SolarWinds Observability tab for Service Observability

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of SolarWinds Observability tab for Service Observability

    The SolarWinds Observability tab in the Service Details page of Service Observability (SOW) provides dashboards and charts to monitor various performance metrics related to services, hosts, and network devices. This integration helps ServiceNow customers gain insights into service health and infrastructure performance using SolarWinds data.

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    Note: All SolarWinds charts use Universal Time Code (UTC) on the X axis, which may differ from the user’s local timezone.

    Key Features

    • Application Dashboard: Displays core service performance metrics sourced from SolarWinds, including:
      • Rate of transactions per minute
      • Latency of transactions in milliseconds
      • Time spent in database calls and queries
      • Database throughput rate
      Customized dashboards may show different information.
    • Compute Dashboard: Shows metrics for hosts associated with the service, such as:
      • CPU utilization percentage
      • Memory utilization percentage
      • Disk utilization percentage
      Users can view detailed information for active servers and virtual machine instances via CMDB links.
    • Database Dashboards: Currently, database metrics are not supported for SolarWinds integration.
    • Networking Dashboards: Present metrics for network devices related to the service, including:
      • Firewall Dashboard: Displays Palo Alto firewall metrics such as CPU utilization, session utilization, drop rate, availability, recent configuration changes, open incidents, and active alerts.
      • Load Balancer Dashboard: Shows F5 Big-IP load balancer metrics including connection utilization, inbound/outbound rates, pool member status with health indicators, error rates, and latency.
      • Interface Dashboard: Indicates inbound errors, traffic rates, and bandwidth utilization on network interfaces.
      • Other Networking Devices: Reports CPU utilization, packet loss, and error percentages on networking devices.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    By leveraging the SolarWinds Observability tab, ServiceNow customers can:

    • Monitor comprehensive service and infrastructure health metrics in one place within the ServiceNow platform.
    • Identify performance issues related to transactions, database calls, hosts, and network devices quickly.
    • Access detailed host and VM information to assist in troubleshooting and capacity planning.
    • Track firewall and load balancer device status, configuration changes, incidents, and alerts to maintain network security and availability.
    • Utilize standardized metrics sourced directly from SolarWinds for accurate and consistent monitoring.

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

    Note:
    The X axis on SolarWinds charts use Universal Time Code (UTC) instead of the user's timezone.

    Application 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. Service basic metrics
    Chart Description Data source
    Rate Aggregate rate of transactions through the service, per minute. SolarWinds
    Latency Aggregate duration of transactions through the service, in milliseconds. SolarWinds
    Time spent in database calls Duration of requests to databases, in milliseconds. SolarWinds
    Time spent in database queries Time spent querying the database, in milliseconds. SolarWinds
    Database throughput Rate of database requests for this service per minute. SolarWinds

    Compute dashboard

    This dashboard displays metrics for hosts related to the service.

    Table 2. Host
    Chart Description Data source
    CPU utilization Percent of the host processing power being consumed. SolarWinds
    Memory utilization Percent of memory the host is using. SolarWinds
    Disk utilization Percent of disk space being used. SolarWinds
    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 machine instances the service is actively using. Select a VM link to view more detailed information. CMDB

    Database dashboards

    Database metrics are currently not supported for SolarWinds.

    Networking dashboards

    These dashboards display metrics for network devices related to the service.

    By default, the Firewall dashboard displays Palo Alto metrics and the Load Balancer dashboard displays F5 Big-IP metrics.

    Table 3. Firewall
    Chart Description Data source
    CPU Utilization Percentage of CPU utilization on the firewall device. SolarWinds
    Session Utilization Percentage of session capacity currently in use. SolarWinds
    Drop Rate Percentage of network packets/connections that the device has intentionally blocked or failed to process. SolarWinds
    Availability Percentage of time the firewall is available. SolarWinds
    Recent Changes Table displaying recent configuration changes made to the firewall device. CMDB
    Current Open Incidents Table listing active incidents affecting the firewall device. CMDB
    All Active Alerts Table listing all active alerts related to the firewall device. CMDB
    Table 4. Load Balancer
    Chart Description Data source
    Connection Utilization Percentage of available connections currently in use. SolarWinds
    Inbound Rate Rate of bytes per second received from the configured nodes. SolarWinds
    Outbound Rate Rate of bytes per second sent to the configured nodes. SolarWinds
    Pool Member Status Pool Availability Status:
    • 0: None (no status available)
    • 1: Available, all members healthy
    • 2: Degraded, some members down
    • 3: Unavailable, all members down
    • 4: Unknown, status cannot be determined
    		SolarWinds
    Error Percentage of inbound errors on the load balancer. SolarWinds
    Latency Aggregate duration of transactions through the load balancer, in milliseconds. SolarWinds
    Table 5. Interface
    Chart Description Data source
    Error Percentage of inbound errors on the interface. SolarWinds
    Traffic Rate in bytes per second of traffic through the interface. SolarWinds
    Bandwidth Utilization Percentage of available bandwidth. SolarWinds
    Table 6. Other Networking Devices
    Chart Description Data source
    CPU Utilization Percentage of CPU utilization on the networking device. SolarWinds
    Packet Loss Percentage of packets dropped. SolarWinds
    Error Percentage of errors on the networking device. SolarWinds