CMDB Health process tracking and troubleshooting

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of CMDB Health Process Tracking and Troubleshooting

    This guide provides essential information for tracking and resolving issues related to the CMDB Health processes in ServiceNow. It covers logging configurations, processing status, orphan records, and error handling, enabling customers to effectively manage their CMDB health status.

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    Key Features

    • Logging: By default, only error messages are logged. To log 'info' and 'warning' messages, update the system property glide.cmdb.logger.usesyslog.CMDBHealth.
    • Processing Status: Check the CMDB Health Metric Status table for the status of scheduled jobs. Possible final states include:
      • Complete: All classes processed with failures below the threshold.
      • Max Failures: Processing aborted due to maximum failures.
      • Daily Time Out Pause: Processing paused due to time limit.
    • Processing Time Analysis: Assess which classes take too long to process to identify weak validation rules via the CMDB Health Processor Status table.
    • Orphan Records Management: Use orphan rules to detect orphan CIs. For deletion, contact Support for assistance since affected records may not be accessible via GlideRecord.
    • Scripted Audits: An error is logged if audit results are not included due to the absence of a 'Last ran date' value.

    Key Outcomes

    Customers can effectively monitor the health of their CMDB by understanding processing statuses and addressing issues promptly. The ability to log detailed messages aids in troubleshooting, while insights into orphan records and scripted audits enhance overall data integrity. This structured approach ensures a compliant and efficient configuration management database, minimizing potential disruptions in service delivery.

    Use the following information to track and resolve issues with the CMDB Health processes.

    Logging

    By default, only error messages are logged to the syslog table, with the source name CmdbHealth. To enable logging of 'info' and 'warning' messages (which are typically logged at the start and end of each processing cycle), update the system property glide.cmdb.logger.use_syslog.CMDBHealth. For information about using this property, see CMDB Health system properties.

    Processing status

    If scheduled jobs are enabled, but data is not displaying on the <ph keyref="var.config-mgmt-database-short"/> dashboard, you can check the processing status in the CMDB Health Metric Status [cmdb_health_metric_status] table. Depending on the status of the inactive metric, decide how to proceed.

    Initially, the state of all metrics is 'In Progress'.

    Possible final states of a metric:
    Complete
    All classes are processed and the number of failures is under the maximum failures threshold.
    Max Failures
    The number of failures for this metric reached the maximum failures threshold. Processing has been aborted and will start over in the next run.
    Daily Time Out Pause
    The processor reached the processing time limit. Processing is paused and will resume in the next run.
    At the end of a processing cycle, the final state of a KPI depends on the final state of its associated metrics. Possible final state of a KPI:
    Complete
    All associated metrics are in Complete state and score calculation is complete.
    Incomplete
    Score is not calculated because one of the associated metrics reached its maximum failure thresholds.
    Daily Time Out Pause
    Timed out because one of the associated metrics has reached its processing time limit.

    Processing time

    If processing of a metric times out, you can find out which class takes too long to process. Use this information to find out if any validation rules are weak.

    The progress of each metric is tracked in the CMDB Health Processor Status table [cmdb_health_processor_status]. Status for classes that have been processed for a metric is Complete, and for classes that are yet to be processed is Draft. By looking at the update time for each class, you can calculate the length of processing time for each class.

    Orphan records due to broken hierarchy

    Orphan rules might detect an orphan CI, which you are not able to access and delete. Or, there might be a mismatch between the list view that displays the orphan records, and the total number of records. These findings are due to records being deleted in the database from only one table in the CMDB hierarchy.

    These CI records are not accessible via GlideRecord and must be deleted directly from the database. Therefore, in this case, to delete an orphan CI from the database you must contact Support to get help.

    Orphan test results provide the details of where exactly the hierarchy is broken. For example, the message "This cmdb_ci_linux_server CI [91054fc24f22520053d6e1d18110c713] is missing record in cmdb_ci_computer table" means that a record of that sys_id must be deleted from the CMDB, cmdb_ci, cmdb_ci_hardware, cmdb_ci_server, and the cmdb_ci_linux_server tables (the Computer class is between the Hardware and the Server classes in the hierarchy.)

    Scripted audits Skipped

    An error message is logged if the results from a scripted audit are not included in the compliance KPI. The reason can be that the script in the audit was not updated to populate its Last ran date field. Without a Last ran date value, CMDB Health is unable to identify these run results as part of a recent complete audit run, and skips those results.