Instance Not Recovering from Offline Status

としのりた · 12 hours ago

At 18:10 UTC on October 30, when I attempted to access my PDI (Personal Developer Instance), I found that the instance was still showing as Offline in the Developer Portal.

I tried refreshing the status, logging out and back into the Developer Portal, and accessing the instance directly via its URL. However, the status has not changed.

The Actions menu only displays the following options, and there are no options to wake up or start the instance:

Release instance
View history

My instance is still listed in the Developer Portal. I have also not received any email notification regarding the reclamation of my instance.

Since I would like to preserve my existing data, I have not selected Release instance.

Could you please advise how I can determine whether my instance has already been reclaimed, is currently undergoing the reclamation process, or if this is an issue with the PDI infrastructure?

Thank you for your assistance.

Best regards,

Tarun Rekandar · 4 hours ago

Hi @としのりた,

From an infrastructure perspective, recurring 502 Bad Gateway and PDI Offline errors on a PDI can occur because PDIs operate in a shared and temporary environment.

ServiceNow hosts a large number of free PDIs on shared infrastructure. If another instance on the same underlying node consumes excessive resources—for example, due to a runaway script or memory-related issue—it may affect the availability of the node or container. As a result, the Application Delivery Controller (snow_adc) may temporarily lose connectivity with your instance, which can lead to a 502 Bad Gateway and PDI offline error.

Because of this, it is important not to treat a PDI as permanent infrastructure. A good development practice is to keep your application code independent of the instance by regularly pushing your scoped applications to a remote Git repository using ServiceNow Studio Source Control.

With your code safely stored in source control, you can release an unstable or unavailable PDI, provision a new instance, and retrieve your application code quickly. This approach avoids spending unnecessary time troubleshooting infrastructure issues that may be related to the temporary PDI environment.

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Regards,
Tarun

としのりた · 4 hours ago

@Tarun Rekandar ,

Thank you for your response.

My main concern is deciding between the following two options:

Release my current instance and start using a new one.
Wait until my current instance is restored.

I had installed the SAM plugin on my instance, and completing the weekly jobs required after installation takes quite some time. For this reason, I'm unsure whether it would be better to wait for my current instance to recover rather than release it and start over.

I would appreciate your advice on which option would be better.

Tarun Rekandar · 3 hours ago

Hi @としのりた ,

Nowadays, this is a common issue faced by many users. My PDI has also been offline since yesterday.

Don't worry. Sometimes, PDIs may take some time to come back online, so we need to be patient.

One important thing to keep in mind: Always take a backup of your PDI whenever you are working on a business requirement, even if the task is still in progress or completed. This will help you avoid losing your work in situations like this.

You can also refer to the ServiceNow Admin's response below for more information.

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Accept the solution if it assisted you with your question & Mark this response as Helpful.

Regards,
Tarun