How does the instance backup policy work?

[eduardoramos]

Hello community, I'm new to the community So, does anyone know what the backup policy is like for ServiceNow instances? Where can I find the backup policy documentation for the instance I manage?

[Danish Bhairag2]

Hi @eduardoramos ,

Do u need backup documentation for ur PDI?

If yes plz find the below link

https://developer.servicenow.com/blog.do?p=/post/backup-your-pdi/#:~:text=back%20into%20ServiceNow-,....

Thanks,

Danish

[Dr Atul G- LNG]

Hi @eduardoramos 

A best link:

https://blogs.servicenow.com/content/dam/servicenow-assets/public/en-us/doc-type/resource-center/whi...

Data backup and recovery
ServiceNow’s Advanced High Availability (AHA) architecture is the primary means to
restore service in the case of a disruption that could impact availability. However,
in certain scenarios, it may be desirable to use more traditional data backup
and recovery mechanisms. Such circumstances could be, for example, where a
customer deletes some data inadvertently, or where a customer’s data integration
or automation is misconfigured or malfunctions, resulting in data being rendered
unusable or inaccessible. In these scenarios, the high availability capability would not
assist and restoring from backup is the only option for recovery.
Full backups are performed every seven days direct to disk and are retained for 14
days, with differential backups taken every 24 hours. Backups are stored in the same
data centers where the data resides, with production instances backed up in both
data centers in the pair. Sub-production instances (commonly used for testing and
development purposes) are backed up only in their primary data center, as they are
not AHA capable.
All backups are written to disk; tapes and removable media are not used. Backups
are not sent off-site, but they are made within both data centers in a pair, therefore
benefitting from geographic separation.
Backups are encrypted with AES-256 using randomly generated encryption keys
7
WHITE PAPER
for every backup. These are kept in a secure key store. And it is only retrieved by an automated process if a data
restore is initiated. Regular, automated tests are run to ensure the quality of backups, and any failures are reported for
remediation within ServiceNow.
The ServiceNow backup architecture is not designed to provide archival records, given the maximum 14-day backup
retention period. However, customers may retain data within their instances for as long as they require in accordance
with their policy or regulatory requirements. Additionally, there are capabilities available withiin the Now Platform to
allow customers to manage logs and regularly export data to external systems, as required.

[Claudia Vasquez]

Hi, I have a question, as instance administrators, can we see the reports of the information backup executions? Is there a place where we can consult it? Or is it necessary to make some kind of request to ServiceNow support? We can access the results of these tests indicated in the white paper: Regular, automated tests are run to ensure the quality of backups and any failures are reported for remediation within ServiceNow

Thank you if you can guide me