Cloning Instance from Production

Maajidqureshi5
Tera Contributor

3 weeks ago

Hi Everyone , Can someone please school about cloning . I am new to Servicenow 

 

1. When we clone ?

2. Why we should clone Prod to other TEST/Dev 

 

I am just trying to understand in what scenario I should be executing this activity before upgrade?

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tiagomacul
Giga Sage

3 weeks ago - last edited 3 weeks ago

Welcome to the ServiceNow ecosystem. Cloning is a critical discipline within Environment Management and is essential for maintaining a healthy and predictable development lifecycle.

From an Enterprise Architecture perspective, cloning is much more than a technical 'copy-paste' operation; it is a risk mitigation strategy. Based on industry standards and deep-dive technical research, here is a breakdown of the 'When' and 'Why':

 

1. When to Clone? Cloning should be a scheduled, recurring activity. Mature organizations typically execute a clone in these scenarios:

  • Pre-Upgrade Strategy: This is the most vital scenario. By cloning Production to a Test instance, you create a perfect 'mirror' to test the upgrade process, allowing for accurate identification of 'skips' and potential impacts on your custom code.

  • Project Initialization: Ensuring that development teams are building on top of the most recent production configuration and data.

  • Environmental Hygiene: On a monthly or quarterly cadence to prevent 'Configuration Drift' and clear out 'experimental garbage' from sub-production environments.

 

2. Why is Cloning Production Essential? The primary goal is Value-Oriented Stability. Relying on outdated data in Dev/Test leads to the 'it worked in Dev, but failed in Prod' syndrome.

  • Data Realism: Testing workflows and integrations against real-world data patterns ensures higher quality releases.

  • Security & Governance: Using Data Preservers and Exclusion Rules is mandatory to protect sensitive information during this process.

  • A Silent Line of Defense: There are specific security properties, such as glide.db.clone.allow_clone_target, that act as critical safeguards to prevent accidental overwrites of production environments.

 

Strategic Insight: In the context of Digital Transformation (Pillar 5 - Governance), cloning ensures that the 'Single Source of Truth' remains consistent across your entire landscape. Without a disciplined cloning strategy, technical debt and 'Operational Friction' will inevitably increase.

For a deeper dive into how to technically request a clone and understand the security layers involved, these resources provide a comprehensive guide:

 

For those looking to align these activities with the official Now Create methodology, this framework offers a structured roadmap for release management: ServiceNow Now Create: Practical Methodology

maliksneha9
Tera Contributor

3 weeks ago

1. When we clone ?

Cloning is typically done in a few key scenarios.

-> Before an Upgrade
It is especially important before an upgrade, as it allows the upgrade to be tested on real production data and configurations.

-> When Test/Dev becomes messy
Cloning is also useful when Test or Dev environments become messy or out of sync due to partial changes, outdated data, or failed testing.

->After a major release or big implementation
Another common scenario is after a major release or large implementation, to realign lower environments with the current Production setup.

2. Why we should clone Prod to other TEST/Dev

One of the main reasons to clone Prod to Test or Dev is that Production is considered the source of truth. Testing on a cloned instance helps identify issues related to customizations, scripts, integrations, and performance that may not appear in environments with outdated or sample data.

Before an upgrade, the standard and recommended approach is to first clone Production to Test, then upgrade the Test instance and perform thorough validation. Any issues found can be fixed safely and retested before upgrading Production. This significantly reduces the risk of unexpected failures during the Prod upgrade.

Note:- Cloning overwrites data and configurations in the target instance, so teams back up their work using update sets and complete the required pre- and post-clone activities.

In summary, cloning helps maintain environment consistency, supports safe upgrade testing, and ensures reliable troubleshooting using production-like data.


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