Troubleshooting Slow Performance

• Unable to log in to an instance.
• The instance no longer responds to keyboard or mouse commands.
• Operations seem to run slow or slower than they did before.
• Slow performance across all or specific applications in the instance.
• Slow response time when entering data into applications.
• The graphical user interface (GUI) takes too long to refresh. 

• Network connectivity issues exist.
• Tables do not have indexes, causing the system to take longer to return results. This is due to the large amounts of data that must be processed.
• Scripts are stuck in an infinite loop.
• A script(s) created an inefficient query in the database or is running full table scans on large tables.
• Nested queries in the MySQL server have brought the database to a halt due to certain conditions.
• The Java virtual machine (JVM) memory use is high or the memory heap is not big enough to store all the data.
• A large number of calls are made to the database, causing high disk input/output (I/O) on the database server.
• The central processing unit (CPU) load on the server is too high.
• There is a high level of transaction concurrency.

Slow performance can be related to a single cause or a combination of issues. Before analyzing each possible cause, it is important to answer two main questions:

1. Who is experiencing slow response times?
2. What applications are affected? 

If slow performance is experienced by:

• A single user and affects all or a specific application in the instance.
• All users and affects all applications in the instance, see Troubleshooting case where all-users experience performance issues on all applications.
• All users and affects a specific application in the instance, see Troubleshooting case where all-users experience performance issues on a specific application.

If the issue continues to exist after following the troubleshooting guidelines:

• Clearly identify the issue or question.
• Visit the ServiceNow product documentation.
• Search the ServiceNow Community.
• Post a question on the ServiceNow Community forums. New users must create an account on the ServiceNow Community in order to post.
• Open an incident via email or the online Technical Support system.
• Contact the Technical Support team.

For more topic related issues, review the following Knowledge Base article:

• Troubleshooting events that are not being processed