Is it possible to clone the DEV instance in a System that is ON-Premises

[sagnicdas]

Is it possible to clone the DEV instance in a System that is ON-Premises. Where the databases are maintained by the internal team not by Servicenow. How to do it ? and How much time it will take to complete the activity.

[Tushar]

Hi @sagnicdas -

1.ServiceNow does not support ‘System Clone’ for self-hosted instances, since self-hosted instances do not have access to the IP of there data centers which has developed automation to deal with the System clone features like Data preservation, Exclude tables and so on.

2. You can follow below KBs which detail the methods for cloning self-hosted instances primarily involving taking a backup/export of the source database and restoring/importing it to the target instance.

For MySQL Databases please follow ServiceNow Cloning Procedure (MySQL)

For Oracle Databases please follow Cloning an Oracle Database

Hope this helps 

Mark the answer correct if this helps you 

Thanks

[Sandeep Rajput]

@sagnicdas Not possible to clone a cloud based instance over an on-premises instance using OOTB clone process.

[Anurag Tripathi]

There is no OOB or direct way to do this. 

[sagnicdas · Accepted solution]

Hi All,

For on-premises (self-hosted) ServiceNow environments, the standard "System Clone" automation found in cloud-hosted instances is typically unavailable because these instances lack direct connectivity to ServiceNow's automated data center tools. 

Instead, you must rely on manual database-level operations managed by your internal database team. Here is a refined version of your guidance: 

• Database Team Involvement: Since there is no automated "direct way" to trigger a clone from within the platform, you must coordinate with your database administrators to manually replicate the database from the source to the target instance.
  
  
• Table Exclusion Best Practices: It is essential to identify and provide your database team with a list of tables to exclude or preserve before the migration starts. This prevents environment-specific settings (like dev-only configurations) from being overwritten.
  
  
• Common Tables to Exclude:
  • User & Security: sys_user, sys_user_group, and sys_user_role.
  • System Configuration: sys_properties and sys_choice.
  • Logs: Audit, event, and system logs.
    
    
• Estimated Duration: In a typical on-premises environment, the process of backing up, transferring, and restoring the database generally takes approximately 5 to 6 hours, depending on database size and network speeds. 

Regards,
Sagnic