Customization overwrites on upgrades.

[Mark_Bailey]

It is my understanding that if I modify a script, workflow or form, it is now mine because I applied customization's. My understanding was ServiceNow will no longer apply changes if a customization is made. My last few upgrades I have seen something different.

1. On my location field on Incident, every time I upgrade my attributes change to out of box.   I have to go back and change the attributes to our preference.
2. My last two upgrades, an out of box workflow called Notify Assessment User, was reverted to out of box.   After my last upgrade I renamed the workflow so this could not happen again. Well on the latest forced patch, it reverted back to the out of box name and out of box workflow.

I have opened a case with ServiceNow, but this concerns me because I can't possible review every customization I make each upgrade. Can anyone shed light if maybe I don't get how the customization skip works OR has anyone else ever experienced their customization's getting overwrote on upgrade?

[coryseering · Accepted solution]

Hi Mark,

Opening an Incident with Support is the right course of action here. Upgrades skip artifacts that have a corresponding sys_update_xml record. It should not replace any out-of-box file which has been modified, because the act of modifying the file should result in a corresponding sys_update_xml record being created or updated.

Support should look into the circumstances of each specific customization which was overwritten to determine why the artifact was deemed "safe" to replace (e.g. the Upgrade process didn't see it as a modified artifact, or the changes were only to update_exempt fields).

You can read more about the upgrade process here:

Upgrades Overview - ServiceNow Wiki

The way we determine customizations here:

Manage Customizations - ServiceNow Wiki

And excluded fields here:

Excluding Fields from Updates - ServiceNow Wiki

Something is not picking up your changes. It may be a system-wide issue in your instance, a bug with with the Upgrade code, or a process problem resulting in untracked changes. Support will be able to make that determination, and offer the best course of action to remedy it.

[Mark_Bailey]

Thank you much, I did open the Hi INC. and I will have a look at the links you sent me.

[igaray]

BaseLine - A tool to visually identify risky customizations, possible upgrade issues, and more...

[Mark_Bailey]

Ivan,

When i click the link I get:

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