Domains are set up as hierarchies that help to organize multiple domains and define the relationship between them.

TOP domain: TOP is the root domain in the hierarchy. Only process records are associated with TOP; these records specify universal, instance-wide processes and platform elements.

Domain Hierarchy

Customer domains are associated with data and process settings that are unique to that customer. They can also have customer-specific UI settings.

Some customers grant a domain specifically for the MSP company to use. If defined, the MSP domain can be used as a data domain to manage internal business and data (tasks, users, CI’s, etc.).

ServiceNow usually recommends that customers have one Default domain set for their instance. The Default domain can be anywhere in the hierarchy. It is a holding area for a record until it is assigned to a domain by an admin or assigned automatically based on business rules. Records in the Default domain are only visible to the admin user. If you do not set a Default domain, new, unassigned records are placed in the Global domain.