Amazon CloudWatch Observability tab for Service Observability

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Amazon CloudWatch Observability tab for Service Observability

    The Amazon CloudWatch Observability tab within the Service Details page in ServiceNow Observability Workspace (SOW) provides dashboards and charts that display key performance and health metrics for services integrated with AWS. This enables ServiceNow customers to monitor their AWS-based services directly from the ServiceNow platform, enhancing their visibility and operational insight.

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    Key Features

    • Application Dashboards: Show performance metrics for specific AWS service components such as API Gateway (HTTP and REST), ELB (Elastic Load Balancer), and Lambda functions. Metrics include request counts, latency, and error rates (4xx and 5xx errors) for API Gateway and ELB, as well as Lambda-specific metrics like errors, duration, and invocation counts.
    • Compute Dashboards: Display host-related metrics for services, including CPU utilization, disk read/write bytes, and network traffic (incoming and outgoing bytes). It also provides links to detailed information about all EC2 VM instances and active servers the service uses, integrating data from AWS and the ServiceNow CMDB.
    • Database Dashboards: Present metrics for RDS databases related to the service such as CPU utilization, free memory and storage, current connections, and read/write latency. Users can access detailed information for all RDS instances associated with the service through CMDB links.

    Practical Use and Benefits

    • Allows ServiceNow customers to centrally monitor key AWS service metrics and infrastructure performance directly within the ServiceNow platform.
    • Facilitates proactive identification and troubleshooting of issues by providing real-time visibility into transaction rates, latency, error rates, resource utilization, and database performance.
    • Integration with CMDB enables easy navigation to detailed configuration and status information for EC2 instances, servers, and databases that support the service.
    • Helps maintain service health and optimize performance by tracking critical AWS metrics consolidated in user-friendly dashboards.

    Dashboard and charts on the Amazon CloudWatch tab of the Service Details page in the SOW.

    Application dashboards

    This dashboard displays performance metrics for the selected service.
    Note:
    If the dashboards have been customized, they might not reflect the information shown on this page.
    Table 1. API Gateway - HTTP
    Chart Description Data source
    Request Count Aggregate rate of transactions through the service, per minute. AWS
    Latency Aggregate duration of transactions through the service, in milliseconds. AWS
    4xx Errors Number of errors returned with a status of 4xx. AWS
    5xx Errors Number of errors returned with a status of 5xx. AWS
    Table 2. API Gateway - REST
    Chart Description Data source
    Request Count Aggregate rate of transactions through the service, per minute. AWS
    Latency Aggregate duration of transactions through the service, in milliseconds. AWS
    4xx Errors Number of errors returned with a status of 4xx. AWS
    5xx Errors Number of errors returned with a status of 5xx. AWS
    Table 3. ELB
    Chart Description Data source
    Request Count Aggregate rate of transactions through the service, per minute. AWS
    Latency Aggregate duration of transactions through the service, in milliseconds. AWS
    4xx Errors Number of errors returned with a status of 4xx. AWS
    5xx Errors Number of errors returned with a status of 5xx. AWS
    Table 4. Lambda
    Chart Description Data source
    Errors Number of errors reported by the Lambda function. AWS
    Duration Aggregate duration of transactions through the service, in milliseconds. AWS
    Invocations Number of Lambda invocations executed by this service. AWS

    Compute dashboards

    This dashboard displays metrics for hosts related to the service.

    Table 5. Host
    Chart Description Data source
    CPU utilization Percent of the host processing power being consumed by this service. AWS
    Disk Write Bytes Number of bytes written to the database by this service. AWS
    Disk Read Bytes Number of bytes read from the database by this service. AWS
    Network In Bytes Amount of incoming network traffic in bytes for this service. AWS
    Network Out Bytes Amount of outgoing network traffic in bytes for this service. AWS
    All EC2 VM Instances Information for all EC2 VM instances the service is actively using. Select a link to view more detailed information. CMDB
    All Active Servers Information for all servers the service is actively using. Select a Server link to view more detailed information. CMDB

    Database dashboards

    This dashboard displays metrics for RDS databases related to the service.

    Table 6. RDS
    Chart Description Data source
    CPU utilization Percent of the database's processing power being consumed by this service. AWS
    Free Memory Amount of memory in bytes available on this database. AWS
    Free Storage Amount of storage in bytes available on this database. AWS
    Current Connections Number of connections from this service to the database. AWS
    Read Latency Time taken in milliseconds for read operation from the database to complete. AWS
    Write Latency Time taken in milliseconds for write operation from the database to complete. AWS
    All RDS Instances Information for all databases the service is actively using. Select a database link to view more detailed information. CMDB