Revolutionizing ServiceNow Deployments: The Complete Guide to ReleaseOps

NayaniS
Tera Contributor

2 hours ago

If you are a developer, architect, or release manager, you know the pain of manual deployment ceremonies. ReleaseOps, a brand-new product introduced with Zurich, provides the process and automation needed to deploy and validate code from DEV to PROD with total confidence.

What is ReleaseOps?

At its core, ReleaseOps is a platform feature (available for free) designed to improve the reliability and speed of your application delivery. It organizes your work into two primary buckets:

  • The Release: A large "capsule" or container that holds all the packages intended for a specific production window.
  • Deployment Request (DR): An "atomic block of work" from a specific team or set of stakeholders, containing one or more update sets.

The "Release Train" Philosophy:

ReleaseOps prioritizes the sanctity of the release schedule. Each Release has a Freeze Date and a Release Date.

  • If a Deployment Request (DR) is not in a "Ready for Deployment" state by the Freeze Date, it is automatically marked as Deferred and left behind for the next train.
  • This ensures that one team’s delay never holds up the entire organization's production deployment.

Automated Quality Control:

ReleaseOps replaces manual checklists with automated assessments. When a DR is moved to the "Ready to Assess" state, the system automatically moves the update sets to the TEST instance and begins validation.

  • Deployment Analyzer: A new tool that builds rules to scan your packages for high-risk changes, including Schema Changes, Security ACLs, and Code Changes.
  • ATF & Instance Scan: You can associate Automated Test Framework (ATF) suites with a DR to ensure they pass before the code moves forward.
  • The "Reconciling" State: If a preview error or test failure is detected, the system automatically generates a Deployment Request Task for the developer to fix the issue, ensuring maximum visibility for the release manager.

Handling Urgent Changes (On-Demand):

For emergencies or trivial fixes (like catalog typos), ReleaseOps supports On-Demand releases. These bypass the standard release window and deploy as soon as they pass the Deployment Analyzer's guardrails.

How to Get Started:

  1. Install Plugins: Install ReleaseOps (sn_releaseops) and Workflow Studio on your DEV, TEST, and PROD instances.
  2. Guided Setup: Use the ReleaseOps Guided Setup on your instance.
  3. MIM Handshake: Establish a Multi-Instance Management (MIM) trust relationship between your environments.
  4. Update Sources: Ensure you have traditional Update Sources defined in PROD and TEST to move the XML files.
  5. System Property: In your DEV instance, set sn_releaseops.deployment_controller to your PROD URL.

Summary:

ReleaseOps is designed to be 95% customizable, allowing you to add your own approval gates via Playbooks. By shifting left and automating validation, you can turn your deployment from a stressful "event" into a non-issue.

What are your thoughts on the new Release Ops? Let’s discuss in the comments!

#ServiceNow #ReleaseOps #ServiceNowDev #CICD #WorkflowStudio #AppEngine

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