Cloning and Upgrading with Clone Admin Console

[BriayanH]

Hi everyone,

This is my first ever clone and upgrade, and I am the sole person managing ServiceNow at my company. The previous admin left about 7 months ago, and I started 3 months ago, so I am still learning our ServiceNow setup. Most of my questions are based on the Clone Admin Console. 

1. Exclusion List: It recommends turning off “exclude tables specified in exclusion list” since I am doing a full clone and upgrade. Should I actually do that? If I turn it off, how do I tell the clone console to exclude certain things? Do I just add the clone profile to the exclusion item?

2. Excluding and Preserving Items: How can I avoid issues with LDAP, SSO, spokes, etc.? Should I put them in both the exclusions and preservers? And if I add them how do I find the exact table for them to add them? I don’t want sub-prod information to go to our 3rd party integrations like Workday. The previous admin had issues with LDAP/SSO, resulting in login problems to DEV & TEST environments after the clone.  I am particularly concerned about LDAP/SSO as I have no experience with them, and there is no documentation left by the previous admin. The last clone was done in July 2023.

3. Audit and Log Data: Should I turn off “Exclude Audit and log data” if I am doing a full clone?

4. Post-Clone Checklist: What should I look for after cloning? Is there a recommended checklist somewhere?

Fortunately, not a lot of custom development was done and I think most of it is out-of-box.

Any advice or best practices would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[Ravi Chandra_K]

Hello @BriayanH 

- One of the important check list is backing up development work (update set) as cloning will clone entire setup in Prod.

 Also check any hard-coded or sys id properties will be overwritten, they have to be reverted.

1. Yes, create a clone profile with exclusions to exclude things.

2. the config table for LDAP is ldap_server_config. You might want to check other related components as well 

3. Yes, Audit and log data is usually excluded.

4. Please find post clone checklist here: https://support.servicenow.com/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0547597

You can also refer:

https://www.servicenow.com/community/itsm-forum/cloning-best-practice/m-p/901733

https://www.servicenow.com/community/itsm-forum/cloning-best-practices-and-use-cases/m-p/609236

Please mark the answer as helpful and correct if helped. This benefits both community and me.

Kind Regards,

Ravi Chandra 

[Briayan Hernand]

Hi Ravi, 

Thank you for your response! It was very helpful. I have a few more questions to ensure I cover everything:

1. Exclusion List: You mentioned creating a clone profile with exclusions. Should I turn off the “exclude tables specified in exclusion list” option if I’m doing a full clone and upgrade? If so, how do I specify which items to exclude? Do I just add them to the clone profile?

2. Excluding and Preserving Items: For LDAP, SSO, and other integrations, should I add them to both the exclusions and preservers? or just excluders? You gave me the LDAP config table, how can I easily find the exact tables for these items? I want to avoid any issues with third-party integrations or the spokes table. I definitely want to avoid sub-production information to start sending to our integrations. 

3. Audit and Log Data: You mentioned that audit and log data is usually excluded. Should I turn off the “Exclude Audit and log data” option if I’m doing a full clone? I feel that since I am doing a full clone I should clone that data but I am unsure.

Thank you again for your assistance!

[Johan Coetzer1]

Hi, did you get a solution to these questions?

[Shashank_Jain]

@Johan Coetzer1 ,

If you are looking which tables to preserve and exclude in servicenow instance while cloning -

This is how preserve and exclude works.

Common tables to exclude:

• Audit logs (e.g., sys_audit)

• Temporary or large transaction tables

• Unnecessary custom tables for dev/test

• Attachment or logging tables to reduce clone size

Typical tables often preserved :

• ecc_agent (MID Server)

• SSO tables: sso_properties, sys_certificate

• User/Group-related: sys_user, sys_user_role, sys_user_group, sys_user_grmember, sys_user_has_role, sys_group_has_role, sys_user_role_contains