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Hi there,

While cloning instances, you might encounter the "issue" of always having to backup your in progress Update Sets. Quite a bit of work, or hopefully you've (semi-)automated this. Now, with Orlando, Eureka! ServiceNow enhanced the System Clone process with a "Preserve Update Sets" feature!

Pre-Orlando

Pre-Orlando backing up Update Sets would mean for example:1) Changing the state of the Update Sets to Complete;2) Exporting the Update Sets to XML;3) Importing the Update Sets after the System Clone has been executed;4) Review and commit the imported Update Sets;

5) A best practice is not to reopen the Update Sets, so new follow-up Update Sets with a suffix "(2)", "(b)", etcetera would occur.

Another way could be:1) Changing the state of the Update Sets to Complete;2) Retrieving the Completed Update Sets on your production instance (uncommitted);3) After the System Clone has been executed, review and commit the Update Sets on your development instance;

4) A best practice is not to reopen the Update Sets, so new follow-up Update Sets with a suffix "(2)", "(b)", etcetera would occur.

Orlando

When scheduling a System Clone (System Clone > Request Clone), on the System Clone record under the "Options" section there's a new field visible called "Preserve in Progress Update Sets". Options being "None" and "Last 90 days". This option basically "Preserves update sets during the clone process which eliminates the need to export in-progress, global update sets before you initiate a clone. The default is none. You can select the latest 90 days to preserve the in-progress update sets during this time."

Read more about this on the ServiceNow Product Documentation page:

Request a clone

Note

Important to be aware of:

1) The Preserve In Progress Update Sets only concerns Global scoped Update Sets;

2) After the System Clone has been performed you still would need to review and commit the Update Sets, similar like you were used to Pre-Orlando. So there's still some manual work left, and you would still get new Update Sets with a suffix like "(2)", "(b)", etcetera.

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And that's it actually. Hope you like it. If any questions or remarks, let me know!

Kind regards,

Mark Roethof

ServiceNow Technical Consultant @ Quint Technology

1x ServiceNow Developer MVP

1x ServiceNow Community MVP

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