Assistance with the CSDM life-cycle sync process

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Assistance with the CSDM life-cycle sync process

    This guidance helps ServiceNow customers accurately synchronize legacy data with life-cycle data following the Common Service Data Model (CSDM) framework. It emphasizes preparation, monitoring, and remediation steps to ensure data consistency and completeness throughout the life-cycle sync process.

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    Preparation Before Performing the Life-cycle Sync

    • Legacy Status Auto-Mapping: Certain legacy status values automatically map to the Life Cycle Stage and Life Cycle Stage Status fields, streamlining data alignment.
    • Data Migration Script: A fix script available on the ServiceNow Community helps identify dependencies across tables, ensuring comprehensive migration planning.
    • CMDB Data Foundations Dashboard: Accessible via All > Configuration, this dashboard provides key metrics, color-coded priorities, and remediation playbooks to monitor and improve CMDB health and customization.
    • CSDM Data Foundations Dashboard: Also under All > Configuration, this dashboard offers maturity-stage-appropriate reports (foundation, crawl, walk, run, fly) to assess CSDM implementation status. The Crawl tab highlights mismatches in operational status and life cycle stage across CMDB, asset, and IBI data.
    • Viewing Life-cycle Tables: Customers can inspect life-cycle value mappings by searching for lifecyclestage.list in the platform to understand how values correspond in mapping tables.
    • Migrating Nonconforming CIs: If existing CSDM data resides outside recommended tables, a script helps identify dependencies such as reports, UI scripts, and business rules tied to those tables to facilitate correction.

    Life-cycle Sync Process and Discrepancy Reporting

    When initiating the life-cycle sync, a discrepancy report is generated that identifies mapping issues or missing data. This report includes direct links to the relevant mappings requiring resolution, enabling customers to remediate problems prior to data synchronization and migration.

    Practical Impact for ServiceNow Customers

    • Ensures legacy data is accurately aligned with CSDM life-cycle stages and statuses, improving data reliability.
    • Provides tools and dashboards to monitor CMDB and CSDM health, prioritize remediation efforts, and track progress based on organizational maturity.
    • Facilitates identification and correction of dependencies and mapping issues before sync, reducing errors during migration.
    • Offers actionable insights through reports and playbooks to guide remediation and maintain CSDM framework integrity.

    Several features help you to promote accuracy and completeness for the process of synchronizing legacy data with life-cycle data in the CSDM framework.

    Before you perform the life-cycle sync process

    Legacy status values that are auto-updated

    Several legacy statuses are automatically mapped to the Life Cycle Stage and Life Cycle Stage Status fields. For more information, see Legacy status values that are auto-updated.

    Data migration script

    Use the fix script from the ServiceNow Community to identify table dependencies. See Migrating into CSDM identifying table dependencies.

    CMDB Data Foundations dashboard

    Navigate to All > Configuration and then select CMDB Data Foundations Dashboard.

    • CMDB dashboard: Each tab provides key metrics that evaluate configuration and customizations in the CMDB.
    • The metrics provide visible results of evaluation. Color codes and weighted priority help with planning.
    • Each metric includes a link to a remediation playbook with background and plays for remediation.

    See Monitor health in CSDM and CMDB Data Foundations Dashboards.

    CSDM Data Foundations dashboard

    Navigate to All > Configuration and then select CSDM Data Foundations Dashboard.

    The CSDM dashboard focuses on key data elements to support you in implementing the CSDM framework. The reports on each tab display the data metrics that are appropriate for the maturity of your organization's CSDM implementation stage (foundation, crawl, walk, run, and fly). See CSDM Data Foundations dashboard. In particular, the Crawl tab presents a report titled CIs with Mismatched Operational Status and Life Cycle Stage that shows a summary of life-cycle value mismatches among CMDB, asset, and IBI and enables you to view mismatch details. See 'Crawl' stage reports on the CSDM Data Foundations dashboard.

    View the contents of life-cycle tables

    To view how life-cycle value pairs are mapped in the mapping tables, select All, and then enter life_cycle_stage.list in the search text box.

    Migrating nonconforming CIs into the correct CSDM tables

    If you already have CSDM data but not in the recommended tables, you can run a script to identify dependencies that you may have created on the nonconforming tables. The results of the script identify referenced dependencies such as reports, UI scripts, business rules, and other references for a specified table (editable in the script). See this post on the Now Community site

    The life-cycle sync process presents the discrepancy report

    When you start the sync process, the discrepancy report Enabling life-cycle sync from legacy-to-asset helps you to isolate and remediate mapping issues or missing data issues before proceeding with migration and synchronizing. The report identifies issues and presents links that take you to the mappings that must be resolved before you can sync the data.