Servicenow upgrade strategy

[baba]

HI All, Can someone please share/suggest the what is the best strategy for version upgrade in servicenow ? ( from Xanadu to Zurich)

[Bhuvan · Accepted solution]

@baba 

At a high level, check your current environment and any customizations performed. Review release notes for the version you are upgrading to and document all the changes or any deprecated features. Prepare a upgrade strategy and start involving stakeholders to plan the activities.  Prepare a implementation and roll back plan and find a suitable window to upgrade your development environment. Evaluate the changes and look out for any impacts to the functionality. If there are any issues identified, resolve it and retest in Sub-Production instance. Once thoroughly tested, migrate to Pre-Production and then to Production instance.

If there are UI or functional changes with new release or new features that will be adopted, prepare a SOP guide and plan for training session to users with help from OCM team. This is only a high-level reference as upgrade planning needs a detailed strategy and must capture finer information. If you have access to Now Create, look for upgrade strategy plan and you will get more resources.

Follow below Upgrade Strategy article for more details

https://noderegister.service-now.com/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB1271313

https://www.servicenow.com/community/developer-articles/servicenow-upgrade-strategies-planning-and-e...

https://www.servicenow.com/docs/bundle/zurich-release-notes/page/release-notes/upgrades/reference/up...

I hope you appreciate the efforts to provide you with detailed information. If my response helped to guide you or answer your query, please mark it helpful & accept the solution.

Thanks,

Bhuvan

[Nikhil Bajaj9]

Hi @baba 

Please cehck URL:- 

https://www.servicenow.com/community/upgrades-and-patching-forum/checklist-after-before-vancouver-up...

https://www.servicenow.com/docs/bundle/yokohama-release-notes/page/release-notes/upgrades/upgrades-p...

https://support.servicenow.com/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0995167

[Shashank_Jain]

@baba ,

I recently performed an upgrade for one of my clients — please keep these points in mind:

- Review release notes & documentation for deprecated plugins and new features.

- Handle skipped records: Retain if customized by developers, Skip to keep OOB if not customized.

- Perform smoke & regression testing (focus on integrations, scripts, catalog items).

- Use the Upgrade Monitor & Upgrade History to track issues.

- Upgrade in sub-production first (with cloned prod data) before PROD.

- Review customizations; replace with OOB features where possible.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

[Shashank_Jain]

@baba ,

If the response was helpful, please accept the solution and close the thread.