--- sourceDocument: Zurich Impact sourceDocumentLink: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/zurich/impact Release : - zurich ft:locale : - en-US ft:publication_title : - Zurich Impact ft:clusterId : - ipact bundleId : - ipact --- # Overview of Instance Observer # Overview of Instance Observer {#ariaid-title1} * Release version: Zurich * * Updated July 31, 2025 * * ![](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ico-clock) 4 minutes to read Instance Observer (IO) is an observability and performance monitoring tool that empowers you to track your instance health and performance in near real-time, while also providing historical insights. IO helps Instance administrators, Platform Owners, and DevOps teams accelerate value and drive their desired business outcomes by increasing visibility into instance performance, helping customers push innovation with speed and confidence. ## Features and Benefits {#io-overview__section_ps1_jlg_s5b} Key features : * 24/7 Monitoring: Instance performance monitoring provides awareness of issues within an instance before end users  are impacted. * 24/7 Alerting: Set up custom alerts to notify you when specific thresholds are crossed, so you can act before an issue becomes critical. * Multi-instance Availability: Proactively visualize performance  telemetry across instances. Empowering  organizations to identify trends before  end users are impacted. * Triage: Actionable point-in-time  instance metadata providing additional  context to instance performance and accelerating troubleshooting. * Off Instance Application: Access to instance performance  telemetry off instance. When an  issue does arise, organizations can  access actionable data independent of  instance availability. * Reporting: Visualize instance performance  telemetry over time and quickly generate reports to share with your business stakeholders, enabling organizations to manage instance performance faster, smarter, and better. * Analytics: Compare metrics over time to see how performance is trending in general or to assess the before and after impacts of certain changes. {#io-overview__ul_ibj_5rl_fwb} Key Benefits : * 24/7 availability: Instance Observer is an off-instance, cloud-based application enabling customers to visualize instance telemetry across instances in a single application. * Improve Instance performance: By monitoring instance performance metrics in real time, you can quickly identify and resolve issues that might be causing poor performance impacting end users. * Increase uptime: Proactive monitoring through Instance Observer alerting you can be notified of potential issues before they cause downtime, enabling you to act before it affects your users. * Improve troubleshooting: When issues do arise, have actionable point-in-time metadata accelerating root cause analysis and time to relief. * Remove distractions: With near real-time data at your fingertips, you and your team can spend less time trying to find the information you need and more time driving your desired business outcomes {#io-overview__ul_fhq_vsl_fwb} Note: Instance Observer is not available with ServiceNow® mobile, however, may be accessed with a browser on your mobile device. ## Instance Observer features {#io-overview__section_u1t_xhr_p5b} {#io-overview__table_rx1_t3r_p5b__entry__2} | Feature | Description | |-|-| | [Instance Observer user configurable dashboard](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/ZtFkvOVkNVwFCZVhnhTdvQ "You can create your own dashboard according to your preferences for metrics that help you to analyze the health of your system in a snapshot.") | Provides a snapshot of the overall health of your instance. | | [Performance](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/nEURnpKjuuzoMVkafbqkzw "Monitor all your instances 24x7 in one place with near real-time metrics and alerts on performance and availability in Instance Observer. Generate various charts of overview Instance Health and Performance Metrics and drill down into specific data points with recommended troubleshooting.​") | Overviews Instance Health and Performance Metrics, and enables drill down into specific datasets with recommended troubleshooting. | | [Availability](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/yztXtHwpqOuzr8QgV4pUIg "The Availability section shows instance level availability on a geographic map and instance level ServiceNow generated alerts (limited alert types) since the past 7 days.") | View live Instance Availability status tied to ServiceNow  monitoring--- Up/Down Status | | [Key alerts -- activation and notifications](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/PaurPJOvOr4W8X3S~hQLiQ "Use the Instance Observer Key Alerts Activation functionality for flexibility to set alerts with historical thresholds from four week increments specific to your business needs and configure who on your team receives notifications.") | Flexibility to set alerts with thresholds specific to your business needs, and configure who on your team receives notifications and the method. | | [Analytics](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/oImV4ZjYmG0o2nTcGlzsEA "View comparisons for performance of key metrics over time with the Impact Total package.") | View comparisons for performance of key metrics over time. | | [Triaged instance data](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/3AgLcGYk3rmNJ~cTY8Io7w "You can triage your instance to get instant information on transactions, jobs, nodes utilization, semaphores, schedulers and update sets. Minimal use of this feature is recommended as use of this consumes resources on your instance.") | Point-in-time instance snapshot providing metadata to troubleshoot live issues | | [Instance performance telemetry reports](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/3Eb4_058Qv8qifP2aqvyww "Quickly generate reports to download and share with your business stakeholders, making  organizations faster, smarter, and better in their  instance performance management.") | Quickly generate reports to download and share with your team business stakeholders.​ | | [Help](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/K_gAk_vTcqdhuGH5EoXtlw "Access release notes, how to videos, and more from the Instance Observer Help Center page.") | Get assistance with Instance Observer tools, terminology review, how-to videos, and relevant documents. | [Table 1. Feature and description] {#io-overview__table_rx1_t3r_p5b} ## Support matrix according to Impact package {#io-overview__section_izs_5yx_hxb} Some Instance Observer reporting features vary between the Impact packages that you're subscribed to. Reference the support matrix chart or contact your account team for more information. * ✓ = Supported * X = Not supported {#io-overview__ul_vst_nqf_3xb} {#io-overview__table_ct2_mhj_rhc__entry__5} | Feature | Guided | IO features add-on | Total | IO seats add-on | |-|-|-|-|-| | | 5 users | | 10 users | 10 users | | User configurable dashboard For more information, see [Instance Observer user configurable dashboard](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/ZtFkvOVkNVwFCZVhnhTdvQ "You can create your own dashboard according to your preferences for metrics that help you to analyze the health of your system in a snapshot."). | ✓ | | ✓ | | | Performance: KPI visualization For more information, see [Performance](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/nEURnpKjuuzoMVkafbqkzw "Monitor all your instances 24x7 in one place with near real-time metrics and alerts on performance and availability in Instance Observer. Generate various charts of overview Instance Health and Performance Metrics and drill down into specific data points with recommended troubleshooting.​"). | ✓ | | ✓ | | | Performance: Root cause analysis (Root cause correlation, Root cause summarization, and Root cause remediation) (Generative AI) For more information, see [Generative AI powered Root cause analysis](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/mwLP4UWEAJ6IbOZ2cevTgw "Root cause analysis in Instance Observer provides automated detection and summarization of issues. It includes built-in root cause correlation and root cause summary using a large language model (LLM), which helps reduce troubleshooting time, improve incident transparency, and generative AI driven root cause recommendation by analyzing similar historical incidents."). | | ✓ | ✓ | | | Performance: Anomaly detection (AI) For more information, see [Anomalies detection](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/nw5wYvNnx1E8MyLgbxfnhw "Instance Observer proactively detects the anomalies for cyclical or non-cyclical metrics under the performance chart for the Impact Total package on production instances. Anomalies represent metrics outliers based on historical patterns. Every anomaly may not represent an issue, but, notifies you and you decide the criticality and configure alerts, accordingly.") | | ✓ | ✓ | | | Performance: Lookback date range | 45 days | 6 months | 6 months | | | Availability: Instance availability For more information, see [Instance Availability](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/yztXtHwpqOuzr8QgV4pUIg#io-availability__section_hwn_b55_qgc). | ✓ | | ✓ | | | Availability: Known issues | ✓ | | ✓ | | | Alerts: Alert console For more information, see [Availability](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/yztXtHwpqOuzr8QgV4pUIg "The Availability section shows instance level availability on a geographic map and instance level ServiceNow generated alerts (limited alert types) since the past 7 days."). | ✓ | | ✓ | | | Alerts: Configure alerts For more information, see [Configure Key Alerts](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/PgZF0wuwmykjg~sa7Xj5aQ "Follow these steps to configure Key Alerts on an instance where critical alerts have not yet been configured."). | Starter alert types and conditions | All alert types and conditions | All alert types and conditions | | | Alerts: Configure notifications For more information, see [Instance Observer Notifications](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/rBNWenrT3B17a~ibL4JprA "Notifications for alerts and other system activity are displayed on the Instance Observer banner."). | ✓ (Email, SMS, ServiceNow, third-party integrations). Unlimited notifications | | ✓ (Email, SMS, ServiceNow, third-party integrations). Unlimited notifications | | | Alerts: Root cause analysis history For more information, see [Use the Root cause analysis history](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/8Xb8WQmmR~ShmZwFdsoT7Q "Check the Root cause analysis (RCA) History page to investigate the issues that caused an alert to trigger or performance to degrade to Critical or Warning."). | | ✓ | ✓ | | | Analytics: Compare datasets | | ✓ | ✓ | | | Analytics: Top transactions | | ✓ | ✓ | | | Analytics: Query patterns | | ✓ | ✓ | | | Analytics: User experience For more information, see [User Experience](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/fdAgxKHx0K1hibJHSkFACA "Explore real-time user monitoring to analyze user experience and performance insights in Instance Observer​ telemetry into node, transaction type, URL, and user level breakdowns for Impact Total customers."). | | ✓ | ✓ | | | Triage For more information, see [Triage a ServiceNow instance](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/gVdDvyoVJyawu8skk3KeMg "Perform a triage on a ServiceNow instance to gather point-in-time telemetry data for troubleshooting using Instance Observer. The triage feature gives a summary of ongoing operations at the time of its execution."). | ✓ (10 per day per user per instance) | | ✓ (10 per day per user per instance) | | | Reports: On demand For more information, see [Instance performance telemetry reports](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/3Eb4_058Qv8qifP2aqvyww "Quickly generate reports to download and share with your business stakeholders, making  organizations faster, smarter, and better in their  instance performance management."). | ✓ (Daily Performance Metrics Report, Custom Performance Report, Database Growth Report, Encryption Report) | Performance Trends Report | ✓ (also get Performance Trends Report) | | | Reports: Scheduled | ✓ | | ✓ | | | Reports: Lookback date range | 45 days | 6 months | 6 months | | [Table 2. Instance Observer features by package] {#io-overview__table_ct2_mhj_rhc} To access the Instance Observer page, navigate to ImpactPlatform HealthMonitorInstance Observer. Note: For more information on subscription support, see [Impact packages](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/RkKSHKEDy~3SI03Lmh7tcw "ServiceNow Impact packages comprise support tools, self-help resources, human-led engagements, discounts, and additional benefits made available to you depending on the level of Impact package procured."). ## Serviceability limitations {#io-overview__section_n4j_4sl_fwb} Note: Instance Observer is available for customers in Commercial and Government Community Cloud (GCC) environments. IO is currently not available in other regulated or on-premise environments. Instance Observer is applicable or available for ServiceNow Platform instances only. *[\>]: and then