If you miss any content, please leave it as a comment and I will add it to this article.
| Table of Contents |
My library Knowledge Sources To Go is very popular, but it was intended mainly as a thematically grouped guide to standard sources and was provided by me as a PDF file. For certain topics, however, there is so much content that I can no longer include it in that document, as it cannot continue to grow forever.
For this reason, I have decided to handle such topics in individual community articles like this one instead.
What is Cloning?
Cloning is typically used to copy a production instance to a pre-production instance to test changes. Cloning data comes from the most recent, nightly backup.
Entry point to the official product documentation
Data Preservation During System Clone
This product whitepaper is an informational, authoritative, document on specific features of a solution, product or service
System Clone Management - Overview and Practical Guidance
Whitepaper that provides insights and guidance for planning and performing a system clone across ServiceNow environments
System Clone Management - Overview and Practical Guidance - Workshop
Outlines the baseline process, explaining the configurable options with the objective of determining the to-be process and corresponding configuration requirements for System Clone Management
Leveraging System Clones for Seamless Development and Deployment
This whitepaper explores the leading practices for system clones including incorporating system clones into your SDLC processes, restoring development instances and resuming development activities after a system clone, and keeping your development instance up-to-date with the latest code, data, and metadata
Trainings & Courses
n/a
Articles & Blog Posts
by ServiceNow Support
This article answers the basic questions that ServiceNow Technical Support receive in relation to clones from a source instance to a target instance.
by ServiceNow Support
This article covers Cloning Tips and Tricks.
by ServiceNow Support
Frequently asked Questions (FAQ)
The goal of this article is to answer generic frequent requests/questions ServiceNow Technical Support receives in relation to clones. I if you have follow-up questions, please contact Technical Support.
by ServiceNow Support
Clone results based on Exclusion and Preserver configuration
This knowledge base article will explain the expected results of the data in a table based on the configuration of the Table Exclusion and Data Preserver when performing a clone.
by ServiceNow Support
A clone is a snapshot of a ServiceNow instance typically used to refresh your test or development environments. ServiceNow performs the cloning process, but there are several post-cloning tasks for you to perform as described in this article
2021-12-08 by @Martin Ivanov
I’d like to share what I’ve learned about instance cloning.
2022-01-11 by David McDonald
Clone Tip - Preserve MID Server Users
It's just a ServiceNow clone, what could go wrong? Losing all of your MID servers in the target instance, that's what! Here's how to prevent that from happening.
2022-01-17 by David McDonald
ServiceNow Clone Tip - LDAP servers and lost MID servers
Don't you hate it when you do a ServiceNow clone, and then your user data stops getting auto-updated from Active Directory? It sure frustrates me! Here's how to prevent that from happening.
2023-11-02 by @adrian_bissdorf
Take Advantage of a New and Streamlined Clone Experience
After many months of work and iterations on our Innovation Lab release, we are thrilled to announce the launch of our new Clone Admin Console which is now available on the ServiceNow Store .
2023-11-27 by @Dan Martinez
Using the "Clone Admin Console" plugin
When it comes to cloning instances we could do it using the old fashion way or, from Utah onwards, we can use the "Clone Admin Console", which groups everything we need to care about in a single place. Given the new console helps us have everything close together not to forget about any detail, this new way is much more interesting to explore. If you don't know anything about it yet, this blog article will help you.
Videos & Podcasts
2017-12-05, by ServiceNow Now Community
What is Cloning, How it Works & Best Practices
2021-08-20, by ServiceNow Dev Program
System Clone good and best practices
This week's session will be an Introduction into System Clones and feature good and best practices around Instance cloning.
2023-09-21 by Allenovation
Master ServiceNow Cloning: Tips and Tricks
It’s extremely important for your sub-production ServiceNow instances to closely resemble your Production instance as best as possible. By keeping them in sync, you enable your development teams to work in environments that are near identical to what your end-users are experiencing every day. In order to accomplish that goal, you’ll need to become familiar with the ServiceNow “System Clone” application, which is available out of box on all ServiceNow instances. In the simplest definition: The cloning feature allows you to copy specific pieces of one environment and essentially paste it on another. Of course, as you might’ve guessed, nothing is ever that easy, so let’s buckle up and take a deeper look into ServiceNow cloning!
2024-02-20 by ServiceNow Dev Program
Clone Admin Console (We love a good UI!)
Are you a ServiceNow developer struggling to keep track of your instance clones? The new Clone Admin Console in the Washington release streamlines the entire cloning process with a modern user interface, helpful guidance, and a host of new features.
Troubleshooting
Known Error Portal
Pre-configured filter for the respective topic. Remove the query string or modify the filters on the left side if you want to narrow down the search results in a different way.
Selected Articles
Troubleshooting a clone that completes but has issues (KB0534874)
Troubleshooting data consistency issues post-clone (KB0535170)
Troubleshooting a clone that does not start (KB0535171)
Verify that you have not added additional preserved tables to a clone (KB0535344)
Determining why attachments were excluded from a clone (KB0535353)
Checklist before cloning an instance with Digest / SSO / SAML / Multi SSO Integration to prevent den... (KB0657100)
Error messages like "Invalid insert" and "Invalid username and password" are seen while creating clo... (KB0779908)
Clone authentication to target instance fails with 'Invalid username or password' (KB0832272 🔒)
Unable to create Clone Profile Exclusions or Clone Profile Preservers for non-Global/scoped applicat... (KB0851927)
Users not able to login in cloned target instance using Multi Factor Authentication (MFA) (KB0860689)
Unable to create Clone Profile Exclusions or Clone Profile Preservers for non-Global/scoped applicat... (KB0855777)
