How do you perform a data dump?

humblecommitted · ‎04-12-2017

Hello Community,

I was wondering if there was a better way to export the data in a servicenow instance.

I am needing to export data, including relationships, custom variables/variable sets, and subcategories, in preparation to migrate to a new servicenow instance.

I know there is the list and record export to excel and xml, but excel exports does not capture information that is not listed in view and the export of records looks like it is on an individual basis.

Is the only way through xml export and does it capture relationship and other additional data? Is there a DB export method?

Please let me know if there are other methods and the steps needed to carry them out.

Thank you!

vant · ‎04-13-2017

Oh, I see the situation. Not easy like you said, but I would do it very methodically as follows, which may need to be practiced a few times as I have never done this on a large scale.

Starting from the lowest level of table data that does not have any reference to other tables, export it as XML and move it to the target instance after making sure all custom fields exist.

For example, export Choice list table that touches all the table you want to transfer. (ie choice list for Incident, like priority, resolution code, etc)

Then look at dictionary and pick out all the reference tables that are touched from the table you want to transfer. (i.e. CMDB, location, assignment group, user, etc)

Export those reference tables as XML after making sure all custom fields exist and import it to target.

Then go up to the main table you wanted to transfer in the first place, export that and transfer it to the target after all custom fields are created. (i.e. Incident, change, etc).

You may also want to consider exporting any custom update sets that have been created, and transfer those first to the target instance also.

And i think also important is a list of Requirements from the customer, that says Incident should have these minimal items, and they should do validation that you got what they expected, and sign off that the transfer is successful so they dont come back later and say you didn't do this or that, especially when they signed off saying you did transfer everything.

You can also ask Hi to see what other customers have done in regards to this situation, they may provide a service to does something like this 'automagically'.

This is the task you were made for. Go forth and good luck.

View solution in original post

Community Alums · ‎04-12-2017

I think you could do this with a scheduled job.

Exporting Data - ServiceNow Wiki

humblecommitted · ‎04-12-2017

thanks for your reply andrew,

but this method doesnt seem to capture the meta data i am looking for i.e. categories, attachments on records, relationships between ci's, etc.

unless there is another method of tweaking the output, please let me know.

thank you though.

rishireddy · ‎04-12-2017

Hi,

If you trying to migrate data with relations to another service now instance, why don't you try the service now cloning option?

We can exclude and preserve specific tables in source servicenow instance & target servicenow instance to avoid cloning impact.

Please mark as correct or helpful if this made any impact!!!

Regards,

Rishi Reddy

humblecommitted · ‎04-12-2017

would this be able to grab the attachments on the records as well?

unless i did not implement the feature correctly, i tried cloning with the preserve function enabled on certain records/tables but the clone still whipped out my dev instance.

do you know what the proper procedure is to doing this? I followed the step-by-step that was provided on the servicenow wiki.