Step‑by‑Step Guidance Needed: Configuring Cross‑Instance Application Trust

[NarasimhaRC]

Hello ServiceNow Community,

I’m looking for step‑by‑step guidance and best practices to correctly configure Cross‑Instance Application Trust (CIAT) across multiple ServiceNow environments.

Current Environment Setup

• 10 Development instances
• 1 QA instance
• 1 Production instance

We need to securely enable cross‑instance features and integrations, such as:

• AI Platform / future AI capabilities
• Shared or reusable scoped applications
• Controlled data exchange across instances
• Future cross‑instance functionality

Any real‑world advice or lessons learned would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

[Tanushree Maiti]

Cross-instance application trust configuration 

Configure Managed Instances 

Configure Manager Instances 

[Pavan Srivastav]

To configure cross-instance application trust in ServiceNow, follow these step-by-step instructions:

1. Understand Trust Concepts:

   • A trust profile defines how a set of instances communicate for a specific application, detailing which instances are trustors (granting access) and trustees (receiving access).
   • Capabilities are application features used for cross-instance communication, managed at the application and capability level ​1️⃣​​2️⃣​.

2. Prepare Multi-Instance Framework:

   • Ensure ADCv2 mTLS is enabled on all instances by checking <instance>.service-now.com/adcv2/supports_tls. If not enabled, submit a Now Support ticket.
   • Install the Multi-Instance Framework mTLS plugin (com.glide.mif.mtls) via Now Support ticket and wait 24 hours after installation ​3️⃣​.

3. Configure Manager and Managed Instances:

   • On each non-production instance, navigate to All > Multi-Instance Management > Manager Instances and create a record pointing to the primary production instance.
   • On the production instance, verify all non-production instances are listed under All > Multi-Instance Management > Managed Instances ​3️⃣​.

4. Create and Edit Trust Profiles:

   • In the production instance, go to All > Multi-Instance Management > Application Trust profiles.
   • Open or create the relevant trust profile for your application.
   • For each non-production instance, add a trust profile item specifying:
     • Capability (e.g., Proactive Code Check Data Transfer)
     • Application
     • Application Capability Version
     • Trusting Instance (non-production)
     • Trusted Instance (production)
     • Set Active to true ​3️⃣​.

5. Sync Trust Profiles:

   • In the production instance, select "Sync Trust Profiles" to propagate trust settings to all managed instances.
   • Verify trust records under All > Multi-Instance Management > Trusting Instances ​3️⃣​.

6. Manage Data Sharing:

   • By default, non-production instances allow data sharing with production only; production does not share by default but can be configured.
   • Adjust sharing permissions as needed in All > Multi-Instance Management > Trust Configuration. Use the "Grant access" column to control which instances can access data for each application ​4️⃣​​5️⃣​.

7. Review and Maintain:

   • The managing instance (usually production) centrally controls trust settings. If no trust profile manager is defined, manual configuration is required on each instance ​1️⃣​​2️⃣​.

For more details, refer to the ServiceNow documentation on cross-instance application trust configuration and multi-instance management

https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/yokohama/platform-administration/grant-access-v2.html