Key alerts – activation and notifications

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Key alerts – activation and notifications

    ServiceNow's Instance Observer Key Alerts Activation provides proactive monitoring by setting alerts based on historical data for your instance. This feature allows you to define alert thresholds using four-week historical increments tailored to your business needs and configure which team members receive notifications. It is available exclusively for customers with the Advanced and Total packages of ServiceNow Impact.

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    Key Features

    • Proactive Alerts on Moving Averages: Alerts monitor six critical metrics using moving averages compared against historical medians, helping detect unusual patterns before they become issues.
    • Critical Metrics Monitored:
      • Transaction increase and decrease rates at the instance level
      • Instance response time
      • Database response time
      • Default semaphore mean (concurrency limits)
      • Default semaphore queue depth (queue limits)
    • Intelligent Thresholds Based on P-Score: Thresholds are dynamically calculated based on the instance’s P-Score, which measures transaction stability. Only instances with a sufficient P-Score are eligible for alert activation.
    • Automated Threshold Refresh: Thresholds are updated weekly to reflect the latest usage patterns and maintain alert accuracy.
    • Opt-in Banner: Eligible instances display an opt-in banner for activating key alerts, enabling users to easily enable this feature when appropriate.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Receive early warnings about potential performance degradations or anomalies based on your instance’s historical behavior.
    • Customize notification recipients to ensure the right team members are informed promptly.
    • Leverage data-driven thresholds rather than static limits, improving alert relevance and reducing noise.
    • Maintain continuous awareness of critical instance health metrics without manual monitoring.
    • Improve operational responsiveness by acting proactively on alerts that identify unusual trends or risks.

    How to Use

    To activate and configure Key Alerts:

    • Check for the opt-in banner on your instance if your P-Score meets eligibility criteria.
    • Activate alerts to receive intelligent, data-driven notifications across the six key metrics.
    • Use the "Configure Key Alerts" guide to set up alerts on instances without existing configurations or to obtain improved thresholds on instances with current alerts.

    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.

    Note:
    Instance Observer Alerts support is only available for Advanced and Total packages of ServiceNow Impact.

    Keys alerts activation will provide you with proactive alerts about moving averages, a statistic that captures the average change in a data series over time, for six critical metrics:

    1. Transaction (increase) Instance: Indicates transaction moving average increases by a certain percentage of it's historical median for a certain time period.
    2. Transaction (drop) Instance: Indicates transaction moving average drops by a certain percentage of it's historical median for a certain time period.
    3. Response Time – Instance: Indicates the moving average of response time is greater than the historical median in a certain time period.
    4. Database Response Time: Indicates the moving average of database response time is greater than the historical median in a certain time period.
    5. Default Semaphore Mean: Indicates the default semaphore mean is approaching limits of max concurrency by a certain factor in a certain time period.
    6. Default Semaphore Queue Depth: Indicates the default semaphore queue depth is approaching limits of maximum queue depth by a certain factor in a certain time period.
    Note:
    It is important to note that each notification may not represent an issue, moreover signals about a data point that is unusual or does not conform to the expected patterns for that specific metric. Users can be proactive, where necessary, and act on a notification accordingly that may avoid a future issue.

    Instance Observer utilizes the P-Score to assess instance usage, then calculate the thresholds exclusively for those instances. The P-score is a rating determined by the number of transactions on an instance, providing a higher score when the instance's transactions remain consistently stable.

    • When an instance meets the required P-Score for eligibility, users will see a banner to opt-in for the alerts activation feature. Users will receive intelligent thresholds under the IO recommended condition for all six metrics derived from historical data.
    • If an instance has a low P-Score, the banner to opt-in for alerts activation feature will not be visible. The P-Score is regularly refreshed, and as instances grow in the future, you will see the option to opt-in for the alerts activation feature. Thresholds are refreshed automatically weekly for instances meeting the minimum P-Score criteria.

    To set up alerts, see Configure Key Alerts.