Upgrade to the Zurich release

Zurich Release Notes

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zurich

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en-US

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Zurich Release Notes

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Upgrade to the Zurich release

Release version: Zurich

Updated July 31, 2025

2 minutes to read

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Summary of Upgrade to the Zurich release

This guide outlines the essential steps ServiceNow customers should follow to successfully upgrade their instances to the Zurich release. It emphasizes thorough planning, testing, and validation across development, non-production, and production environments to ensure a smooth and safe upgrade process.

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Upgrade Process Steps

Phase 1 - Read Release Notes and Plan: Begin by reviewing the Zurich release notes to understand required upgrade and migration tasks. This foundational knowledge helps in creating a secure and effective upgrade plan.
Phase 2 - Prepare Development Instance: Request a full clone of your production instance onto a non-production environment to estimate upgrade duration and confirm your current and target release versions. This preparation aids in accurate scheduling.
Phase 3 - Verify Configurations and Schedule Upgrade: Check the "Check distribution for possible upgrade" scheduled job to understand its timing and frequency, coordinating your upgrade schedule accordingly. Use Now Support to schedule the upgrade.
Phase 4 - Upgrade and Validate Development Instance: Monitor upgrade progress with the Upgrade Monitor, handle any skipped records, identify update sets, and perform functional testing to verify the upgrade success.
Phase 5 - Upgrade Other Non-Production Instances: After refining the development instance, upgrade other non-production instances like test environments. Immediately apply post-upgrade changes such as activating plugins and applying update sets.
Phase 6 - Prepare Production Instance Upgrade: Once non-production instances reflect your production environment accurately, prepare for the production upgrade.
Phase 7 - Upgrade Production Instance: Perform the production upgrade last. Validate completion, apply update sets and fix scripts, and conduct post-upgrade user acceptance testing (UAT) to ensure operational integrity.

Key Outcomes

Minimized risk and downtime through thorough planning and testing.
Validated upgrade process with clear tracking and functional testing.
Ensured production readiness by mirroring non-production environments.
Successful application of post-upgrade configurations and user acceptance testing.

Upgrading and patching your instance requires planning, testing, and validation. To ensure a safe and effective upgrade, read the release notes, create upgrade plans, and test your upgrade on non-production instances before upgrading your production instance.

Important:

These topics contain in-depth explanations about upgrades. For a step-by-step reference of upgrade steps, refer to the Upgrade planning checklist.


	Phase 1 - Read the release notes and plan your upgrade Before you begin the upgrade process, it is essential to read the release notes for your target version so you understand the required upgrade and migration tasks. This information helps you plan a safe and effective upgrade.
	Phase 2 - Prepare for the development instance upgrade For a better understanding of your production upgrade duration, request a full clone of your production instance (including large tables and attachments) onto a non-production instance. Confirm your current and target release versions, because you will later use this information when scheduling your upgrade in Now Support.
	Phase 3 - Verify your upgrade configurations and schedule the development instance upgrade in Now Support Check the configuration of the Check distribution for possible upgrade scheduled job to view how often and when it runs. Review information about timing your upgrade in coordination with the Check distribution for possible upgrade scheduled job. Then, schedule your upgrade in Now Support.
	Phase 4 - Upgrade and validate the development instance Track the progress of your upgrades with the Upgrade Monitor. For your first non-production instance upgrade (your development instance), use the Upgrade Monitor to process the skipped list of records that were not addressed in the upgrade. Then identify your update sets and perform functional testing.
	Phase 5 - If applicable: Upgrade and validate your other non-production instances, such as your test instance After you've configured and refined your development instance, request to upgrade any other non-production instances you have, such as a test instance. Immediately after the upgrade is complete, apply the post-upgrade changes made to your development instance, including activating optional plugins, installing and upgrading applications, and applying update sets.
	Phase 6 - Prepare to upgrade the production instance After you have configured and refined your test environment to be a good representation of your production environment, prepare to upgrade your production instance.
	Phase 7 - Upgrade the production instance After you have upgraded your development, non-production, and test instances, upgrade your production instance last. Then validate that the upgrade was complete, apply update sets and fix scripts, and perform post-upgrade user acceptance testing (UAT).