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Map application services using tags

Use tags that help categorize and organize configuration items (CIs) in your organization to map application services. Tag-based mapping does not require configuring credentials or providing users with elevated rights.

Before you begin

Perform the following steps:

Analyze the tag usage in your organization and make a list of all tags and their purposes. Use the Key Value [cmdb_key_value] table to see the tags in the CMDB.
Important: Notice all variants of keys and values for tags used for the same purpose. For example, the tag keys used for marking environments may be: Env or Environment.
If necessary, assign tags to CIs that you want to include in application services.
Avoid creating very large application services containing more than 5000 CI relations. Such large services may cause performance issues.
Create and define tag categories that you want Service Mapping to use for mapping application services.
For example, to map all application services your organization uses in the production environment in the EMEA region, create the following tag categories: Applications, EMEA region, and Production.
1. Define the tag category name, for example, Environment.
2. Under CI tag keys, double-click the row and type the tag key, for example Env.
  Tag key variants using different capitalization, like Env, env or ENV, are also assigned to this tag category.
  Repeat this step until you add all tag key variants that your organization uses for the same purpose, for example Env and Environment.
Run Discovery to horizontally discover CIs. Discovery populates the CMDB with the CI data, including tags.
If your ServiceNow instance uses domain separation and you have access to the global domain, log in to the relevant domain. The selected domain must be a domain without any child domains.

Role required: sm_admin

About this task

A tag is a label that consists of a key-value pair. Your organization may use tags to categorize its assets, to enhance query and reporting capabilities. Discovery and Cloud Management can discover tags used by all major cloud providers and container ecosystems. Once the tags are discovered, Service Mapping can create application services based on these tags. For example, you can use tags to map all application services your organization uses in the production environment in the EMEA region. You can effectively use tags to map multiple application services.

As a preparation for tag-based mapping, create tag categories that contain tags with similar use.

Define a tag-based service family and define tags that you want Service Mapping to use for mapping. Based on the tag definitions for the tag-based service family, Service Mapping creates service candidates - suggested application services. You review the candidates and decide which ones you want to use to create the actual tag-based application services. For details on the tag-based mapping process, see Tag-based discovery in Service Mapping.

Only CIs that have discovered tag values for the tag categories you selected become part of application services. Service Mapping creates a separate service candidate for each tag value combination. If you narrow the criteria down by defining the tag values in addition to tag categories, Service Mapping maps only CIs that have the matching values. CIs that have more than one tag assigned to them, can be part of multiple services. You may want to create a tag category for tags related to different types of environments, if your organization uses "production" and "staging" tag values. Tag-based mapping is not case-sensitive; same key names and key values spelled with upper and lower case are identified as the same.

Note: Service Mapping includes CIs that are part of CI relationships even if these CIs do not have tags assigned to them. For more information, see Tag-based discovery in Service Mapping.

Table 1. Examples of defining tag-based mapping criteria for service families
Definitions for service family	Category	Key	Value (optional)	Result
Example 1: one tag category, no values	Environment	Env	Not defined	Service Mapping creates a service candidate for each tag value for the Env key. Each service candidate contains only CIs with the same value for the Env key.
Example 2: one tag category, one value	Environment	Env	Production	Service Mapping creates the service candidate containing only CIs that have the Env tag key with the Production tag value.
Example 3: one tag category, two values	Environment	Env	Staging,Production	Service Mapping creates two service candidates: One containing CIs that have the Production tag value; another containing CIs that have the Staging tag value.
Example 4: two tag categories, no values	Environment Application	Env App	Not defined	Service Mapping creates a service candidate for each combination of tag values for all defined tag keys.
Example 5: two tag categories, two values for each category	Environment Application	Env App	Production,Staging HR,Finance	Service Mapping creates four service candidates: production::hr, production::finance, staging::hr, staging::finance.

Service Mapping creates names for tag-based services using tag values discovered for the tag definitions, to which these tag-based services belong. For example, for Environment and Application tag categories with Production and HR as their respective tag values, the default service name is production::hr. Tag-based service names use low case.

Important: If you add or remove tag categories after mapping services, Service Mapping does not implement these changes for previously mapped services belonging to this service family. For more information, see Modify or update tag definitions for tag-based mapping.

Procedure

Navigate to Service Mapping > Administration > Tag-based Service Families.
Click New.
Define the service family name.
(Optional) Select Regularly update service candidates for Service Mapping to regenerate suggestions for application services that match tag categories you define for the service family.
Define the tag categories and tag values to use for mapping application services belonging to this service family.
1. Under Selected tag categories, select the relevant tag category from the list of tag categories you defined earlier.
2. (Optional) To make the mapping process more precise, add the tag value, for example, Production. For multiple tag values, use comma as a separator: Staging, Production.
3. (Optional) To change the default service naming convention, set the order in which Service Mapping uses the tag values in the candidate name.
  For example, the first category of the service family is Environment and the second category is Application. The default service name that Service Mapping assigns to the service candidate is Production::Finance. To make Service Mapping use the Application category value at the beginning of the name, set the Order value for the Application category to 1.
4. (Optional) Select other tag categories as necessary for this service family. The maximum number of categories per service family is three.
Click View service candidates.
In the Service candidate window, review the suggested service candidates and select the ones that you want to map.
If there are no service candidates, in the Key Value [cmdb_key_value] table, ensure that there are tag values for the tag keys you used for mapping.
Click Map selected.
Service Mapping creates application services based on the candidates you selected.

If there is an error about the service name that exists in the system, fix the candidate name by performing the following steps:
1. Click View service candidates.
2. Click the name that exists and change it.
3. Click OK to save the change.
4. View the service candidates and map the relevant ones.
New application services contain only the application service CIs as their entry points. The Populate Calculated Services scheduled job maps new tag-based services once a day.
(Optional) To map a new application service immediately, without waiting for the scheduled job to populate it:
1. Select the relevant application service.
2. In the application service form, click Additional Info on the left.
3. Under Related Links, click Recalculate Service.
4. Click View Map at the top of the form and review the mapping result.
After the scheduled job maps all new tag-based services, navigate to the relevant tag-based service family and review the newly mapped services listed under Mapped services.

Result

All tag-based application services have their respective application service CIs as their entry points.

Example of a tag-based service map. — Figure 1. The map for the Finance::Production application service based on tags

What to do next

After the scheduled job maps all new tag-based services, navigate to the relevant tag-based service family and review the newly mapped services listed under Mapped services.
Make sure that the application services aren't too large:
- Service Mapping doesn't offer to view CI list instead of a map for anapplication service.
- There is no discovery message indicating that the application service is too large: The map does not display the entire service, because it is too large. The number of CI connections exceeded the allowed maximum.
If some application services are too large, resolve the service size issue:
- Modify tag definitions used for mapping to make sure Service Mapping includes only relevant CIs are included in the application service.
- If necessary, configure tag-based discovery to change which CIs Service Mapping includes in tag-based application services.
To fine-tune or fix the tag-based services, modify the tag categories that you used for the service family.
Attention: The map window displays maps for tag-based and dynamic services in the View mode only. You cannot fine-tune or edit tag-based and dynamic services from the map.

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Release version

Map application services using tags

Before you begin

Perform the following steps:

Analyze the tag usage in your organization and make a list of all tags and their purposes. Use the Key Value [cmdb_key_value] table to see the tags in the CMDB.
Important: Notice all variants of keys and values for tags used for the same purpose. For example, the tag keys used for marking environments may be: Env or Environment.
If necessary, assign tags to CIs that you want to include in application services.
Avoid creating very large application services containing more than 5000 CI relations. Such large services may cause performance issues.
Create and define tag categories that you want Service Mapping to use for mapping application services.
For example, to map all application services your organization uses in the production environment in the EMEA region, create the following tag categories: Applications, EMEA region, and Production.
1. Define the tag category name, for example, Environment.
2. Under CI tag keys, double-click the row and type the tag key, for example Env.
  Tag key variants using different capitalization, like Env, env or ENV, are also assigned to this tag category.
  Repeat this step until you add all tag key variants that your organization uses for the same purpose, for example Env and Environment.
Run Discovery to horizontally discover CIs. Discovery populates the CMDB with the CI data, including tags.
If your ServiceNow instance uses domain separation and you have access to the global domain, log in to the relevant domain. The selected domain must be a domain without any child domains.

Role required: sm_admin

About this task

As a preparation for tag-based mapping, create tag categories that contain tags with similar use.

Note: Service Mapping includes CIs that are part of CI relationships even if these CIs do not have tags assigned to them. For more information, see Tag-based discovery in Service Mapping.

Table 1. Examples of defining tag-based mapping criteria for service families
Definitions for service family	Category	Key	Value (optional)	Result
Example 1: one tag category, no values	Environment	Env	Not defined	Service Mapping creates a service candidate for each tag value for the Env key. Each service candidate contains only CIs with the same value for the Env key.
Example 2: one tag category, one value	Environment	Env	Production	Service Mapping creates the service candidate containing only CIs that have the Env tag key with the Production tag value.
Example 3: one tag category, two values	Environment	Env	Staging,Production	Service Mapping creates two service candidates: One containing CIs that have the Production tag value; another containing CIs that have the Staging tag value.
Example 4: two tag categories, no values	Environment Application	Env App	Not defined	Service Mapping creates a service candidate for each combination of tag values for all defined tag keys.
Example 5: two tag categories, two values for each category	Environment Application	Env App	Production,Staging HR,Finance	Service Mapping creates four service candidates: production::hr, production::finance, staging::hr, staging::finance.

Procedure

Navigate to Service Mapping > Administration > Tag-based Service Families.
Click New.
Define the service family name.
(Optional) Select Regularly update service candidates for Service Mapping to regenerate suggestions for application services that match tag categories you define for the service family.
Define the tag categories and tag values to use for mapping application services belonging to this service family.
1. Under Selected tag categories, select the relevant tag category from the list of tag categories you defined earlier.
2. (Optional) To make the mapping process more precise, add the tag value, for example, Production. For multiple tag values, use comma as a separator: Staging, Production.
3. (Optional) To change the default service naming convention, set the order in which Service Mapping uses the tag values in the candidate name.
  For example, the first category of the service family is Environment and the second category is Application. The default service name that Service Mapping assigns to the service candidate is Production::Finance. To make Service Mapping use the Application category value at the beginning of the name, set the Order value for the Application category to 1.
4. (Optional) Select other tag categories as necessary for this service family. The maximum number of categories per service family is three.
Click View service candidates.
In the Service candidate window, review the suggested service candidates and select the ones that you want to map.
If there are no service candidates, in the Key Value [cmdb_key_value] table, ensure that there are tag values for the tag keys you used for mapping.
Click Map selected.
Service Mapping creates application services based on the candidates you selected.

If there is an error about the service name that exists in the system, fix the candidate name by performing the following steps:
1. Click View service candidates.
2. Click the name that exists and change it.
3. Click OK to save the change.
4. View the service candidates and map the relevant ones.
New application services contain only the application service CIs as their entry points. The Populate Calculated Services scheduled job maps new tag-based services once a day.
(Optional) To map a new application service immediately, without waiting for the scheduled job to populate it:
1. Select the relevant application service.
2. In the application service form, click Additional Info on the left.
3. Under Related Links, click Recalculate Service.
4. Click View Map at the top of the form and review the mapping result.
After the scheduled job maps all new tag-based services, navigate to the relevant tag-based service family and review the newly mapped services listed under Mapped services.

Result

All tag-based application services have their respective application service CIs as their entry points.

What to do next

After the scheduled job maps all new tag-based services, navigate to the relevant tag-based service family and review the newly mapped services listed under Mapped services.
Make sure that the application services aren't too large:
- Service Mapping doesn't offer to view CI list instead of a map for anapplication service.
- There is no discovery message indicating that the application service is too large: The map does not display the entire service, because it is too large. The number of CI connections exceeded the allowed maximum.
If some application services are too large, resolve the service size issue:
- Modify tag definitions used for mapping to make sure Service Mapping includes only relevant CIs are included in the application service.
- If necessary, configure tag-based discovery to change which CIs Service Mapping includes in tag-based application services.
To fine-tune or fix the tag-based services, modify the tag categories that you used for the service family.
Attention: The map window displays maps for tag-based and dynamic services in the View mode only. You cannot fine-tune or edit tag-based and dynamic services from the map.

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