question Re: How to manage plugin/application updates in Upgrades and Patching forum

How to manage plugin/application updates

Kevin Rol1 — Fri, 22 May 2026 14:10:04 GMT

Dear Community

We are struggling to find a proper way to manage plugin/applications updates. As you are aware plugin/applications are receiving outside upgrades and patches new versions that you can install. Frist of all when you look for updates for the plugins we see a difference in the new application manager:

And the old application manager:

Not sure why that is but therefore we stick to the old application manager. We really struggle how to manage this because of the following:

- We are not sure which of these plugins will be updated during a upgrade, during our last upgrade to Xanadu we could see 138 plugins where updated in the logs but it unclear in this overview which ones.

- It is nearly impossible to combine this with an upgrade, we received that request because during an upgrade all processes are being tested so it would be ideal to include these plugin upgrades there. Downside of this is that your upgrade time will be huge because you would need to manually upgrade all these plugins first so that why we don't really want to combine that with an upgrade.

- We have not found a way to easily export this overview so that you see the plugin name and the release notes, we now perform this as a manual action. We need this overview with the release notes to inform product owners about this so that they can use this information after installation to test it.

- We performed an update of all plugins a couple of months before an upgrade but after the upgrade we already have a new list of more than 100 plugins so it feels impossible to keep track of this.

So this a bit of braindump on this topic, I would really love to hear feedback from the community how you are managing this process.

UPDATE:

Best Approach: CI/CD Batch Install API via Background Script

This is the community-accepted solution and avoids manual clicking entirely. Here's how it works:

Step 1 — Run this background script in your instance after the family release upgrade. It queries the sys_store_apptable for all installed apps/plugins where the installed version differs from the latest version, builds a JSON payload, and hands you a URL + body to trigger a batch install:

Step 2 — The script outputs a URL and JSON payload. Open the URL in a browser tab and paste the payload into the raw request body to trigger the batch install.

Step 3 — Let it run overnight. It queues all updates and processes them sequentially without any further manual interaction.

Step 3 — To monitor it you can check sys_progress_worker.list and filter on name “CICDBatchInstallService$CICDBatchInstallWorker”

Important things to know

About the family upgrade itself: When you do a family upgrade (e.g. moving from Xanadu to Yokohama), apps and plugins will "true-up" to a compatible version but this doesn't mean the latest version. Individual product teams determine which version is aligned to a given family release. So you'll likely still have a batch of updates to run afterward, which is exactly what the script above handles. ServiceNow Community

Parent/child plugins: If you update a parent plugin, child plugins get updated automatically. So your amount of plugins may actually be fewer independent operations than you think prioritize parent plugins first and watch the count drop. ServiceNow Community

Timing matters: Plan the batch update to run overnight or over a weekend. It works, but it's not fast the system queues jobs one by one.

Re: How to manage plugin/application updates

Kieran Anson — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 22:55:48 GMT

In terms of easing your pain, ServiceNow are aware of this and there are roadmap items to improve this experience. Yokohama introduces an upgrade workspace as a starting point which may aid in your visibility.

If you do a family upgrade (i.e moving from Xanadu to Yokohama) apps and plugins will "true-up" to a compatible version. However, this doesn't mean the latest version of that app. Individual product teams determine which version is aligned to a product family release.

In terms of approach - focus on functionality your stakeholders desire. Those apps should be what you prioritise to upgrade (past that of the true-up version). An example would be SOW and Workflow Studio. The new features in those are often highly desirable and adopted on a quarterly basis

Re: How to manage plugin/application updates

KevinR704142142 — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 14:33:45 GMT

Thanks Kieran this is good to know!

Re: How to manage plugin/application updates

Kevin Rol1 — Mon, 03 Mar 2025 08:49:37 GMT

Hi @Kieran Anson ,

We have a Yokohama instance but we could not really find the mentioned "Yokohama introduces an upgrade workspace as a starting point which may aid in your visibility." can you provide more detailed information about this?

Much appreciated,

Kevin

Re: How to manage plugin/application updates

Kieran Anson — Mon, 03 Mar 2025 20:06:16 GMT

Hi Kevin,

Full name is Upgrade Management, it's part of the admin experience. It's not a workspace apologies. But is built on UI Builder.

https://www.servicenow.com/docs/bundle/yokohama-platform-administration/page/administer/upgrade-management/concept/um-overview.html

Re: How to manage plugin/application updates

Kevin Rol1 — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 13:58:50 GMT

Hi Kieran,

But how does this help with the issue I have with plugins this is really only for upgrade related topics there is nothing about plugins here:

Let me know,

Kevin

Re: How to manage plugin/application updates

Kieran Anson — Fri, 07 Mar 2025 09:09:19 GMT

Hi Kevin,

I was indicating that this module within the admin experience is part of the roadmap of SN enhancing our ability to manage upgrades. It may not have plugin management to the degree you wish as of yet.

Re: How to manage plugin/application updates

Courtney Yurt_ — Fri, 26 Sep 2025 12:34:56 GMT

Experiencing the same administrative issue. Curious if there have been any further updates or if others have implemented a process solution to track.

Re: How to manage plugin/application updates

Kevin Rol1 — Fri, 26 Sep 2025 12:53:25 GMT

No unfortunately not, still waiting for the golden answer 😉

Re: How to manage plugin/application updates

FotinaG — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 09:03:12 GMT

Hi guys, I met the same issue with Yokohama. Joining you in this 🙂

Re: How to manage plugin/application updates

Dominik Simunek — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 11:58:03 GMT

Be aware that with a recent update to Store, ServiceNow's Application Manager in the instance started showing updates for apps where the version is NOT compatible with your current version (example, you are on Yokohama and still App Manager shows update which is compatible with Zurich). This creates a mess in the Application Manager "Updates" section.

What I have noticed just today is that it changed again and it might be fixed, as today I stopped seeing there the "Zurich" only versions. SN Support told me that this is fixed in Zurich release already, but it might rather be that the fix comes also from the Store itself.

Re: How to manage plugin/application updates

RodHill11 — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 17:56:54 GMT

@Kevin Rol1 Hi Kevin. I came across your post. I too, am having a difficult time managing plugin updates and have some of the same concerns as you initially stated. I'm curious to know if found a solution?

Re: How to manage plugin/application updates

Ann43 — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 07:15:30 GMT

Yes, same here. Following the conversation to see what options are available because I was asked to start tracking SPM plug-ins every quarter.

Re: How to manage plugin/application updates

mhutton — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 08:24:16 GMT

I am also facing the same headache with the plugins and trying to work out the best way forward to manage these in and outside a family upgrade. Following this post in the hope that someone may have a great idea or a future update on this. Really feels like ServiceNow hasn't thought about the poor individuals managing the platforms.