Domain separation in Dashboards

This document is an overview of domain separation as it pertains to dashboards and how it relates to dashboard creation and administration. Domain separation enables you to separate data, processes, and administrative tasks into logical groupings called domains. You can then control several aspects of this separation, including which users can see and access data.

Overview

Support: Data only

Domain separation is supported in this application. Not all ServiceNow applications support domain separation; some include limitations on the data and administrative settings that can be domain separated. To learn more, see Application support for domain separation. To activate the domain separation plugin, see Request domain separation.

Note: In order for users in child domains to view dashboards in parent domains, both domain separation and delegated administration must be enabled. For more information, see Access the Domain Configuration console.

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 dashboard 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 domain are not visible to users in the other child domains or to users in the parent domain.

List of company departments in separate domains including IT, CS, and HR

Note: 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.

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