Best practice for keeping ATF tests after a clone

[wpatrickhames]

What is the best practice for keeping ATF tests after you clone down from production to sub-production instances?  

I believe that I read somewhere that you do promote your tests up to production, although you don't enable them to run (because, production - duh).  That way they clone down.  Can I get verification this is the best practice way to do so?

Thanks,

[Gerald Onyia · Accepted solution]

Yes. This is best practice. This is exactly how it's done at my company.

It can be promoted all the way to PRODUCTION, but not enabled in PRODUCTION. This way, you never lose your ATF Tests in the lower environments after clone downs. The clone downs will include your existing ATF Tests. It also allows you to perform automated regression after each clone down for quality check.

This is especially useful, for companies like mine, who have almost 600 ATF Tests.

[NBeheydt]

We have done this too, but found an issue with ATF tests that test attachment functionality.  The attachment gets overwritten on the ATF test after the clone.  ServiceNow says it's not possible to exclude or preserve the attachment.  Has anyone run into this issue or have a solution?

Thanks

[AndyvanStei]

Any solutions for this issue? I am missing the Attachments on the Test Step after a clone. 
I have enable Preserve for attachment where table name = atf_step but still the attachments disappear.

[NBeheydt]

Yes, ServiceNow told us that you have to create a clone profile and deselect the 'Exclude Attachment Data' option.  Select this profile when requesting a clone.