CMDB Health system properties

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of CMDB Health system properties

    CMDB Health system properties allow ServiceNow customers to customize how the Configuration Management Database (CMDB) Health application monitors and evaluates the health of Configuration Items (CIs). These properties influence processing times, ownership attribution, logging detail, and data source considerations for health metrics.

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    Key Properties and Their Practical Use

    • Max time for metric processor ([glide.cmdb.health.metricProcessor.maxRunningTime]): Sets the maximum runtime in minutes for each metric processor during scheduled cycles. Defaults to 120 minutes. If exceeded, CMDB Health processing pauses until the next scheduled job. It is recommended not to increase this beyond 120 minutes for performance reasons.
    • CI ownership attribute ([glide.cmdb.health.ciownershipfield]): Specifies the attribute in the cmdbci table used by the CMDB Health dashboard to determine CI ownership. The default is managedbygroup. This helps ensure that dashboard charts accurately reflect CI ownership for accountability and reporting.
    • Logging control ([glide.cmdb.logger.usesyslog.CMDBHealth]): Defines the logging levels for CMDB Health jobs. Accepts a comma-separated list of info, error, warn, or for all levels. Default is error. This property assists in debugging health audits by capturing relevant log messages.
    • Audit-only health results ([glide.cmdb.health.src.cmdbhealthauditonly]): When set to true, CMDB Health KPIs and dashboard metrics only reflect results from CMDB Health audits, excluding other sources such as Cloud Discovery. Default is false. This allows customers to focus dashboard results exclusively on internal audit findings if desired.
    • Exclude dependent CIs from staleness checks ([glide.cmdb.health.stalenessexcludedependentcis]): When enabled, dependent CIs are excluded from staleness evaluations regardless of staleness or inclusion rules. Defaults to false. This setting helps tailor staleness metrics by excluding dependent CIs that may not require the same health scrutiny.

    Practical Implications for ServiceNow Customers

    Configuring these system properties enables customers to optimize CMDB Health performance, tailor ownership reporting, control audit logging granularity, and refine the sources and scope of health data presented in dashboards. Careful adjustment helps ensure accurate, performant, and relevant health monitoring aligned with organizational needs.

    To manage these properties, customers with the itiladmin role can navigate to the System Property [sysproperties] table or access them via All > Configuration > Health Preference, selecting System Properties. Adjustments should be made with consideration to default values and performance recommendations.

    Configure the following system properties to customize how CMDB Health monitors and evaluates CIs health.

    Role required: itil_admin

    Note:
    To open the System Property [sys_properties] table, enter sys_properties.list in the navigation filter.
    Property Description

    Max time in minutes for which individual metric processor will run in each scheduled cycle

    [glide.cmdb.health.metricProcessor.maxRunningTime]

    		 If processing of a metric exceeds the specified time, CMDB Health processing halts until the next CMDB Health job is scheduled to run.
    • Type: integer
    • Default value: 120
    • Location: Navigate to All > Configuration > Health Preference. In the right hand-side pane, select System Properties.

    For performance reasons, it is recommended not to set this property to a value greater than 120.

    Note:
    If you enter an invalid value, the default value is used.

    Attribute in the [cmdb_ci] table that references the User or User Group table. CMDB Health Dashboard charts use this attribute to determine CIs’ ownership.

    glide.cmdb.health.ci_ownership_field

    		 Attribute in the [cmdb_ci] table that the CMDB Health dashboard uses to determine CI ownership.
    • Type: string
    • Default value: managed_by_group
    • Location: Navigate to All > Configuration > Health Preference. In the right hand-side pane, select System Properties.
    glide.cmdb.logger.use_syslog.CMDBHealth A comma-separated list that controls the level of logging of CMDB Health jobs. Logging creates entries in the system logs to capture messages generated by the health auditing process each time they run. This logging helps debugging if there is a failure.

    For example, to log error and info messages, set the value to 'error,info'.

    • Type: String
    • Default value: error
    • Other possible values: Comma-separated list with any of the following values:
      • info
      • error
      • warn

      Or '*' which is equivalent to including all possible values.

    • Location: System Property [sys_properties] table.
    glide.cmdb.health.src.cmdb_health_audit_only

    When set to true, disables health results from sources other than CMDB Health audit (such as Cloud Discovery). Only results generated by CMDB Health audit appear for KPIs in the CMDB Health dashboard.

    For example, by default, if a CI is determined to be stale by Discovery, then that CI is counted as stale for the correctness KPI even though CMDB Health audit didn't determine that CI to be stale. However, in this case, drilling-down the stale CIs metric, still shows those CIs in which source is Cloud Discovery.
    glide.cmdb.health.staleness_exclude_dependent_cis

    Exclude dependent CIs for the staleness CMDB Health metric.

    When enabled, dependent CIs are not checked for staleness, regardless of any staleness or inclusion rules that are defined for the respective CI types.

    • Type: true | false
    • Default value: false
    • Location: System Property [sys_properties] table.