Receive Cloning Progress Updates to your Inbox

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Cloning your ServiceNow instance can sound just as scary as creating a mutant sheep in a laboratory test tube. If it is your first time exploring how to clone your instance, and you are like me, you will want to take all of the necessary safety precautions to make sure you don't mess everything up. Well, if your team is also in that prepare-for-anything boat they should consider this nifty trick to allow users to get email notifications on how your system clone is doing.

Clones should be done during non-peak hours to preserve performance and to ensure that minimal people could be affected by the clone.

Currently, there is no notification system set up to tell you how your clone is performing. But what if there was? If your team is waiting on a clone to progress, wouldn't it be nice if you could "set it, and forget it?" Who remembers that old infomercial?

You can! Rather than sitting around all night past working hours to watch the clone progress, you can get emailed updates to your inbox. With this workaround you can monitor your clones overnight and get a semi-decent night's rest knowing that your clone is persisting even without you being in the office.

How to create email notifications for Cloning progress

1. Navigate to System Notification > Email > Notifications.
2. In the Table column, select Clone Log [clone_log].
3. Go to the When to Send section or tab.
4. In Send when, select Record inserted or updated.
5. In Condition, specify Clone.clone class is System Clone.
6. Go to the Who will receive section or tab.
7. In Users and in Groups, specify who should receive the notifications.
8. Go to the What will it contain section or tab.
9. Create subject for notification.

Example of the default message HTML could be be:

Clone Progress: 1%

Beginning clone preparation

Giving your team a progress report so you can eat dinner with your families and only casually glance at your inbox, rather than bringing your work to the dinner table. Also, can you really put a price on peace of mind? Didn't think so.

Thanks you simonpullen for this nifty solution!