Service Observability release notes
Summarize
Summary of Service Observability Release Notes - Yokohama
ServiceNow® Service Observability is a new application introduced in the Yokohama release designed to help operations teams effectively triage and manage incidents within complex, distributed production systems. It consolidates telemetry and platform insights from various observability tools into a unified workflow within the Service Operations Workspace (SOW). This integration enhances operational agility and reliability by centralizing critical signals and bridging workflows.
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Key Features
- Data Mapping and Integration: Map services in the Configuration Management Database (CMDB) Workspace to data from supported Application Performance Monitoring (APM) tools including Dynatrace, New Relic, and starting version 1.7.3, Datadog. This mapping enables visibility into deep system entities like databases or hosts that affect service health. Business Services and Service Offerings can also be mapped to APM data (with Service Offerings unavailable in the Xanadu release).
- Service Health Monitoring: The Overview tab presents RED (rate, error, duration) metrics from APMs alongside related alerts, incidents, and change requests, helping identify root causes and calculate blast radius. The Observability tab offers extended health metrics and related host and database metrics based on configured mappings, visible when issues are detected.
- Dashboard Customization: Since version 1.6.4, users can customize dashboard templates displayed in the Overview and Observability tabs, tailoring views to their operational needs.
- Domain Separation: Also introduced in version 1.6.4, allowing Service Observability to operate in separate domains for enhanced organizational control.
- User Interface Enhancements: New Overview and Observability tabs within the SOW Service Details page provide integrated views combining Service Reliability Management (SRM) metrics with observability data.
- Admin Center Integration: Enables activation of services and data source connections directly through the Admin Center. From version 1.6.4 onward, the Service Observability admin role can configure the application without requiring additional administrator involvement, and services no longer need explicit activation.
Activation and Requirements
Service Observability is available via the ServiceNow Store and requires installation through a request on the Store website. For optimal use, an APM instance must be installed, and an API Key Credential configured on the ServiceNow platform for Datadog, Dynatrace, or New Relic.
Integration with Related ServiceNow Features
- Service Operations Workspace (SOW) for ITOM: Service Observability is accessible through the Service Details page in SOW, integrating seamlessly with existing operational workflows.
- Service Reliability Management (SRM): Reliability metrics from SRM are displayed alongside Service Observability metrics, delivering a comprehensive view of service health. Services activated for Service Observability are automatically activated for SRM. From version 1.6.4, services no longer require separate registration with SRM to be used in Service Observability.
Overall, Service Observability empowers ServiceNow customers to centralize and contextualize monitoring data from multiple sources, improving incident triage efficiency, reducing mean time to resolution (MTTR), and providing a holistic view of service health within their operational environments.
The ServiceNow® Service Observability application helps operations teams triage and manage incidents in a complex and distributed production system. Service Observability combines telemetry and platform insights from multiple observability tools into a single workflow in the Service Operations Workspace (SOW). Service Observability is a new application in the Yokohama release.
Service Observability highlights for the Yokohama release
- Connect operators with subject matter experts (SMEs) using critical signals from existing monitoring tools and the ServiceNow platform.
- Centralize critical signals and bridge workflows to help increase agility and reliability.
- Calculate the blast radius and help reduce mean time to resolution (MTTR) by viewing changes to your application and the underlying infrastructure.
See Service Observability for more information.
Service Observability features
- Create and manage data mappings
- Map services in the CMDB Workspace to the data from a connected application performance monitoring (APM) data source. Service Observability supports Dynatrace and New Relic. This mapping lets you view metrics from entities deep within your system, like a database or host, that might be affecting the health of a service.
- View overall service health
- Use the Overview tab to view rate, error, and duration (RED) metrics from the APM related to a service. You can also view related open alerts, incidents, and change requests from the Configuration Management Database (CMDB) to help identify possible causes and blast radius.
- View service health metrics
- View the extended health metrics for a service on the new Observability tab when issues are found on the Overview tab. In addition to the extended health metrics, you can view host and database metrics related to the service based on the configured data mappings.
- Customize dashboard templates
- Starting in version 1.6.4, customize the templates used to display dashboards in the Overview and Observability tabs.
- Domain separation
- Starting in version 1.6.4, Service Observability can be run in separate domains.
UI changes
- New Overview tab in the SOW
- After services are activated for the Overview tab in Service Observability, the Service Details page in SOW now shows reliability metrics from Service Reliability Management (SRM) as well as metrics from Service Observability.
- New Observability tab in the SOW
- The Observability tab on the Service Details page in SOW shows related metrics from connected APM vendors.
- Admin Center support for activating services and data sources
- You can activate services to use in Service Observability and then connect and map APM data sources to those services.
Starting in version 1.6.4, you no longer need to activate services. Any of the supported service types in the CMDB can be used
Starting in version 1.6.4, the Service Observability admin role can configure Service Observability in the Admin Center without involving an administrator.
Activation information
Install Service Observability by requesting it from the ServiceNow Store. Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.
Additional requirements
For the best experience, an APM instance should be installed and an API Key Credential for that instance should be configured on the ServiceNow® platform. Service Observability supports Datadog, Dynatrace, or New Relic.