Two instances vs three instaces model?

[Deepak Ingale1]

Hello,

We are migrating to MSP solution in domain separation. For that we just purchased ServiceNow instances. We are given two instances. One   as a "DEV" and another one as "PROD" instance.

I find this very challenging to manage considering development , upgrade etc to be done in same DEV instance and then move changes to PROD without having a middle test instance (DEV--> TEST --> PROD ).

Normally there should be minimum three instances for the proper development and upgrade point of view.

1) keep DEV for development,.

2) clone your PROD to TEST to have a mirror copy.

3) move DEV updates to TEST and perform UAT kind of stuff and overall testing before finally moving those updates to PROD.

This three level setup will also come in handy when there is an upgrade release from SN for hotfix, patches etc.

I am finding this really challenging to manage all this with only two instances.

Can some one provide their expertise on how to manage with two instances. Or should I convince my management to purchase third instance as well which will be a TEST. If that is a case what strong points should I suggest them?

[dhoffman]

icequick wrote:



We started with three (DEV/TEST/PROD) and I can't image going back to two. I'm actually doing a business case to justify the expense of adding a fourth for Sandbox/Education purposes.



I hope the rumors of personal developer instances are released at #know15 this year!

Awesome.   Never heard of that rumor, but there is a "Mystery Session" on Thursday night at the beginning of CreatorCon where they're releasing a new developer "tool."   I'd kill for a personal developer instance and/or sandbox.

I've also seen ServiceNow employees (solutions consultants for example) with instances running on localhost (i.e., on their company-issued laptops), but that's probably an unrealistic ask (especially for security and intellectual property reasons) compared to a personal instance hosted in AWS.

[jarodm]

I would be interested in hosting my own instance too, but I agree with their push to get away from on-prem instances. I think Aspen or Berlin was the last version you could host yourself.

I'm looking forward to the mystery session too. I suspect the team will receive a standing ovation for whatever they release there.

IceQUICK

[Arlen]

Hi Deepak,

Technically and practically you can adhere to development best practices when using 2 instances, however, depending on the frequency of your dev cycles / release, you may face challenges pertaining to the time consumed in freezing all development while the dev is being cloned from prod in preparation for testing.

So in reality, yes you can use 2 instances however you need to adhere to strict development cycles.

Hope this helps.

[Uncle Rob]

One thing I know for certain:   two instances is not enough for shops with any kind of rigor around product development.   It may suit for customers who aren't as concerned with development processes, but they're certain to get burned by it some day.   Its just a question of when and how badly.

The good news is that peace of mind isn't prohibitively expensive.   Instances are about $15k/year.  

If you're in pharma or highly regulated industries where you are tangent to a validated system, you may need 5 - 7 instances.

[HugoFirst]

I'm aligning myself with those who recommend at least 3 instances, Dev, UAT and PROD.

While several good points have already been discussed, I'd like to add another idea:

With a UAT instance you can "test the install procedure", and write it down for the install plan.

Make notes of things like activating plug-ins, creating groups if needed, etc.