ReleaseOps overview

ReleaseOps automates and enhances the process of deploying changes, customizations, and custom applications on the ServiceNow AI Platform. ReleaseOps improves the existing pipelines deployment process by internally managing cross-instance trust and credential sharing, simplifying the setup and configuration of custom pipelines. ReleaseOps enables you to deploy changes using update sets and trigger deployment from directly within the ServiceNow Studio development environment. In addition, ReleaseOps leverages the automation capabilities of the ServiceNow Playbooks, resulting in deployments that are less error-prone and manual.

ReleaseOps handles deployments through releases. Releases define which changes, customizations, or custom apps will be moved to the production (or target) instance and when the changes will be deployed. The changes within a release are contained in deployment requests. Each deployment request contains one or more update sets or application installs. For more information about releases and deployment requests, see Releases in ReleaseOps and Deployment requests in ReleaseOps.

Releases are managed from your production instance, where the playbook is executed. Actions are orchestrated across instance with a cross-instance communication layer, alleviating credential setup across instances.

ReleaseOps availability

ReleaseOps is not supported in regulated environments or on-premise. Check your entitlements to determine whether you have access to ReleaseOps.

ReleaseOps users

ReleaseOps workflow

The following workflow illustrates the sample pipeline workflow installed with ReleaseOps. Your pipeline manager can customize it as needed.

In the traditional development to test to production workflow:

1. The release manager creates a release, which is associated with a pipeline.
2. Developers create and promote update sets, adding them to an existing deployment request or create a new deployment request, which is targeted to a release.
3. Developers add runbook tasks to deployment requests to enable custom and manual activities to occur throughout the assessment and release playbook stages.
4. When the update sets within a deployment request are functional and ready to be deployed, a developer sets the deployment request state to the Ready to assess.
5. The assessment playbook runs, during which Automated Test Framework (ATF) test suites and instance scans are run on the changes in the deployment request.
6. If there are failures during assessment, deployment tasks are created that the tester can sign off on or redirect to the developer to address.
7. If there are any runbook tasks set to occur during the assessment playbook stage, progression pauses until the runbook tasks have been addressed.
8. Once the deployment and runbook tasks have been addressed, the deployment request state is set to Ready for deployment.
9. On the scheduled date for the release, the release playbook runs.
10. If there are any runbook tasks set to occur during the release playbook stage, progression pauses until the runbook tasks have been addressed.
11. Once the runbook tasks have been addressed, all deployment requests in the Ready for deployment state move through the pipeline to production.

In the traditional release workflow:

1. A release manager creates a release and sets the state to Active.
2. On the scheduled freeze date, the release begins preparing for deployment.
3. During the preparation process, deployment requests that aren't ready are set to Deferred and can be attached to a future release.
4. Once preparation is complete, the release state is set to Ready for deployment.
5. When the release date arrives, the update sets within the deployment requests move from test to production in the order that they were deployed in the last instance.
6. The release and deployment requests are set to Complete.

ReleaseOps benefits

What to explore next