How to upgrade and stay on N-1 and upgrade only once a year?

[Suggy]

Our customer has a requirement that we should alwyas stay one release back from current release, and upgrade only once a year and still stay compliant.

Ex - Now Tokyo is out, we want to be upgraded and stay on San Diego.

Is it possible?

[Ankur Bawiskar]

Hi,

Since ServiceNow currently releases 2 versions every year, so you need to upgrade minimum once a year.

Check these links

Upgrade policy 

With the new SN policy to support only N and N-1 release, How can i upgrade just once a year and sti... 

To your question since Tokyo is available you can upgrade your instance from lower version to San Diego but when next release comes you need to upgrade to Tokyo to stay on N-1 version.

[Community Alums]

Hi @Suggy ,

ServiceNow knows you will not upgrade the day a release becomes GA, so some time is given.  This way you can do early testing with the Early Adopter release, then get the GA release, do your final testing and upgrade production.  But don't take my word for it, read the "Plan for upgrades at least once per year" presentation on the Success site.  Where it says:

"ServiceNow releases a new version of the Now Platform® twice per year. To make sure you can take advantage of new functionality, you should stay on the latest release. We recommend upgrading your ServiceNow® instances at least once a year to stay no more than one version behind the latest release. "

This post specifically talks about the grace period after a release goes GA.

[Suggy]

Thank you Sandeep and Ankur for rpelying, but that does not answer my question.

Customers ask is, always stay on N-1 and do upgrade only once a year.