Monitor system foundations in the CSDM and the CMDB Data Foundations Dashboards

  • Release version: Washingtondc
  • Updated March 19, 2024
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Monitor System Foundations in the CSDM and the CMDB Data Foundations Dashboards

    The ServiceNow® CSDM and CMDB Data Foundations Dashboards app provides insights into the foundational metrics of your Configuration Management Database (CMDB) and Common Service Data Model (CSDM). It recommends best practices for optimal configuration to mitigate risks. Note that this app does not support domain separation.

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    Key Features

    • CMDB Data Foundations Dashboard: Evaluates configurations and customizations within the CMDB, identifying potential risks and ensuring data validity to support effective CMDB functioning.
    • CSDM Data Foundations Dashboard: Displays key CSDM metrics on a single page, enhancing the utility of ServiceNow AI Platform® products.
    • Performance Management: Users can deactivate or limit metrics that may negatively impact dashboard performance, specifically for large CMDBs or numerous non-compliant Configuration Items (CIs).

    Key Outcomes

    By leveraging the CSDM and CMDB Data Foundations Dashboards, customers can expect improved visibility into their data integrity, proactive risk management, and enhanced performance of dashboard metrics. Users can easily access dashboards and manage metric settings to maintain optimal performance across their ServiceNow environment.

    The ServiceNow® CSDM and CMDB Data Foundations Dashboards store app contains dashboards which provide insights into the key foundational metrics of your CMDB and Common Service Data Model (CSDM). This app provides recommendations to ensure that the CMDB and CSDM are properly configured for optimal usage and to mitigate any potential risks.

    Note:
    CSDM and the CMDB Data Foundations Dashboards don't support domain separation.

    Request apps on the Store

    Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.

    The CSDM and CMDB Data Foundations Dashboards store app provides dashboards that complement each other. See the respective sections for each of the following dashboards:

    CMDB Data Foundations dashboard

    Evaluates various configurations and customizations in the CMDB. This dashboard checks that important data is valid and properly configured, and identifies and provides visibility into potential risks in the implementation. Use the CMDB Data Foundations dashboard to prevent issues and support continuous effective functioning of the CMDB.

    CSDM Data Foundations dashboard

    The CSDM Data Foundations dashboard displays key CSDM metrics on a single page to assist you in getting the full benefit from your ServiceNow AI Platform® products.

    The CSDM and the CMDB Data Foundations dashboards capability is provided by the com.snc.cmdb.getwell plugin, which is activated by default in base systems.

    For an introduction, watch the ServiceNow Data Foundations Dashboards for CSDM and CMDB video.

    Access the dashboards

    To access these dashboards, navigate to All > Configuration, and then select CMDB Data Foundations Dashboard or CSDM Data Foundations Dashboard. You can toggle between the two dashboards by clicking the change dashboard icon (Change dashboard.) on the title bar of either dashboard.

    Manage performance

    It might be useful to manage the performance impact of some metrics that are greatly affected by, for example, a large CMDB or a high number of non-compliant CIs. You can use any of the following methods to manage performance of those metrics to improve the overall performance of the dashboards:
    Deactivate a metric

    Starting with CSDM and the CMDB Data Foundations Dashboards v2.2 you can deactivate CSDM or CMDB metrics.

    To improve performance, deactivate metrics that aren't needed or that require extensive resources and affect performance. The active/non-active settings for metrics are preserved across family release upgrades.

    To deactivate a metric, you must access the CMDB/CSDM Get Well Metrics [sn_getwell_metric] table where all CMDB and CSDM metrics are stored. Navigate to the list view of the table [sn_getwell_metric]. Then, locate the metric that you want to deactivate and set its Active column to false. Tiles on the dashboards that are associated with inactive metrics stop collecting data and aren't refreshed.

    Limit a metric
    For the following metrics, you can use metric-specific settings to limit their performance impact:
    • CMDB metrics:
      • CIs Processed via IRE
      • CIs with Relationships to Parent and Child
      • Hardware CIs with Serial Numbers
    • CSDM metrics:
      • Application Services with 'Consumes::Consumed By' Relationship to Business Application
      • Application Services with Business Application Relationships
      • Business Application with Application Service Relationship
    The following columns in the CMDB/CSDM Get Well Metrics [sn_getwell_metric] table are set with default values per metric, that limit performance impact and which you can fine tune. Review those settings for example, when there is a large number of non-compliant CIs for a metric. Another example is having a large CMDB where a small number of compliant CIs for a metric is already a sufficient indication of health and there is no need to process the rest of the CIs for that metric.
    • Aggregate limit: The maximum number or percentage of non-compliant CIs that are reported for the metric. Once that threshold is reached, counting for the metric stops for the run and the score for the metric is set to 0.
    • Fail count threshold: The threshold of the number of consecutive metric runs that failed due to exceeding the metric's Runtime threshold. When that threshold is reached, the respective metric is automatically deactivated.
    • Runtime threshold: The time threshold in seconds that is considered too long for a metric run. When exceeded, the current metric run is considered failed.
    For most metrics, when the number of consecutive runs that fail because the runtime exceeds Runtime threshold, is greater than the Fail count threshold, the system automatically deactivates the metric. You can manually reactivate a deactivated metric by setting its Active column to true. An exception to the those column definitions and usage is the CMDB CIs Processed via IRE metric. For details, see CMDB Data Foundations dashboard.