Release states
Summarize
Summary of Release States
This document outlines the various states a release can be in during its lifecycle within ServiceNow, helping customers manage their deployment processes effectively. Understanding these states allows teams to navigate the release process with clarity and ensure successful deployments.
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Key Features
- Draft: The release is in its initial state and is not acted upon by ReleaseOps. It must be manually transitioned to Active to proceed.
- Active: The release is open and awaiting the freeze time, allowing deployment requests to be added or removed.
- Preparing: Deployment is frozen. All requests are validated, and the release order is generated. Changes are based on the defined freeze time.
- Ready for Release: All requests are finalized, and the release is eligible for deployment after passing all checks.
- Deploying: The actual process of moving build artifacts to the destination instance occurs, based on the scheduled release time.
- Reconciling: Indicates a problem with a deployment request requiring manual intervention.
- Complete: The release has successfully finished.
- Cancelled: The deployment was manually canceled prior to starting.
- Failed: Indicates deployment issues, often due to problems with update sets.
Key Outcomes
By understanding these release states, ServiceNow customers can effectively manage their deployment schedules, ensure all deployment requests are properly handled, and swiftly address any issues that arise during the release process, leading to a smoother operational workflow.
A release might be in one of several different states during the release process.
| State | Description |
|---|---|
| Draft | The initial state of a release. ReleaseOps doesn't act on any release in this state, regardless of the release schedule set. Draft releases don't appear in a deployment request as a target. This enables the creation of schedules into the future, but they must be manually moved into the Active state before deployment requests can be added and deployed. |
| Active |
The release is open in this state, and waiting for the freeze time to arrive. While in this state, attached deployment requests are actively in the Assessing or Reconciling state. Deployment requests can still be added at this point, or removed (by the developer or release admin). |
| Preparing |
The deployment is frozen. All deployment requests attached to the release are validated to be Ready for Deployment, or else they’re deferred. The release ordering has been generated. A release administrator can remove a deployment request. This change of state is derived from the scheduler based on the freeze time.
Note: If the release is associated with a change management record, the release time is determined by that change management record. |
| Ready for Release |
All deployment requests are finalized. No deployment requests can be added to or removed from the release, and the release has passed all checks and is eligible for deployment. Any manual steps within the pipeline playbook have been completed. |
| Deploying |
The act of finalizing the move of all build artifacts to the destination instance. This change of state is derived from the scheduler, based on the release time. Note:
If the release is associated with a change management record, the release time is determined by that change management record. |
| Reconciling | There was a problem with at least one deployment request in the release that requires manual intervention. From the playbook, a deployment task will be created for a preview conflict. |
| Complete | The release completed without issue. |
| Cancelled |
The deployment of the release was manually canceled before commencement. |
| Failed |
The deployment was either unable to be completed or completed with issues. Common reasons for deployment failure include:
|