Datadog Observability tab for Service Observability

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Datadog Observability tab for Service Observability

    The Datadog Observability tab within the Service Details page of Service Observability provides comprehensive dashboards and charts that display key performance and operational metrics for services monitored via Datadog. This integration enables ServiceNow customers to view real-time service health and infrastructure data in context, facilitating faster issue identification and resolution.

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    Key Features

    • Application > Service Dashboard: Displays aggregated KPIs such as request rates, error counts, and latency for the selected service. Also features top transactions charts that show throughput, errors, and response times per key transaction with interactive hover details.
    • Compute > Host Dashboard: Visualizes host-level metrics related to the service including CPU utilization, memory usage, and disk utilization sourced from Datadog. It also provides lists of all active servers and virtual machines (VMs) associated with the service, with links to detailed configuration management database (CMDB) records.
    • Databases > MySQL Dashboard: Offers MySQL-specific metrics such as max concurrent connections, failed connection attempts, slow query rates, data reads/writes, and cache utilization. Users can explore all MySQL instances linked to the service with direct CMDB access for further details.
    • Databases > PostgreSQL Dashboard: Provides PostgreSQL database metrics including total connections, service-specific connections, active waiting queries, deadlocks, rollbacks, and buffer cache hits. As with MySQL, users can access all PostgreSQL instances and details via CMDB links.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Enables centralized visibility of service performance and infrastructure health directly within ServiceNow, reducing the need to switch between platforms.
    • Supports proactive monitoring by highlighting key error metrics and latency issues at both service and transaction levels.
    • Facilitates root cause analysis by correlating application performance with host and database metrics.
    • Enhances service management workflows by linking observability data to CMDB records for hosts, VMs, and databases, improving asset traceability and impact assessments.
    • Customizable dashboards allow adaptation to specific monitoring needs, though customers should note that customizations may alter the default data views described.

    Dashboard and charts on the Datadog Observability tab of the Service Details page in the SOW.

    Application > Service dashboard

    This dashboard displays performance metrics for the selected service.
    Note:
    If the dashboards have been customized, they might not reflect the information shown on this page.
    Table 1. KPIs
    Chart Description Data source
    Requests Aggregate rate of requests through the service. Datadog
    Errors Number of transactions that have an error. Datadog
    Latency Aggregate duration of transactions through the service, in milliseconds. Datadog
    Table 2. Top Transactions
    Chart Description Data source
    Requests Each line represents the throughput of a key transaction through the service. Hover over a point to view the different transaction names. Datadog
    Errors Each line represents the number of errors on a key transaction in the service. Hover over a point to view the different transaction names. Datadog
    Latency Each line represents the response time for a key transaction on the service. Hover over a point to view the different transaction names. Datadog

    Compute > Host dashboard

    This dashboard displays metrics for hosts related to the service.

    Chart Description Data source
    CPU Utilization Percent of the host processing power being consumed. Datadog
    Memory Utilization Percent of memory the host is using. Datadog
    Disk Utilization Percent of disk space being used. Datadog
    All Active Servers Information for all hosts the service is actively using. Select a host link to view more detailed information. CMDB
    All Active VM Instances Information for all virtual machines (VM) the service is actively using. Select a VM link to view more information. CMDB

    Databases > MySQL

    This dashboard displays metrics for MySQL databases related to the service.

    Chart Description Data source
    Max Connections Maximum number of concurrent connections that can be established with the MySQL database server. Datadog
    Failed Connections Number of failed attempts to connect to the MySQL server. Datadog
    Slow Queries Rate Number of database queries that have been categorized as slow by the APM. Datadog
    Data Reads Number of read operations performed on the MySQL database. Datadog
    Data Writes Number of write operations performed on the MySQL database. Datadog
    Cache Utilization Percentage of the cache memory being used by the MySQL database. Datadog
    All MySQL Instances Information for all databases the service is actively using. Select a database link to view more detailed information. CMDB

    Databases > PostgreSQL

    This dashboard displays metrics for PostgreSQL databases related to the service.

    Chart Description Data source
    Connections Total number of connections to the database server, including all connection states such as active, idle, and others. Datadog
    Connections Used Number of connections to the database used by this service. Datadog
    Active Waiting Queries Number of queries in the queue waiting to be executed. Datadog
    Deadlocks Number of deadlocks encountered by the service. Datadog
    Rollbacks Number of transactions rolled back by the service. Datadog
    Buffer Hits Number of times disk blocks were found in the buffer cache, so that a read was not necessary. Datadog
    All PostgreSQL Instances Information of all databases the service is actively using. Select a database link to view more detailed information. CMDB