Setting up pillars, entity types, entity filters, and entities

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  • Updated March 12, 2026
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    Summary of Setting up pillars, entity types, entity filters, and entities

    This guide assists in configuring the Operational Resilience application, enabling customers to effectively organize and track operational data through a structured hierarchy of pillars, entity types, and entities. Understanding the key concepts and their relationships is critical for ensuring the application is tailored to your organization's needs.

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    Key Features

    • Pillars: Top-level categories (e.g., Technology, Services) that group related entity types.
    • Entity Types: Classifications within pillars that define what data to track (e.g., Servers, Applications).
    • Entity Filters: Criteria that automatically select records from ServiceNow tables (e.g., "Operational Status = Active").
    • Entities: Individual records that meet the filter criteria (e.g., a specific server).
    • CMDB Integration: Relationships between entities and the Configuration Management Database (CMDB) are updated automatically when changes occur in the CMDB.

    Key Outcomes

    Before beginning the setup process, ensure you have the required roles (e.g., snoperres.admin and snoperres.manager) and complete the checklist, which includes confirming pillar activations and understanding your CMDB structure.

    Follow a step-by-step approach for setup: activate pillars, then entity types, configure entity filters, generate entities, and finally configure the main node. It's recommended to use the Workspace UI for the latest features and enhancements, although the Core UI is available for experienced users.

    Remember, all pillars are initially inactive and must be activated before proceeding with entity types, ensuring a smooth and logical setup process.

    This section helps you configure the Operational Resilience application to organize and track your organization's operational data through a structured hierarchy of pillars, entity types, and entities.

    Key concepts and definitions in Operational Resilience

    It is essential to understand the core terminology and how different components relate to each other. This section defines the key concepts that form the foundation of the application's data structure. Knowledge of these terms enables informed decision-making during setup and confirms that the system is configured correctly for your organization's needs. The table provides definitions and practical examples for each concept.

    Table 1. Concepts, definitions, and examples
    Term Definition Example
    Pillar Top-level organizational category that groups the related entity types Technology, Services, People, Facilities
    Entity type A classification within a Pillar that defines what kind of data to track Within Technology pillar: Servers,Applications, Databases
    Entity Filter Criteria that automatically select records from ServiceNow tables Filter: "Operational Status = Active AND Location = US"
    Entity An individual record that meets the Entity filter criteria A specific server: "PROD-WEB-01"
    CSDM Common Service Data Model - Company standard for organizing IT data Confirms consistency across ServiceNow applications
    CMDB Configuration Management Database (CMDB) - Stores IT infrastructure data Source of servers, applications, and relationships

    Consider the example of organizing a filing cabinet where pillars are drawers, entity types are folders within each drawer, entity filters are the labels that determine what goes in each folder, and entities are the actual documents.

    Understanding the data hierarchy

    The Operational Resilience application organizes data in a multi-level hierarchy as shown in the example.

    Data in a 4-level hierarchy.

    Key relationships between pillars, entity types, and entity filters

    Understanding how different levels of the data hierarchy interact with each other is crucial for effective configuration and maintenance of the Operational Resilience application.
    Table 2. Key relationships
    Relationship Example
    One pillar and many entity types The "Technology" pillar can contain many entity types such as Servers, Applications, Network Devices.
    One entity type and many entity filters The "Servers" entity type can have many entity filters such as ones for "Production Servers","Test Servers".
    One entity filter and many entities An entity filter for "Active Production Servers in US" generates many individual server entities.
    Entities and CMDB relationships When CMDB relationships change, entity relationships update automatically.
    Note:
    The CMDB relationships flow into Operational Resilience in one direction only. Changes to Operational Resilience entities do not update the CMDB relationships automatically. If relationships change in the CMDB, new entity relationships are created, but old relationships aren’t automatically deleted—you may need to delete them manually.

    Required roles, their capabilities, and checklist

    Before beginning the setup process, verify that you have the required roles to perform the setup.

    Required roles for the setup
    sn_oper_res.admin, sn_oper_res.manager
    Role capabilities
    Table 3. Roles and their capabilities
    Role Can activate pillars Can create Entity types Can delete Entity types Can generate entities
    sn_oper_res.admin Yes Yes Yes Yes
    sn_oper_res.manager Yes Yes No Yes
    Checklist

    Complete the checklist before you begin the setup:

    1. Confirm that you have the required roles to perform the setup.
    2. Review the list of default pillars. The default pillars are: Services, Business Services, Business Processes, Technology, Facilities, People, Suppliers, Data, Application Services, and Service Offerings.
    3. Identify the pillars and entity types that you would need for your organization.
    4. Determine if you need custom entity types in addition to the default entity types.
    5. Understand your CMDB structure and relationships.
    6. Allocate sufficient time for the initial setup.
    Note:
    Beginning with Operational Resilience, Release 21.x.x, all pillars are shipped in an "Inactive" state. You must activate the pillars before activating the entity types, as the entity types depend on the pillars. Entity types can be activated only after their parent pillars are active.

    Using the Workspace UI or Admin setup

    This section provides a high-level overview of the Workspace UI or the Admin setup from Core UI in the Operational Resilience.

    Table 4. Workspace UI and Admin setup
    Feature Workspace UI interface (Suggested method) Core UI (UI16) interface
    Visual design Modern and streamlined Classic interface
    Learning curve Easier for new users Familiar to experienced admins
    Navigation Operational Resilience Workspace > Entity types | Pillars All > Operational Resilience > Admin > Entity types > Pillars
    Functionality Complete setup capability Complete setup capability
    When to use General setup tasks Preference for classic UI
    Note:
    Use the Workspace UI to use latest features and enhancements. The Core UI is part of the classic interface. You can switch between them at any time.

    Step-by-step overview

    Setting up Operational Resilience follows a logical progression from foundational components to data generation. This overview helps you understand what each step accomplishes and why the sequence matters. Detailed procedures with screenshots and examples are available in the subsequent sections.

    Table 5. Step-by-step overview of the steps
    Step number Action Reference
    Step 1 Activate Pillars
    • Navigate to the Pillars module.
    • Review default pillars available with the application.
    • Activate pillars that are needed for your organization
    • Confirm that you follow the sequence (order) and activate pillars before entity types.
    		 Set up pillars and entity types from Workspace UI
    Step 2 Activate entity types
    • Navigate to the Entity types module.
    • Review the default entity types within each pillar.
    • Activate the entity types that you need.
    • Create custom entity types if needed.
    		 Set up pillars and entity types from Workspace UI
    Step 3 Configure entity filters
    • Within each entity type, configure filters.
    • Choose "Build custom conditions" or "Select predefined queries."
    • Define a criteria to select records from CMDB tables.
    • Activate entity filters.
    		 Configure the entity filters, Activate the entity filters, and Verify the configuration of entity filters
    Step 4 Generate entities
    • Run entity generation process. Entities are created automatically based on filters.
    • Option: Manually add entities if needed.
    • Verify that entities appear in the Entity Types record.
    		 Generate entities automatically using a scheduled job
    Step 5 Configure Main node (Post-setup)
    • Set up CMDB integration.
    • Configure relationship mapping.
    		 Configure the Main node configurations