4 Steps to Get New York Upgrade Ready
The ServiceNow New York release is on the way!
Everyone is eager to get upgraded and start using the amazing new features (blog post soon on those). So we’ve got 4 steps to help get you New York ready that you can do today and fast-track your upgrade.
Check those Upgrade Logs
If you haven’t checked your upgrade logs since your last upgrade now is the time. If you have customised an out-of-box record then ServiceNow will skip the update of that record when you upgrade.
Check Skipped Changes from your last upgrade
Any skipped changes from your last upgrade will get skipped again in New York. So use this time to review issues and where possible revert to the baseline version. This will ensure you get the latest and greatest version of the script or file when it comes to installing New York.
Open‘ Upgrade Log’ - https://<instance_name>.service-now.com/sys_upgrade_history_list.do
Open the latest system upgrade record (starts with glide e.g. glide-london…)
In the ‘Skipped Changes to Review’ related list open, start with the highest priority records you want to resolve. There are diff tools built in so you can check the differences with the baseline version.
Check out this docs page for more info on reviewing skipped upgrades
Review the Release Notes
The New York Release notes area available on docs. They will detail new features, changes to existing applications and notable platform fixes.
You can use the release notes to plan new functionality that needs to be reviewed and changed functionality that will need validated post-upgrade. It’s also a great resource to start drafting your internal upgrade communications and training guides
Update your Test Scripts
If you are using ATF (well done you) now would be a good time to check your scripts and rerun them. To know if functionality is broken by an upgrade you will need to know it is working before the upgrade. So get your scripts up-to-date and run the test suites making sure you record the results.
If you are not using ATF then it’s a good idea to update your manual test scripts, or even better use this time to convert them to ATF - honestly, it is not a painful as it sounds.
Clone and Backup
I’d always recommend upgrading an instance that has been recently cloned from Production. That means you’ll need to go through your cloning process. Here is a high-level plan
Try to complete any in-flight development in your development instance and get it moved to production.
Take a backup of any development that cannot be moved or data you want to keep. If you have a spare instance it might be wise to clone your development instance to their first.
Schedule the upgrade
Do testing on Development. (Fix and retest where needed)
Repeat for your other sub-production then production instances
Bonus…Get advise from the experts
Our latest application vt:codeworks will ease your upgrade process by detecting upgrade issues and resolve issues that can affect maintainability. Get a free trial from the ServiceNow Store.
Want more advise on upgrades? Reach out to the team at Vorto using our contact form or drop me an email: nick.bain@vorto.co
Good luck on your upgrade!