Reschedule an upgrade or patch with Now Support

[John_Yates]

You can make changes to a scheduled upgrade or patch for your instance without going through tech support. The ServiceNow Patching Program (SPP) automatically updates customer instances to ensure the latest in functionality, features, and most importantly, security for known vulnerabilities. But, you can reschedule these updates directly through your Instances Dashboard in the Now Support portal.  

Before we go any further, it’s good to define exactly what’s meant by an upgrade or patch:  

• Upgrade: Moves your instance to the next major family release (for example, Tokyo to Utah). 

• Patch: Applies fixes and security updates within the same release family (for example, Utah Patch 2 to Utah Patch 5). 

We’ll refer to these generally as updates in the following instructions.  

What you can and can’t change 

Updates are automated for all customer instances because of the shared cloud environment, but there is significant flexibility.  

For scheduled updates, you can: 

• Change the date and time  

• Specify the target version 

Some updates cannot be changed: 

• Patches and critical security vulnerabilities 

• Rescheduling beyond 60 days if there’s an EOL policy in place. You can, however, submit an extension request through Now Support (see How to Contact Support ) .  

 

Steps to change scheduled updates 

The same process applies whether you want to reschedule an update or specify a different target version.  

In the Now Support portal: 

1. Go to Instances > Instances Dashboard. 
   • For Partners only: If you manage multiple accounts, under your user name, use the Switch Company option. 
2. Find the instance with the scheduled upgrade or patch, and then select the number under the Scheduled Changes column. 
3. In the list of open changes for the instance, select the relevant CHG# to open the Change record. 
4. On the Change request form, select Reschedule Upgrade. 
5. The Reschedule upgrade dialog shows available time slots for rescheduling. 
   • Select a new time slot. 
   • Validate the planned start date and time. Times are based on your configured time zone in the Now Support portal. 
   • Select Save. 
6. Verify that the Planned start date is updated correctly on the change form. 

Additional Resources  

For more information , check out the following resources:  

1. Knowledge Article: Reschedule an upgrade or patch for your ServiceNow instance 
2. Knowledge Article: Understand the Downgrade Protection feature in ServiceNow 
3. Knowledge Article: Understand target version changes on EOL upgrade change requests 
4. Knowledge Article: Use comments to request support for patch and EOL changes 
5. Knowledge Article: Troubleshoot inability to select versions in an upgrade request 
6. Knowledge Article: Change the target version of a scheduled ServiceNow upgrade 

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