps you spot and troubleshoot performance issues on your instances, and it’s included with every paid Impact Success Plan.

The short version

What Instance Observer does

📊	Summarizes your key instance performance metrics in a single dashboard.
🛠	Tells you what to fix on your instance right away.
📱	Alerts you through your preferred channels when something gets out of whack.
🔎	Helps you figure out the root cause of an incident.
📈	Tracks over 15 performance metrics in real time.
📑	Creates customizable instance performance reports for you and your team.

Get started

How to set up Instance Observer

This short video walks you through exactly what to do to set up Instance Observer, so you can proactively get in front of issues on your instances.

All set up? Here’s what’s next.

Once you’ve watched the video and you’re up and running, see how to use Instance Observer to triage and diagnose an incident when one happens.

Go deeper