Best Practice - Refreshing Test and Dev

[StacyLen]

We have no regular schedule for refreshing our test and dev instances from our Production instance.  Each time we do, it seems to be a bit of managed chaos.  

It would seem to me that there should be a way to refresh downward that is totally transparent to developers, testers and others using Test and Dev.  Save all work in flight on the lower environments, then restore that to Test and Dev, after Refresh has completed.  

Is this feasible or a pipe dream?

Thanks for any suggestions

Stacy Whetzell

[EricDohr]

If you have access to Support.ServiceNow.com - There is a FAQ that may help you out related to cloning.

Other resources

• Academy Session #4: System Clone good and best practices

@Ankur Bawiskar  also put together a really good list on this community post

https://community.servicenow.com/community?id=community_question&sys_id=16df8c81db4a30d4da1999ead39619db

[Stacy2]

Thanks Ankur - We use Hiwaves (fedramp) and so I cannot get to support.servicenow.com.  If you would kindly copy that article and send it to slwhetze@tva.gov, I would certainly appreciate it

[Ankur Bawiskar]

Hi,

you should clone your DEV and TEST with production once your go-live happens.

This will ensure the components are in sync and this should happen on every go-live or as per your customer's requirement.

Regards
Ankur

[Stacy2]

I should clarify further what I am seeking here.  I'm not asking when to perform refreshes (clown down) of our dev and test instances.  Instead, Im asking for information (including real life experiences) of how to best perform these clones, so as to make them as seamless and transparent to developers, testors and users on Dev and Test as is feasible.  Currently we schedule our clonedowns VERY infrequently simply because it is so very disruptive to ongoing development and testing efforts.  I just cannot accept that we are doing it the best way.  I'd like so much to see a detailed list/step by step recommended processes, or real life example from someone who feels they have a good clone down process. 

Very Respectfully

Stacy Whetzell