How do you handle large server patching initiatives in Change Management

[TammyClark]

I am looking for feedback on how you handle large server patching change requests.   Do you utilize any grouping from the CMDB and do how do you handle validation by application teams.

[JBark]

We use Business Services to group servers together for CR notifications;

Defining CI Relationships - ServiceNow Wiki

We use Business Services as the top tier for all Applications with relationships flowing down to software, servers, Netgear and some other CIs. They are also handy to group up CIs by type, running services (i.e. SQL, IIS) and Tech. I think Business Services are one of the best components in Service-Now and are a foundation for all processes.

As to application team validation, I don't see that as anything more than a change task that requires completion.

[TammyClark]

We are not using Business Services at this point. So are you identifying the Business Service on the Change Request and then all of the servers auto populate the affected CI's?   Currently we are manually entering servers on the Change Request and it is very time consuming to manage along with Application teams closing the validation tasks.

[JBark]

You use the Business Service as the CI resource and that ties the related items servers to the CR. Literally, its just typing a few letters to populate

[TammyClark]

Thank you for the information Jeffery!