Merging production instances

[Community Alums]

I have multiple production instances and want to merge them into one single instance. Has anyone done this before? Any best practices article or details you can share? 

[drbob]

Doesn't sound easy...

The longer they have existed, the more customized they will presumably be and the more data they have. You might be lucky with context (maybe one instance only ran your CMDB while another was focused on Service Catalog, maybe one was only for SecOps and had been kept isolated) but that seems unlikely.

Anything custom built should be okay as it will be distinct from the OOTB records. It should be in easily identifiable update sets and might even be in its own application scope. For these you can transfer the update sets, run the collision testing and see how bad things might be...

Updates to OOTB will also be in update sets and again you can move them and see how compatible they are. Remember though, just because they install without clashing doesn't mean they will work cleanly - you could end up with two different processes running against the same table so be very aware of what exists in each and how they might or might not play well together.

...and then there's the data - could easily be duplicate data in each side (CIs, ticket numbers are the most obvious two) so you'll have to copy it over intelligently.

The company I just left was starting this and really it was a case of:

1) Identify the few things you really need from instance A and work out how to port/translate them into instance B - this may mean a complete re-write as the owners of B have different practices to those of A

2) Abandon everything that is common. Don't try to merge the ticket processes - just switch to B for incident, problem, request, change. If there's a process in A that absolutely needs to be maintained then implement that afresh in B ahead of the switch (P1 management, catalog items with automations, etc.)

The estimated timeframe was 1-2 _years_ to complete the switch, mainly due to one very specific and widely used business process in instance A. I can't imagine anyone being able to do this in the weeks/few months timeframe.

[Community Alums]

Thanks for your details. If you have any specific process documented with all steps that should not be missed, then kindly share.

[Tanushree Maiti]

Hi @Community Alums 

I have migrated the data to production instance from other instance. But not worked in Merging.

Check these resources:

Consolidating Production Instances

The ServiceNow Merger: Mash your instances into one

https://www.servicenow.com/community/spm-forum/has-anyone-ever-worked-on-any-consolidation-of-servic...

[Community Alums]

Thanks for your responses. I will check all the links provided to draft a high level steps on merge/migrate process and also any high alert tasks/ data that I should be aware off.