Common Errors and Warnings for ServiceNow

Backup

We were unable to validate and add the service. Please check the instance URL and try again.

Reason 1: When setting up a new ServiceNow service, if the instance URL is incorrect, we are unable to validate and add the service.
Solution 1: Ensure the instance URL does not have any typos and revalidate the service.

We were unable to validate and add the service due to an incorrect username or password. Please verify your credentials and try again.

Reason 1: When setting up a new ServiceNow service, if the username and/or password is incorrect, we are unable to validate and add the service.
Solution 1:
1. Ensure the username and/or password is valid by logging into the ServiceNow instance directly with those credentials.
2. Also ensure the user account has an admin role.

Your Instance is hibernating please sign in to wake it up.

Reason 1: When setting up a new ServiceNow service, if the instance is a personal developer instance (PDI) and it’s hibernating, we are unable to validate and add the service.
Solution 1: Ensure the PDI is awake by logging into developer.servicenow.com to wake it up.

Failed to backup [table_name] due to a 400 HTTP response from ServiceNow.

Reason 1: Bad Request.
Solution 1: The URI does not match the ServiceNow APIs, or the operation failed for unknown reasons. For example, malformed request syntax, invalid request message framing, or deceptive request routing.

Failed to backup [table_name] due to a 401 HTTP response from ServiceNow.

Reason 1: Unauthorized.
Solution 1: The user account is not authorized and lacks valid authentication credentials to communicate with ServiceNow’s APIs. Own is unable to receive a response from ServiceNow.

Failed to backup [table_name] due to a 403 HTTP response from ServiceNow.

Reason 1: Forbidden.
Solution 1: The request is not permitted for the user account. This can be caused by ACL failures, business rules, or data policy constraints.

Failed to backup [table_name] due to a 404 HTTP response from ServiceNow.

Reason 1: Not found.
Solution 1: ServiceNow can not find the requested resource. It can mean the resource does not exist or an ACL constraint.

Failed to backup [table_name]. Error from ServiceNow: [ImproperApiResponseException(Status code: 405; text: [error_message])

Reason 1: Method not allowed.
Solution 1: The HTTP action is not allowed for the requested REST API, or it is not supported by any API.

Failed to backup [table_name]. Error from ServiceNow: [ImproperApiResponseException(Status code: 406; text: [error_message])

Reason 1: Not acceptable.
Solution 1: The endpoint does not support the response format specified in the request Accept header.

Failed to backup [table_name]. Error from ServiceNow: [ImproperApiResponseException(Status code: 415; text: [error_message]).

Reason 1:Unsupported media type.
Solution 1: The endpoint does not support the format of the request body.

Failed to backup [table_name] due to a 429 HTTP response from ServiceNow.

Reason 1: Too many requests.
Solution 1: ServiceNow application nodes have reached their maximum queue limit and new transactions are being refused. Please try running a specific table backup on the table(s) that failed.

Failed to backup [table_name] due to a 500 HTTP response from ServiceNow.

Reason 1: ServiceNow is sending a 500 HTTP response.
Solution 1: The server has encountered a situation it does not know how to handle.
Solution 2: For Own Connect errors, review the Cross Scope Access knowledge article here.

Internal error occurred when backing up [table_name]. Error: [error].

Reason 1: A catch-all error message for non HTTP errors. These errors are generally related to exceptions related to saving or writing to files.
Solution 1: Rerun a specific table backup to see if the error occurs again. If it fails again, see solution 2.
Solution 2: The region, service_id, table name, and date/time of your backup where this error occurred. We will need to investigate to determine the root cause.

Failed to backup [table_name]. Error from ServiceNow: NullPointerException.

Reason 1: ServiceNow’s transaction quota rules have been exceeded.
Solution 1:Increase the Transaction Quota Rules as described here.
Solution 2:In the Options menu of the service, review the API Consumption options. Decrease the number of records per each API request or the table to process in parallel.

Failed to backup [table_name]. Error from ServiceNow: Transaction canceled: maximum execution time is exceeded.

Reason 1: ServiceNow’s transaction quota rules have been exceeded. The execution of the query takes longer than what is defined in the Transaction Quota Rule. Once the set limit is reached, the instance will cancel any transaction in violation of the policy and notify the user of the cancelation. A similar message is also seen in the logs.
Solution 1: Adjust the “Maximum Duration (seconds)” of the Transaction Quota Rules related to the type of REST API request within ServiceNow. Navigate to System Definition > Transaction Quota Rules.
- Update the REST Table API request timeout transaction rule:
  - Prevents inbound REST Table API transactions from running for longer than 60 seconds (default). Set this to 900 seconds (15 mins), or a comfortable duration time.
  - If the above rule does not exist, use REST and JSON Catch All.
- Update the REST Attachment API request timeout transaction rule for attachments:
  - Prevents inbound REST Import Set API transactions from running for longer than 60 seconds (default). Set this to 900 seconds (15 mins), or a comfortable duration time.
Solution 2: In the Options menu of the service, review the API Consumption options. Decrease the number of records per each API request then the tables to process in parallel. Higher combinations can lead to more resource consumptions as multiple threads are running against the API.
Solution 3: Review the table(s) that are timing out. Evaluate if the table(s) contain customer data or mission-critical data. If not, exclude those table(s). Before doing so, confirm the excluded tables do not have any relationships to mission-critical tables. Excluding additional tables creates a potential risk when restoring data.
- Tables prefixed with “sys_” are system tables that can generally be excluded since they contain system generated data.
Solution 4: If the table(s) contain user data, and not system generated data, we should include them by enabling table rotation on that data. The main table that has important data is backed up. The rotated tables are not backed up.

Failed to backup table_name. Error from ServiceNow ('Connection broken: IncompleteRead() or ConnectionResetError()')

Reason 1: The API request has timed out.
Solution 1: Increase the REST Table API request transaction rule.
Solution 2: In the Options menu, decrease the number of records for each API request.

Failed to backup table_name due to malformed data. Error from ServiceNow: Last pulled primary key was not unique: [sys_id of primary key]. Failing section to prevent a time-out.

Reason 1: ServiceNow is sending records with duplicate primary keys. This can be caused by a faulty integration or a system table that is generating metrics against the same record. For example, sn_app_insights_aggregates.
Solution 1: Review the records in the table and determine if the duplicate primary key is generated by the system, or by a user. If it’s system generated, notify our Support team. If it’s generated by a user, remediate the duplicate primary key.

Restore

Operation Failed: Data Policy Exception

Reason 1: A Data Policy has been violated by the values of the table restore. Either a required field is missing, or a field value is invalid.
Solution 1: Identify, and deactivate the Data Policy preventing the field update.
Solution 2: Modify the restore CSV to include the required values.

Operation Failed: Operation against file 'u_tbl' was aborted by Business Rule 'xyz'.

Reason 1: A record failed to restore to a specific table. A Business Rule on that table is preventing the update of a record.
Solution 1: Identify and deactivate the Business Rule for that table.