Exploring Service Graph Workspace

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 5 minutes to read
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    Summary of Exploring Service Graph Workspace

    Service Graph Workspace is a centralized, modern interface designed for managing and exploring the CMDB’s graph database, which includes Configuration Items (CIs), services, and related data such as company and location details. It enables ServiceNow customers to efficiently search, examine CMDB health, review recent activity, and access various insight dashboards and tools to support organizational tasks.

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    The workspace integrates Performance Analytics to provide detailed KPI trends and data filtering capabilities. Administrators can create guided tours to help users navigate the workspace. Note that Service Graph Workspace does not support domain separation.

    Personas Supported

    • CMDB Administrator (sncmdbadmin): Manages CMDB configuration, data ingestion, governance, and reporting.
    • Data Owner (sncmdbeditor): Owns and manages specific CMDB data, including group-associated data.
    • Analyst (sncmdbuser): Investigates and analyzes CMDB data, searches and browses CMDB, and accesses insight reports.

    CI Details Views

    The workspace offers two modes for viewing CI details:

    • CI Form (default, enabled via system property sncmdbws.exploreci.record.enabled = true): Provides a comprehensive, organized view for examining and editing CI attributes, relationships, tags, services, CMDB Health, and CMDB 360 data. Updates apply IRE rules to prevent duplicates.
    • CI Details Pane (enabled when the above property is false): Displays CI timeline (last 14 days of activities), CI health summary, categorized attributes, activity stream, infrastructure and service relationships. It also includes actions such as opening dependency views, viewing CMDB 360 data, saving changes, and creating related change requests or incidents.

    Note: The CI timeline may fail to load if activity counts exceed specified thresholds; users can then open the timeline in the base system.

    Access and Roles

    • CI Details: Accessible by CMDB Admin, Editor, and User roles.
    • CI Health Cards: Incident and Change cards require incident or change read roles; other cards require at least sncmdbuser or itil roles.
    • Related Changes, Incidents, Alerts, Application Services: Require appropriate read or application service user roles.
    • CMDB 360 Data Viewing and Saving: Limited to CMDB Admin, Editor, and User roles with configuration.
    • Delete and More Actions: Reserved for CMDB Admin role.

    Practical Benefits and Use

    Service Graph Workspace empowers ServiceNow customers to:

    • Efficiently manage and explore CMDB data with a modern interface.
    • Gain insights into CI health and recent activities to support operational awareness.
    • Leverage Performance Analytics for trend analysis and data-driven decisions.
    • Customize the user experience with guided tours and configurable workspace options.
    • Perform critical tasks such as creating change requests or incidents directly from CI views.

    Next Steps for Customers

    To maximize value, customers should explore the various views within Service Graph Workspace including Data Owner Home, Governance, Explore and Search, Insights, Tasks, and Lists. They can also configure the workspace to align with organizational workflows, manage scheduled jobs, and integrate with CMDB performance insights. Familiarity with component installation and system properties will enhance workspace customization and effectiveness.

    Learn more about Service Graph Workspace, its different views and insight dashboards, when using key CMDB features such as CMDB Health, CMDB Data Manager, and CMDB 360.

    Service Graph Workspace overview

    The Service Graph Workspace is an efficient, central, and modernized way for you to work with the underlying graph database that includes CIs, services, and related data such as company and location data. Use Service Graph Workspace to search and explore the CMDB, examine health and recent activity, and access various insight dashboards and tools to support tasks in your organization.

    Guided Tour

    Administrators assigned to the guided tour admin role (guided_tour_admin) can use the Guided Tour Designer to create step-by-step walkthroughs that can guide users through the Service Graph Workspace. For more information, see Guided Tours.

    General interaction and additional information

    • Service Graph Workspace leverages many Performance Analytics capabilities and features, such as indicator sources. Throughout the Service Graph Workspace views, you can select the various cards to drill down to Performance Analytics KPI Details panes that show trends for the associated data. On a KPI Details pane, you can modify different settings to change the scope of the data. You can also select Show Records to list the records associated with the chart.
    • Lists throughout the Service Graph Workspace have a filter icon that you can select to show the filter definition used for the list.
    • You can open your Configurable Workspace experience in UI Builder to access and edit your Service Graph Workspace experience.
    • See List of workspaces for a list of all Workspaces that ServiceNow® provides.
    • Service Graph Workspace doesn't support domain separation.

    Personas

    The Service Graph Workspace is intended to support the following personas in performing their tasks:
    Persona Description Role
    CMDB administrator Manages the configuration of CMDB, data ingestion, governance, and reporting, to ensure that the CMDB supports the needs of their organization. sn_cmdb_admin
    Data owner Owns and manages data in CMDB. This persona is primarily focused on managing data that they own. However, this persona may also be associated with data owned by a group that the data owner user belongs to such as a Change and Managed by groups. sn_cmdb_editor
    Analyst Investigates and analyzes data in support of their organization. Visits the workspace to search and browse CMDB data and to access insight reports. sn_cmdb_user

    CI details

    When you drill down to CI details, how those details appear depends on system settings:
    CI Form

    By default, the system property sn_cmdb_ws.explore_ci.record.enabled is set to true, enabling the experience of the CI Form feature for viewing CI details. Using CI Form, you're navigated to a centralized location with a comprehensive set of CI details organized by sections. Use the forms provided by CI Form to examine and edit CI attributes, relationships, tags, services and offerings, CMDB Health and CMDB 360 data associated with the CI, related lists, and activities. When updating CIs in CI Form, IRE rules are applied to avoid potential issues such as duplicate CIs.

    For more information, see:
    CI details pane
    If sn_cmdb_ws.explore_ci.record.enabled is set to false, then the CI details pane is used for viewing CI details. When you drill down to a CI record in Service Graph Workspace views and pages, the following details for the CI appear:
    • CI Timeline - Last 14 days: A timeline of CI activities such as change requests.
      Note:
      A CI timeline in Service Graph Workspace fails to load when the number of any of the following activities exceeds its threshold:
      • History: 200
      • Incidents: 100
      • Requests: 50
      • Total Events: 200
      Select the Open CI Timeline link in the error message to open the CI timeline in the base system, which shows activities for the CI, up to the specified threshold numbers.
    • CI Health: A summary of the health of the CI, showing related items such as critical incidents, incomplete attributes, and stale relationships for the CI.

      Role required: sn_cmdb_user or itil (for accessing incidents)

    • Details: CI attributes, grouped into categories such as Key attributes, Asset attributes, Discovery attributes, Operational attributes, and More attributes.
      Note:
      Use the CMDB - Workspace form view for a CI class to configure which attributes appear.
    • Activity: An activity stream to track what's changed in the CI record.
    • Infrastructure Relationships: List of the infrastructure CIs related to the CI.
    • Service Relationships: List of business applications, service offerings, and application services that the CI may be related to.
    On the CI details pane, you can:
    • Select Open Dependency View to open the Dependency Views map and display a graphic infrastructure view of the specific CI record.
    • Select View CMDB 360 Data to show CMDB 360 details at the CI attribute level for the specific CI record.
    • Select Save to save any changes made to attributes for the CI record.

    • Select the More Actions icon (...) for additional functions:
    UI activity Additional requirements

    CI Details

    Accessible to: CMDB Admin, CMDB Editor, CMDB User

    CI Health

    Accessible to:
    • Incidents card: sn_incident_read to view
    • Change requests card: sn_change_read to view
    • For remaining cards: At least sn_cmdb_user
    itil

    Related Open Changes

    Accessible to: CMDB Admin, CMDB Editor, CMDB User

    sn_change_read role

    Related Incidents

    Accessible to: CMDB Admin, CMDB Editor, CMDB User

    sn_incident_read role

    Related Alerts

    Accessible to: CMDB Admin, CMDB Editor, CMDB User

    Event Management (com.glideapp.itom.snac) plugin

    evt_mgmt_user role

    Set up Event Management

    Related Application Services

    Accessible to: CMDB Admin, CMDB Editor, CMDB User

    app_service_user role

    View CMDB 360 Data

    Accessible to: CMDB Admin, CMDB Editor, CMDB User

    Enable and configure CMDB 360

    Save

    Accessible to: CMDB Admin

    More Actions/Delete

    Accessible to: CMDB Admin

    Shared pages

    For information about the shared pages, see the Dev site as follows: