Moving table records from one instance to another

[Shibu2]

Hello All,

I have a requirement to move a few ServiceNow tables from one instance to another instance. I have the following questions in regards to that requirement:

1) A table record may have many reference fields. From what I have seen, when a record (for eg. IncidentA) having reference fields is moved from one instance (InstanceA) to another (InstanceB), although the records referenced in those reference fields aren't available on InstanceB, the record (IncidentA) can be migrated and the reference fields would have the non-existent record sys_ids in its place. Later, the referenced records can be migrated and the referenced fields would make a connection to the records. So, is it okay to move a record with reference fields before we move the records referenced in the fields?

2) A table may have a child table, and all records of the child table are present in the parent table (having the same sys_id). So, when migrating these parent-child tables, for eg. Task (Parent) & Incident (Child), should I migrate the parent table (task) before migrating the child table (incident)? From what I have seen, migrating the task, auto-populates the child incident table on the destination instance. In the same way, migrating the child table (incident) auto-populates the parent (task) table. So, would it be okay to proceed from child to parent? Not sure if it would make sense to migrate a incident task before migrating the incident. But, would like to know what would be the right approach.

Let me know if you have any thoughts on the above questions. I really appreciate it.

Thank you.

[Carl Fransen1]

Hi Shibu,

I see no reason why your logic won't work - I move data across instance a lot and if a small amount I export to XML, which means I need to do each part of the relationship separately - but as long as you include it all, it will automatically link up.

You could also create an Update Set, create the require information, and then move to the another instance, but if the data already exists this isn't as easy.

I did find this app on the ServiceNow Share yesterday, and although I haven't tried it yet (hope to test this in the next few weeks), this would make this much easier to transfer, including all the relationships - have a look and see if this works for you.

Hope this helps

Carl.

[Shibu2]

Hello Carl,

Thank you so much for your response. I appreciate it. Yes, it looks like the moving a record (IncidentA) ahead of the records referenced by its reference fields doesn't really affect anything as long as we move all the referenced records later. I will check out the app which you shared as well. Do you have any thoughts on Question 2, i.e, when moving parent-child tables, does the order in which we move them matter? Any thoughts on that?

Thank you once again,

Shibu

[Carl Fransen1]

Hi Shibu,

No problems, happy to help.  I did some quick testing on the app last week and found it worked really well with things like Record Producers where there are lots of relationships - it took them all across into the update set and then I could just transfer it to the new instance and the record moved across, with all relationships in place.  I did find however, that moving an HR Service did not also move the related 'Topic Detail', so there are some limitations.

In regards to question 2 - again there is no issue with the order, as long as you move all the data - the references will continue to be there in the new instance.  The same basic rules apply as with question 1.  I would usually move the parent first, than the child record, just because this makes sense to me logically, but the order isn't important.

Hope this helps.

Carl.

[Shibu2]

Hello Carl,

Thanks again. Yes, since it is the same record on both (parent & child) tables, I believe the order shouldn't matter. Not sure if there's any edge case I'm missing here. But, guessing it should work fine since the platform is flexible. Will let you know if there are any exceptions. Thank you for your help. I appreciate it. Let me know if you have other thoughts on the issue.

Thanks,

Shibu