Skip to content
Release: Australia · Updated: 2026-03-12 · Official documentation · View source

Monitoring user activity

Learn about the tools available to administrators for monitoring users on their instance.

User administration tools

In addition to storing information on a user, user accounts are also associated to groups and roles. Your instance uses groups and roles to determine which records and features an individual may access.

  • Impersonation

    Administrators can select user records for impersonation. Use this feature to experience the instance as another user, with that user's preferences and permissions. User impersonation can be a valuable tool for testing and troubleshooting. For more information on impersonation, see Impersonating users.

  • Investigating user account activity

    At any time there is a need to review specific user behavior, below are the recommended steps on how to review the transaction logs and event logs:

    • Locate the IP address of successful/failed login for a particular ServiceNow user for their instance
    • Modify the time frame of the search
    • Limiting the scope of the search by user name
    • View successful/failed login attempts For more information about investigating user activity, see the How to investigate user account activity [KB0564981] article in the Now Support Knowledge Base.
  • User sessions

    With user session management, and administrator can view and terminate individual user sessions, lock out users from the instance, and make users inactive. For details on managing user sessions, see Managing user sessions.

    User records are also associated with transaction logs. Administrators can use these logs to track all browser activity for an instance.

  • Impersonating users
    Administrators are able to impersonate other authenticated users, a feature primarily used for testing.

  • Managing user sessions
    The ServiceNow AI Platform provides the ability to view and terminate individual user sessions, lock out users from the system, and make users inactive.
  • Non-interactive sessions
    The Non-Interactive Sessions plugin creates a distinction between interactive and non-interactive users.

Parent Topic:Configure ServiceNow AI Platform core features