Define the background job framework in your ServiceNow AI Platform® instance. These configuration changes can help you improve performance by reducing the amount system resources used to run your background jobs.

What can you edit in the background job framework

With the Background job configuration module, you have the following setting options in the framework:
  • You can define the number of background jobs that run concurrently for Vulnerability Response processes.
  • For long jobs that run in the background and process large amounts of data, you can create partitions to process data in smaller chunks.
  • You can cancel a job.

Why configure the background job framework

Background jobs in your ServiceNow AI Platform® are designed to run for long periods of time to perform multiple processes on your records in Vulnerability Response. These jobs were previously based on business rules that run asynchronously. There is no limit to the number of these jobs that can run in the background in your instance so that the large amounts of records that are impacted by these jobs can be processed. When multiple jobs that take a long time to complete, run concurrently in the background, the system resources used to run your scheduled jobs are impacted, which in turn, might negatively impact your performance.

Configuring the background job framework can help you improve your performance by reducing the amount system resources used to run your background jobs.

Key terms

Job capability
Describes the particular jobs. For example, a particular job might include the following capabilities:
  • The job can be run in parallel with another job of the same type.
  • The job can be partitioned.
  • The job can be canceled while running.
Concurrency
Refers to jobs or pieces of jobs that run in parallel.
Partition
Partitions are pieces of jobs that can be split up so that they can be processed in parallel to achieve better performance. Usually refers to jobs with long run times.
Job configuration
Refers to the settings for a particular scheduled job.
Scheduled job
Scheduled Jobs are automated pieces of work that can be performed at a specific time or on a recurring schedule.
System resources
Refers to the amount of system resources you must support a given number of background jobs and scheduled jobs in your environment.
System property
System properties store configuration information that rarely or never changes. Each time you change or add a system property, the system flushes the cache to keep all nodes in the cluster synchronized. This cache flush impacts performance.
Business rule
A business rule is a server-side script that runs when a record is displayed, inserted, updated, or deleted, or when a table is queried. Business rules accomplish tasks like automatically changing values in form fields when certain conditions are met, or creating events for email notifications and script actions.

Use case for defining the background job framework

For example, the background job that applies remediation target rules for vulnerable item records (VITs) and Application Vulnerability Response vulnerable item records (AVITs) simultaneously processes large amounts of records with multiple tasks.

Depending on the size of the import and the number of records you have in your environment, this job might use a large amount of your available system resources and take a long time to successfully complete. System maintenance jobs or other scheduled jobs might run more slowly.

The Background job configuration module, jobs are listed by name and a unique Configuration ID. On these records, you can define how many tasks you want to run concurrently for a given background job. You can also set the job to process partitions of data so the tasks complete more quickly and easily and use less of your system resources. You can also cancel a job if you determine it is running too long.

Figure 1. The Background job configuration module
Background Job Configurations list view.

For more information about the required steps to define the background job configurations, see Define background job configurations in Vulnerability Response.