Event Management subflows in the base system

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Event Management subflows in the base system

    Event Management in ServiceNow Yokohama release includes a set of predefined subflows designed to automate alert remediation actions. These subflows are accessible within the Alert Management Rules under the Remediation Subflows section, enabling customers to efficiently manage alerts by triggering specific workflows based on alert conditions.

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    Accessing and Using Subflows

    • Navigate to Event Management > Rules > Alert Management Rules and create or open a rule.
    • Under the Actions tab, add subflows by searching in the Remediation Subflows area.
    • Select from the list of base system subflows to incorporate into alert remediation.

    Base System Subflows and Their Functions

    The following key subflows are provided to manage alerts effectively:

    • Acknowledge Alert: Marks an alert as acknowledged to indicate attention is needed.
    • Attach Knowledge Article (legacy): Attaches a knowledge article to alerts for instances migrated from releases prior to London.
    • Change Alert to Maintenance Mode: Changes alert status to maintenance.
    • Close Alert: Marks an alert as closed.
    • Create Incident: Automatically creates an incident from alert data, unless an incident already exists or alert is in maintenance mode. Includes logic to avoid duplicate incidents for secondary alerts when grouping is incomplete.
    • Create Major Incident Candidate: Creates a major incident candidate from alert data, with restrictions similar to incident creation (no creation if alert is secondary, in maintenance, or linked to an existing incident).
    • Create Major Incident from Alert / with Impact: Creates a major incident, optionally considering impact data, with the same conditions preventing creation if an incident exists or alert is in maintenance or secondary role.
    • Create Major Incident Candidate with Impact: Similar to the candidate creation but includes impact field input.
    • Create Task (legacy): Supports task creation using templates or legacy scripts for pre-London migrated instances.
    • Overwrite Alert Template (legacy): Applies an alert template, primarily for legacy migrated instances.

    Customization and Execution

    Customers can customize subflows or create new ones to tailor alert remediation to their environment. Execution timing for workflows can be specified within Alert Management Rules to control when subflows are triggered.

    The subflows provided with the base system appear in the Remediation Subflows area of alert management rules.

    Accessing the subflows

    Navigate to Event Management > Rules > Alert Management Rules and click New. Click the Actions tab. In the Remediation Subflows area, double-click the Insert a new row field.

    Specify subflow

    Click the search icon Search icon to add subflows. The list of subflows that are provided with the base system appears.

    Table 1. Subflows in the base system
    Name Description
    Acknowledge Alert Subflow to mark the alert as being Acknowledged. Acknowledge an alert to show that further attention is required.
    Attach Knowledge Article (legacy) Subflow to attach a knowledge article to the alert.

    This subflow is provided for instances that are migrated from legacy releases (prior to the London release).

    Note:
    Add the Knowledge article column to the Alert Management Rules [em_alert_management_rule] table, and select an article to attach to an alert when the rule executes.
    Change Alert to Maintenance Mode Subflow to mark the alert as being in Maintenance.
    Close Alert Subflow to mark the alert as being Closed.
    Create Incident Subflow to create an incident. Fields from the alert are used to populate the matching fields in the incident that is created.
    Note:
    • If there is an existing incident that is attached to the alert, this subflow is not activated.
    • If the alert is in Maintenance, an incident is not created.
    • The alert management job runs even if the alert grouping job is not complete, if a specified time frame has passed. When this occurs, you can enable the Avoid INTs on secondary alerts rule to prevent incidents from being created for secondary alerts (when the evt_mgmt.avoid_int_enabled property is enabled), since an incident already exists for the primary alert.
    Create Major Incident Candidate Subflow to create a major incident candidate. Fields from the alert populate the matching fields in the major incident candidate that is created. A major incident candidate can be upgraded to become a major incident.
    Note:
    • If there is an existing incident that is attached to the alert, this subflow is not activated.
    • If the alert is in Maintenance, a major incident candidate is not created.
    • If the Role in group is Secondary, the major incident candidate is not created.
    Create Major Incident from Alert Subflow to create a major incident from alert. Fields from the alert are used to populate the matching fields in the major incident that is created.
    Note:
    • If there is an existing incident that is attached to the alert, this subflow is not activated.
    • If the alert is in Maintenance, an incident is not created.
    • If the Role in group is Secondary, the major incident candidate is not created.
    Create Major Incident with Impact Subflow to create a major incident from an alert in which the Impact field is also taken as input. Fields from the alert are used to populate the matching fields in the major incident that is created.
    Note:
    • If there is an existing incident that is attached to the alert, this subflow is not activated.
    • If the alert is in Maintenance, an incident is not created.
    • If the Role in group is Secondary, the major incident candidate is not created.
    Create Major Incident Candidate with Impact Subflow to create a major incident candidate in which the Impact field is also taken as input. Fields from the alert populate the matching fields in the major incident candidate that is created. A major incident candidate can be upgraded to become a major incident.
    Note:
    • If there is an existing incident that is attached to the alert, this subflow is not activated.
    • If the alert is in Maintenance, a major incident candidate is not created.
    • If the Role in group is Secondary, the major incident candidate is not created.
    Create Task (legacy) This subflow uses a task template, if provided, or the EventMgmtCustomIncidentPopulator script for instances migrated from legacy releases (prior to the London release). If configured, apply the task template.
    Note:
    Add the Task template column to the Alert Management Rules [em_alert_management_rule] table, and select a task template and task to apply when the rule executes.
    Overwrite Alert Template (legacy) This subflow applies the alert template.

    This subflow is provided for instances that are migrated from legacy releases (prior to the London release).

    Note:
    Add the Task type column to the Alert Management Rules [em_alert_management_rule] table, and select an alert template to apply when the rule executes.
    1. Select the subflow that you need.
    2. To customize a subflow, see Create a custom subflow for alerts. This topic also describes the input parameters in a subflow.
    3. To specify when the workflow must be executed, double-click the cell under Execution.

      Subflow execution

      .