How to identify which elements are included in an update set?

[kellykane]

I'm a new customer and just getting started with update sets.   I've been able to successfully bring over may items from one environment to the next.   However, there are many items that don't seem to transfer, which is causing some problems and more than a little frustration.   For example, values entered in System Security>Groups did not transfer.   Maintenance Schedule Entries have not transferred either.

Is there an easy method for determining whether something is eligible for inclusion in an update set?

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

[Bharath40]

Hi kelly,

Schedule jobs, data modification will not be captured in update set . Instead you can add it through force to update set Ui action for schedule jobs.

https://community.servicenow.com/external-link.jspa?url=http%3A//www.servicenowguru.com/system-defin...

Try XML for those which cannot be captured in update set.

http://wiki.servicenow.com/index.php?title=System_Update_Sets#gsc.tab=0

[Nia McCash]

You can also view all the items being captured as update set entries by going to https://[instance].service-now.com/sys_update_xml_list.do?sysparm_query=  

If you're unsure if something has been captured as part of an update set, sort the list by updated date, make your change, refresh the list to see if your change registers as an update set entry.

[Prasanth Venkat]

Hello Kelly,

Each record that is updated or customised is not out-of the box anymore, any update that you make to a record will have an entry on the sys_update_xml which would keep track of all the records that are not OOTB anymore inside your instance. This is majorly useful when your instance is up for an upgrade as the upgrade process would ignore these customer updates and would consider only OOTB ones.

Coming back to your point to identify what's included in a update set

Update sets track customizations under these conditions:

1. Where the table has an update_synch dictionary attribute.

2. Where there is a special handler to track changes to multiple tables.

3. Where the administrator has not specifically excluded a field from updates.

In general, update sets capture configuration information but not task or process data. For example, update sets track service catalog item definitions and related configuration data like variables and variable choices. However, if you test the service catalog by placing orders, the order requests, items, and catalog tasks are not tracked by update sets.

Update sets have a limited capacity to transfer data as application files. This is intended to provide demo data for applications. For larger data transfers export data and import it with an import set or import set web service.

To see a list of tables on which customizations are tracked, navigate to System Definition > Dictionary and filter on attributes CONTAINS update_synch.

A default rule blocks the use of the update_synch attribute on a table for which it is not predefined to avoid the following issues:

1. Some core tables require special update handling because they represent information on multiple tables. When the update_synch attribute is added to these tables, duplicate update records are created, causing major conflicts that are difficult to troubleshoot and repair.

2. Using the update_synch attribute to migrate data records between instances can cause performance issues, because it is not intended for this purpose. To migrate data, use an instance-to-instance import.

Do not add the update_synch attribute to a dictionary record. When improperly used, this attribute can cause major performance issues or cause the instance to become unavailable. Adding this attribute is not advisable and supported .