Best Practices

[RacheleTashjian]

I'm curious to know how you all manage and maintain your instances?  Can someone share a best practices with me, i'm really new to the Admin side of ServiceNow and could use all the help out here!

Thank you all in advance.

[Riya Verma]

Hi @RacheleTashjian ,

Hope you are doing great.

1. Regular Instance Health Checks: Perform regular health checks to identify potential issues and ensure your instance is running optimally. 

2. Change Management: Implement a structured change management process to manage updates and customizations effectively. 

3. Instance Performance Optimization: Monitor and optimize instance performance to enhance user experience. This involves reviewing and optimizing system configurations, workflows, scripts, and database indexes. Additionally, leverage performance analytics and use performance monitoring tools available in ServiceNow.

4. Security Best Practices : define ACL and query BR to restrict data access to end user based on roles and condition

5. Incident and Problem Management: Monitor incident regularly to fix them adn to create a problem for repetitve incident to fix them 

6. Regular Upgrades: Stay up-to-date with ServiceNow platform releases and plan regular upgrades to benefit from new features, performance improvements, and security patches. Test upgrades in non-production environments before implementing them in production.

7. Documentation and Knowledge Management: Maintain comprehensive documentation of system configurations, customizations, and processes. Document common issues and their resolutions in a knowledge base, enabling self-service for users and reducing the load on administrators.

[RacheleTashjian]

Hi Riya, thank you for your response, but i was looking for more specific information around this part of administration

1. Instance Performance Optimization: Monitor and optimize instance performance to enhance user experience. This involves reviewing and optimizing system configurations, workflows, scripts, and database indexes. Additionally, leverage performance analytics and use performance monitoring tools available in ServiceNow.

I need things spelled out with the hows and the whys with specifics if possible.

[Riya Verma]

Hi @RacheleTashjian ,

Performance ooptimization can be done in multiple ways based on your need

1. System Configurations:

   For instance, you can adjust the "glide." properties to fine-tune system behavior. These properties control aspects like session timeout, cache sizes, and email settings.

2. Workflows:

   • Analyze and optimize workflows to eliminate any inefficiencies and reduce execution time.
   • Consider simplifying complex workflows by minimizing unnecessary conditions or approvals.
   • Utilize parallel activities or asynchronous script execution when appropriate to improve performance.

3. Scripts:

   • Identify and optimize any scripts that may impact performance, such as business rules, script includes, or client scripts.
   • Review and optimize script logic, ensuring efficient coding practices like using GlideRecord queries selectively and avoiding unnecessary loops.
   • Leverage asynchronous server-side scripting or background scripting when heavy computations or data manipulations are involved.

4. Database Indexes:

   • Regularly review and optimize database indexes to enhance query performance.
   • Identify frequently used tables and fields that require indexing for faster data retrieval.
   • Use the ServiceNow Index Definition module to analyze existing indexes and identify potential optimizations.

5. Performance Analytics:

   • Leverage the Performance Analytics application in ServiceNow to gain insights into performance trends and bottlenecks.
   • Create performance analytics indicators to monitor key performance metrics, such as response times, resource utilization, or transaction volumes.
   • Analyze these indicators to identify areas of improvement and take proactive measures to enhance performance.

6. Performance Monitoring Tools:

   • ServiceNow provides built-in performance monitoring tools like Performance Analytics, Performance Analytics Studio, and Performance Analytics - Content Pack Installer.
   • Utilize these tools to measure and track instance performance, identify areas of concern, and take appropriate actions to optimize performance.