Domain separation for Platform Analytics dashboards

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Domain separation for Platform Analytics dashboards

    Domain separation in Platform Analytics enables ServiceNow customers to logically segregate data, processes, and administrative tasks across multiple domains within a single instance. This separation controls user access and data visibility, ensuring that users only see dashboards and data relevant to their domain. To fully utilize domain separation, both the domain separation plugin and delegated administration must be enabled, especially to allow users in child domains to view dashboards in parent domains.

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    Key Features

    • Domain-aware application properties: Application properties and business logic are configured to support multiple service provider customers within one instance.
    • Domain-specific dashboard access and editing: Users can only view dashboards shared with their domain. Edit permissions are restricted to dashboards within the user's domain; for example, HR domain users cannot edit IT domain dashboards.
    • Dashboard data separation: Domain-separated data includes dashboards, tabs, and widget containers. Widget content respects the domain of the underlying data.
    • Global and parent domain visibility: Dashboards created at the global or parent domain level can be shared and viewed across child domains, but child domain users have read-only access and cannot overwrite dashboards.
    • Administrative considerations: Administrators should edit dashboards only within the appropriate domain to ensure visibility and functionality for users in that domain.

    Practical Implications for ServiceNow Customers

    • Domain separation allows multiple tenants or business units to securely share a single ServiceNow instance while maintaining data isolation.
    • Users can view dashboards relevant to their domain, improving data governance and compliance.
    • Editing restrictions prevent unauthorized changes to dashboards outside a user’s domain, preserving data integrity.
    • Proper configuration of domain separation and delegated administration is critical to ensure intended access and visibility.
    • Administrators must be mindful to operate within the correct domain context when managing dashboards to avoid visibility issues.

    Domain separation is supported throughout Platform Analytics. Domain separation enables you to separate data, processes, and administrative tasks into logical groupings called domains. You can control several aspects of this separation, including which users can see and access data.

    Support level: Standard

    • Includes all aspects of Basic level support.
    • Application properties are domain-aware as needed.
    • Business logic: The service provider (SP) creates or modifies processes per customer. The use cases reflect proper use of the application by multiple SP customers in a single instance.
    • The instance owner must configure the minimum viable product (MVP) business logic and data parameters per tenant as expected for the specific application.

    Sample use case: An Admin must be able to make comments required when a record closes for one tenant, but not for another.

    For more information on support levels, see Application support for domain separation.

    Overview of domain separation

    To activate the domain separation plugin, see Request domain separation.

    Important:
    For users in child domains to view dashboards in parent domains, both domain separation and delegated administration must be enabled.

    Users in child domains cannot overwrite dashboards. Child domain users only have read access to dashboards.

    How domain separation works in Dashboards

    Assumptions:
    • Only dashboards that have been shared are visible to other users. See Share a responsive dashboard.
    • Users granted edit permissions on a dashboard can only edit that dashboard if they are in the same domain as the dashboard. For example, a user who is in the HR domain cannot edit a dashboard created in the parent of the HR domain.

    Dashboard data that is domain separated includes dashboard records, dashboard tabs, and widget containers. Widget content is governed by the domain separation that applies to the content itself. For example, an admin adds a report created in the HR domain to a dashboard in the IT domain. This report is not visible to users in the IT domain, although they can see the widget container.

    A dashboard defined at the global level is visible to all users with whom it has been shared. A shared dashboard created in a parent domain is visible to users in the parent and all its child domains. For example, a dashboard created in the TOP company is visible to users in:
    • Joe's company
    • Other companies in the TOP company
    • All HR, CS, and IT child domains in those companies if it is shared with those users.
    In the following figure, dashboards created in the IT, CS, and HR domains are not visible to users in the other child domains or in the parent domain.
    Figure 1. Domains list example
    List of company departments in separate domains including IT, CS, and HR
    Important:
    Administrators should not edit a domain-separated dashboard from the global domain, because additions made to the dashboard are not visible to users within the separated domain. When editing dashboards, make sure that you are logged in to the correct domain.