Explore Upgrade Monitor in Upgrade Console

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Explore Upgrade Monitor in Upgrade Console

    The Upgrade Monitor module in ServiceNow's Upgrade Console is an essential tool for scheduling, tracking, and analyzing instance upgrades. It provides real-time visibility into upgrade progress, helps manage post-upgrade conflict resolution, and offers insights to estimate upgrade durations for production environments.

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    Accessing Upgrade Monitor

    Administrators can access the Upgrade Monitor via the left navigation menu under All > Admin Center > Upgrade Management > Upgrade Monitor, or through the Admin tab under Admin > Upgrade Management > Upgrade Monitor. When an upgrade is in progress, logging in with an admin role automatically displays the Upgrade Progress screen.

    Role in the Upgrade Process

    • The Upgrade Monitor focuses on monitoring and reporting during the upgrade stages of non-production and production instances.
    • It is used after cloning production to test and non-production instances, applying upgrades, processing skipped records, testing, and finally upgrading the production instance.
    • During upgrades, it shows current progress and remaining steps; post-upgrade, it provides reports on what changes occurred and highlights conflicts between customizations and upgrade changes.

    Monitoring and Reporting

    While upgrading an instance, the Upgrade Progress screen displays completed, ongoing, and pending upgrade steps. Upon completion, the Upgrade Summary Report details conflicts and provides links to reconcile them, which is critical for preserving customizations.

    For non-production instances, the summary report also helps estimate the expected duration for production upgrades, aiding in planning and resource allocation.

    Conflict Resolution

    • The system identifies and skips records customized by users during the upgrade to avoid data loss, listing these as skipped records.
    • Administrators should review and resolve these skipped records on the first non-production upgrade, using related lists to reconcile conflicts.
    • All changes made during conflict resolution are captured in update sets, which can be imported during subsequent upgrades to avoid repeating the reconciliation process.

    Additional Tools

    The Debug Upgrade feature complements Upgrade Monitor by providing detailed debugging information for upgrade transactions, helping to resolve errors encountered during the upgrade.

    The Upgrade Monitor module is a powerful tool for scheduling upgrades, monitoring their progress, and analyzing post-upgrade results, including conflict resolution.

    Access Upgrade Monitor

    If you log in with the admin role while an upgrade is underway, the system automatically displays the Upgrade Progress screen. If no upgrade is in progress, you can follow one of the following ways.
    Option Navigation
    Using left navigation Navigate to All > Admin Center > Upgrade Management > Upgrade Monitor.
    Using Admin tab option Navigate to Admin > Upgrade Management > Upgrade Monitor.

    How the Upgrade Monitor fits into the upgrade process

    Note:
    For detailed information about the upgrade process, see Upgrade your instance.
    The Upgrade Monitor concerns only part of the larger upgrade process:
    1. Clone the production instance to a test instance and a non-production instance.
    2. Apply the upgrade to the non-production instance.
    3. On the upgraded non-production instance, Process the skipped records list.
    4. Test the non-production instance to confirm that the instance still works and performs adequately. Compare to benchmark data from pre-upgrade production instance.
    5. Apply the upgrade to the test instance. Import the update sets created on the non-production instance when you processed the skipped list. Repeat the testing to make sure that the process is working.
    6. Apply the upgrade to the production instance. Import the update sets created on the non-production instance when you processed the skipped list. Test to confirm that the instance works and performs adequately.
    Within this larger process, the Upgrade Monitor helps you upgrade individual instances:
    • During the upgrade, it shows where in the process the system is
    • After the upgrade, it reports what the upgrade did and for how long
    • As you upgrade the first non-production instance, it helps you resolve conflicts between customizations and changes that are part of the upgrade
    • On non-production instances, it provides information that can help you estimate how long the upgrade might take on the production instance
      Note:
      Debug Upgrade provides detailed debugging output for transactions containing artifacts affected by the most recent upgrade, and is designed to assist in upgrade error resolution.

    Monitoring an individual instance as it upgrades

    While the upgrade is in progress the Upgrade Progress shows what the upgrade process has done, what it is doing, and what remains to be done.

    When the upgrade completes, the system displays the Upgrade Summary Report. The Upgrade Summary Report provides information about conflicts between customizations versus changes in the upgrade and provides a link to reconcile these conflicts. For information about understanding and resolving these conflicts, see Process the skipped records list list.

    When you upgrade a non-production instance, the Upgrade Summary Report can help you estimate how long the same upgrade might take on a production instance. For details about the elements on this report and how to use this information, see Upgrade details form.

    Resolving conflicts

    To prevent losing customizations, the system skips upgrading records you have customized and provides you with a list of these skipped records.

    As you upgrade your first non-production instance, go through the Skipped Changes to Review related list and resolve these conflicts. The system records the changes you make during this process in update sets. See Review skipped records using related lists, for more information.

    You do not need to reconcile the skipped list on any instances you later upgrade. Instead, you can apply the upgrade then import the update sets containing your changes.

    For details on reconciling conflicts, see Process the skipped records list.

    See Upgrade Monitor tool in Upgrade Console for more information.