Troubleshooting in ServiceNow: The xmlStats.do Command Tutorial
In ServiceNow, the `xmlStats.do` command is a powerful diagnostic tool used to monitor system performance. The command “https://instance.com/xmlastats.do” provides detailed XML output containing important statistics about the system’s health, including memory details, active sessions, node performance, and database activity. For organizations leveraging ServiceNow Managed Services, this tool plays a crucial role in proactively maintaining optimal performance and ensuring a smoothly managed environment.
This information is crucial for administrators to identify system performance and ensure the instance runs smoothly. This command can be essential for effective system monitoring and troubleshooting in ServiceNow.
Post San Diego release, the System Diagnostics homepage is deprecated ,which provides system performance metrics. By default, new instances post San Diego version do not have a System Diagnostics homepage. It was truly the best tool to understand the instance health and optimize the instance performance. However, the `xmlStats.do` command can be a valuable alternative.
Overview of various components of xmlStats.do and how to interpret them
Node Details:
This section gives clear picture of nodes available, and their status.
In addition, it also gives if they are available for AHA readiness (Advanced High Availability Readiness)
Flow Details:
This section shows information about executed flows and details about the Flow Engine Event Handler. This helps to troubleshoot issues related to flow execution, such as flows that are not running or are stuck.
Semaphore details:
Semaphores define number of transactions that a node can execute. This can be analysed to understand node health with respect to transactions.
Thread details:
Threads are similar to semaphores. Worker threads are responsible for executing scheduled jobs.
The Thread metrics can be analysed to understand the long-running scheduled jobs in the instance.
Pending schedule jobs and update sets installed in last 24 hours:
This section provides information about pending scheduled jobs and updates installed in the last 24 hours. It helps in troubleshooting long-running jobs and identifying recent updates that might be affecting system performance.
Current logged-in user’s details
This section shows the number of users currently logged in per node, as well as a role-wise user count. This helps administrators understand node performance concerning user transactions.
Inbound and outbound email metrics:
Inbound and outbound email processing is crucial in any instance. Particularly if the instance is a production instance, it is important that the instance processes inbound emails for various inbound actions and outbound emails for various communications.
The metrics give processed count, time and related jobs. This helps to understand system performance in terms of sending and receiving emails
Plugin Details:
This section lists all the plugins installed in the instance, their versions, and installation dates. This information helps quickly identify when specific plugins were installed in the instance.
In addition to the above metrics, other important information like instance data replication details, event details, mid servers in the instance details, URI response times, JVM details and memory details in the instance can be found from the xmlStats.do the command. This information provides a comprehensive view of the instance performance health.
The “Include” Argument:
Use the xmlStats.do?include=<section> command to pull up specific section details. Instead of pulling up the whole XML output of the ServiceNow instance performance, this argument can be used to specify a piece of information the admins need.
For example, to only get thread details, use xmlStats.do?include=threads. This helps to get more understandable pieces of information from a complex XML output.
Helpful docs:
- https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/washingtondc-it-operations-management/page/product/event-management/task/xmlstats-oi-self-health.html
- https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/xanadu-it-operations-management/page/product/event-management/task/monitor-event-processing-metrics.html
- https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/xanadu-servicenow-platform/page/administer/instance-data-replication/reference/IDR-XML-stats.html
