Deleting a Duplicate Workflow

[LouisG]

Hello Everyone, 

I'm new to the ServiceNow Team, and I've created a bit of an issue for myself with Workflows. I am currently trying to make updates to our "New User Addition v2" workflow, and I've made a bit of a mess in the process.

The "New User Addition v2" was originally published in our "global" domain, but I checked it out in our "ITD" domain which is problem #1. Doing this apparently created a duplicate version of this workflow in the "ITD" domain. 

Question #1: Can I (and is it safe for me to) delete this duplicate workflow?

At this point, I didn't realize that this had been done, so I went to publish it in the "ITD" domain. When I switched over to my "global" domain, I realized that Catalog Item was no longer working properly because when I created the duplicate "New User Addition v2" in "ITD" it disassociated the one that existed in the "global" domain with the Catalog Item (which was also in the "global" domain.) 

I went back, and reassociated the workflow with the catalog item (in "global") by deleting a character and letting it autofill, and once it populated I hit enter. Once this was done, I went back to the "ITD" domain and tested it, and the same thing happend in the "ITD" domain (the workflow living in "ITD" was disassociated with the catalog item). 

I then checked out the workflow living in the "ITD" domain and clicked the "Set as Inactive" button and reassociated the workflow in both global and ITD to see if it works, but it is still behaving the same. If i reassociate the workflow in one domain, it disassociates it in the other--which leads to my second question.

Question #2: What is the best way to remedy this situation?

Some solutions I have considered was renaming the workflow that lives in the "global" domain to "New User Addition v3" and setting it in both domains. I haven't tested this yet because I wanted to wait for a few answers before creating even more clutter to my environment that might not work. I should mention, the reason why I asked earlier about deleting duplicate workflows is because ideally, I would like to practice good housekeeping and get rid of items that are not being used. 

[Michael Jones -]

This is common with domain separation and is actually a feature that allows you to override something created in Global, in a lower domain. 

You can safely delete the workflow in the lower domain without impacting the workflow in the global domain. 

If you have any doubts, make a new update set, make sure you are in the Global Domain, check the workflow out and then publish it again to save it to your update set. Close the update set and export it to XML as a backup that you can reload in the event something goes wrong. 

Unfortunately there isn't really a good way to prevent this, other than through training and experience. You just have to become very aware of what domain you are operating in when making changes.

One thing you can do is add the domain selector to your nav bar via your options as a visual clue and reminder of what domain you are in. 

If this was helpful or correct, please be kind and click appropriately please!

[Michael Jones -]

Here is a good doc that explains in a bit of detail around workflows in specific with domain separation. 

https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/newyork-servicenow-platform/page/administer/using-workflows/conce...

[LouisG · Accepted solution]

The solution for this was, when I had created this duplicate workflow, an override was set on the original which was causing the disassociation. I had to remove the override on this workflow and that resolved my issue.

Filter Navigator > wf_workflow.list > (if in global, click [Expand Domain Scope] near the bottom > click the Cog Wheel > Select "Domain" and "Sys Overrides" > double click the override you want removed > clear the value > Save