Upgrade Preview module

Release version: Zurich

Updated July 31, 2025

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Summary of Upgrade Preview module

The Upgrade Preview module provides ServiceNow customers with detailed insights into their instance before performing an actual upgrade. It allows you to explore and preview upgrades to different ServiceNow release versions, enabling you to understand how your current configurations might be affected. This utility supports effective planning, scheduling, and preparation for upgrades.

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Key Features

Preview Status and Execution Tracking: Displays the current status of the ongoing preview process, with an Execution Tracker to monitor progress in detail.
Version Eligibility: Lists only the target upgrade versions eligible for your instance, ensuring you select valid upgrade paths.
Informative Cards: Includes cards showing current version details, previewed version information, scheduled upgrades with estimated duration, and links to new features, problem fixes, personalized release notes, and known errors relevant to the previewed upgrade.
Skipped Records Prediction: Predicts records that may be skipped during the upgrade, with detailed statistics on total changes, records to review, reviewed, and resolved skipped records. It provides prioritization of skipped records by importance and categorizes them by product family.
Application Upgrade Preview: Shows accurate predictions of installed and upgraded applications including their version changes and skipped records linked to these applications.
Predicted Schema Changes: Provides anticipated database changes such as new columns, tables, and indexes resulting from the upgrade.
Automated Test Framework (ATF) Results: Displays the percentage of passing ATF tests from the last 30 days, including the date of the most recent test run and links to detailed results.

Practical Use and Benefits

Enables you to accurately forecast the impact of upgrades, including skipped records, which helps reduce surprises during the upgrade process.
Facilitates informed decision-making by providing detailed insights into scheduled upgrades, duration estimates, and the state of your instance pre-upgrade.
Supports risk mitigation through visibility into problem fixes, known errors, and schema changes associated with the upgrade.
Helps maintain application integrity by tracking application upgrades and installations, alongside skipped record impacts.
Allows for proactive quality assurance by integrating ATF test results to assess instance readiness for upgrade.

Important Considerations

The preview execution time may be longer due to precise prediction of new and existing applications and skipped records.
Skipped record rules and upgrade plans cannot be used simultaneously, so plan accordingly.
Refresh preview regenerates skipped record lists but does not skip reverted records; retained records are replaced upon refresh.
Only completed and passing ATF tests are included in the ATF results metrics.

The Upgrade Preview module enables you to have an unprecedented insight to an instance prior to an actual upgrade. You can explore and preview upgrades to different ServiceNow release versions and see how your instance might be impacted with your current configurations. The Upgrade Preview utility helps you to plan, schedule, and prepare for an upgrade.

The preview status info and link in the message displayed on top of the Upgrade Preview page states the current status of the ongoing preview process. Because you can get an accurate prediction on the new and existing applications and their skipped records, the preview execution time has increased considerably. Select the link in the message to see the status of the preview process.

Image showing the status message and link

The Execution Tracker record displays when you select the progress link in the message. Select Show status related list to show the current status of the executed preview process.

Note:

Depending on the eligibility of your instance, the list of available target versions for preview varies. Only versions that are allowed for a particular instance to be upgraded to, show up on the list. If your instance is not eligible to be upgraded to any version, the drop-down menu is empty.

The following cards display with more information.


Card names	Description
Current version	Name of the current version. Upgraded on: Date on which the instance got upgraded to the current version End of life: Link to KB0610454 for more information about end of life
Previewing version	Information about the previewing version displays. If you haven't previewed any version, you are expected to select a version for preview and select Go. If you have already previewed a version, the following information displays. Preview created: Date on which the preview was created View preview details: Link to the Upgrade Preview form Note: Select Refresh preview if you want to regenerate a new preview of the same target version. Although selecting Refresh preview regenerates the skipped list, the reverted records won't get skipped. If you have reviewed and retained some records, they get replaced as soon as you select Refresh preview.
Scheduled upgrade	Name of the next upgrade that has been scheduled to start. If there is no currently scheduled upgrade, the card shows No upgrade scheduled. Note: This card can have different messages depending on the schedule of the upgrade. If there is an upgrade scheduled, the following information displays. Estimated upgrade duration: Estimated duration needed to complete the scheduled upgrade. Note: If this is your first upgrade, there will be no information about estimated upgrade duration. Next scheduled upgrade: Date and time on which the next upgrade has been scheduled to start.
Find out what's new and changed	Links to view the new and changed features in the current upgrade version. The following three links show up when you select Go to preview the upgrade version. Problem fixes: Fixes that have been made since the last upgrade version Personalized release notes: Release notes summary for the previewed version Known error articles: Errors that have been identified but not yet resolved Note: These links don't show up if you haven't previewed any upgrades.
Skipped list prediction Note: If you are using Upgrade Plan, the card name changes to Skipped list prediction with plans.	Information about the predicted skipped records. See Preview predicted changes for more details. Total record changes: Total number of records that are predicted to change when the upgrade occurs. Total record changes also include possible predicted skipped files known as Predicted skipped records. Review changes: Link to the list of records that have changed and can be reviewed. Predicted skipped records: Total number of records that have been predicted to be skipped. Total: Total predicted skipped records To review: Predicted skipped records to be reviewed Reviewed: Predicted skipped records that have been reviewed Resolved: Predicted skipped records that have been resolved by implementing the rules Note: This entry shows up on the card only when rules are executed on the skipped records. You will also see a link to create a skipped record rule if either there are no existing rules or the existing rules aren't executed. Note: Skipped record rules and upgrade plans can't be implemented together. See Execute a skipped record rule automatically for more information. Predicted skipped records by priority: Pie chart to represent the predicted skipped records by priority. Note: Select the pie chart to see the list of predicted skipped records. ServiceNow prioritizes the skipped records based on the importance of the file types. The prioritization is done as follows: Priority 1 (highest priority): UI pages, UI macros, and more Priority 2: Business Rules, Security ACLs, and more Priority 3: Reports and more Priority 4: Form Sections, Choice Sets, and more Priority 5 (lowest priority): everything else
Predicted skipped records by product	Records that have been predicted to be skipped and are sorted as per their product families. Note: The products sorted under the Other category don't have any specific product family.
Application Upgrade Preview	Accurate prediction on the installs and upgrades for new and existing applications and for their specific skipped records. It states the total number of applications that have been either upgraded or installed. Note: The skipped records prediction is reflected on the Predicted skipped records by product card. By default, 10 applications preview details show up. Select View all applications preview details link to view the entire list. It states the name of the application and the following information: Action: The action taken on the specific application. It can either be upgraded for the existing applications or installed for the new applications. From version: States the previous version of the upgraded application (existing application). Note: This field is empty if the application is a newly installed application. To version: States the current version to which the existing application has been upgraded. Note: This field shows the current version of the newly installed application.
Predicted Schema Changes	Prediction about the kind of changes in the database based on the upgrade on your instance. By default, 10 predicted schema changes show up. Select View all predicted schema changes link to view the entire list. Changes like new columns, new tables, and new indexes are captured in this section.
Automated Test Framework (ATF) results	Percentage of passing ATF tests that ran in the last 30 days. Most recent ATF run: Date and time on which the recent ATF tests ran View ATF results: Link to show more information about the recent ATF results Note: Only the tests which are finished and have passed are considered for the ATF results. If one test runs more than once, only the recent execution is considered in the results.