Platform performance metrics

You can view a wide range of platform performance metrics for your instance and for the machine on which your instance is running. The ServiceNow Performance dashboard provides central access to different graph sets for monitoring the performance of your instance.

To open the ServiceNow Performance dashboard:

1. Navigate to Self-Service > Dashboards.
2. Search for the ServiceNow Performance dashboard.

Note:

Beginning in the San Diego release, the ServiceNow Performance homepage is deprecated. After upgrading to the San Diego release, you can't edit the ServiceNow Performance homepage. You can Create a dashboard version of the Performance homepage. By default, new instances have ServiceNow Performance dashboards to replace the ServiceNow Performance homepage.

The ServiceNow Performance dashboard features time series graphs for analyzing system behavior and patterns over selected time periods. The interface provides:

• Aggregate summaries of time series graph data
• Graph overlay capability to compare two different data sources within a single graph
• Diagnostic event overlay on each graph to highlight performance anomalies
• Zoom controls to expand each graph and view time series details

Users must have an assigned pdb_user role to view performance metric graphs. For more information, see Add existing reports to a homepage and Customize your homepage content.

The graph sets provide performance data for the following functional areas:

• Asynchronous Message Bus (AMB)
• Database
• Instance View
• MySQL Global Status
• ServiceNow Servlet
• Slow Pattern

You can also filter the data in each graph by using different measurements, such as:

• Maximum and minimum values
• Means
• Medians

Customer Service and Support uses some of these graphs to troubleshoot performance issues or help you tune your system for maximum efficiency.

ServiceNow Performance dashboard features

The ServiceNow Performance dashboard provides the following graph and display controls.

Figure 1. Performance dashboard UI elements

Table 1. ServiceNow Performance dashboard elements

Number	Description
1	Graph controls: Graph set: Graph collections for viewing performance in functional areas: AMB, Database ServiceNow® Discovery MySQL Global Status ServiceNow Servlet Slow Pattern Monitorable items: Name of the instance under evaluation. Timespan: Period over which the data is captured: 1 hour, 2 hours, 1 day, 7 days, or 30 days. Compare with graph list: Graph overlay feature that lets you select a graph from a different data source and compare it to the current graph set.
2	Suggestion icon (): Opens the Suggested Indexes window, which provides links to index suggestions that have been created for slow queries. For details, see Review index suggestions for slow queries.
3	Display controls: Information tooltip: Provides details about the area on the graph that you point to. Documentation icon (): Opens the documentation page for the graph set. Appears when you point to the right corner of a graph. Opens the documentation page for the graph set. Fullscreen icon (): Opens an enlarged view of the graph, which includes a legend that identifies the graph data. Appears when you point to the right corner of a graph.
4	Diagnostic Events widget: Lists system events that occurred during the selected timespan. Provides controls for displaying diagnostic events on graphs.

Display and zoom controls

Fullscreen graph view

Click the fullscreen icon () to open an enlarged view of a graph. The full screen view includes a legend with check boxes for controlling the data displayed in the graph. To disable the display of a data item in a graph, clear its check box. On some graphs, you can also change the sort order of certain metrics in the legend.

Zoom in on a selected area of the graph

Click and drag across a portion of the graph area to zoom in on that area and view details over a smaller time interval. To return to the original view, click Reset Zoom.

Figure 2. Zooming in a graph

Graph overlays

Use the graph overlay feature to look for trends or patterns between different data sets. For example, you can overlay the Database Response graph over the ServiceNow System Overview graph to determine possible correlations.

• From the Compare with graph list, select a performance graph to overlay the current graph set.
• To remove the graph overlay, select None from the Compare with graph list.

Figure 3. Graphs with legends

Diagnostic event overlays

Display controls for diagnostic events

Use the following features in the Diagnostic Events widget to control the diagnostic events overlaid on graphs:

• Show on graphs switch: Click to enable or disable the event overlay on the graph set. The event overlay is enabled when the switch is green. The following severity flags identify diagnostic events on the graphs:
  • I: Information
  • W: Warning
  • E: Error
• Filter: Click the filter icon () to limit the events that appear on the graphs. Clear the check boxes for events that you don’t want displayed.
• Clear filter: Click to reset the filter to its default state (show all events).

Figure 4. Diagnostic events overlay

Diagnostic event information

• If you enabled the diagnostic event display, point to an event in the graph to see its information.
• To open the Event Details page, click the event listed in the Diagnostic Events widget.

  

  Table 2. Event Details page

  Field	Description
  Name	Type of event.
  Reported on	Date and time of event.
  Detail	Additional information on the event, such as the type of plugin activated.
  Severity	Type of diagnostic event: I: Information W: Warning E: Error
  Status	Event state: Information Open Closed
  Configuration item	Infrastructure component, if applicable.