Cloning Instance from Production

Maajidqureshi5
Tera Contributor

8 hours 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

6 hours ago - last edited 6 hours 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 Relying on outdated data in Dev/Test leads to the 'it worked in Dev, but failed in Prod' syndrome.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