HOW TO REVIEW AND RETAIN SERVICENOW SKIPPED RECORDS
As a ServiceNow system administrator, you want to ensure instance upgrades
incorporate new release features accurately and carry forward your important
customizations unharmed. That means going through the stack of upgrade
skipped records, such as the ones you see here, to determine if you will retain
your customizations, revert back to the delivered version, or merge the two
together. This video will cover how to review and retain skipped records to
keep your customizations without incorporating additional changes from
ServiceNow.
The skipped records generated by an upgrade are not only
customized by you, but also changed by the new ServiceNow release.
So, there are two different versions of the same record: your
customized version and the base system version from ServiceNow.
When you review skipped records, you are deciding how to manage
the difference between the two different record versions. Retaining the
skipped record means keeping all your customizations intact without
taking any of the new functionality from ServiceNow. In other words,
you retain your customized record just the way it is. Here’s how to do
it…
Once the upgrade finishes running against the development instance,
navigate to the Upgrade Monitor to review your skipped records. In the
Application Navigator, select System Diagnostics > Upgrade Monitor.
You will see the Upgrade Summary Report for the upgrade that just
completed. In the upper-right corner, select Review Skipped Updates.
Down at the bottom of the System Upgrades form are the skipped
records to review for this upgrade.
You can also navigate to your skipped records a different way. In the
Application Navigator, select System Diagnostics > Upgrade History.
Here not only can you identify the skipped records for this upgrade, but
also for any upgrade run in the past. To view the skipped records for
the current upgrade, select most recent upgrade entry at the top of
the list. Down at the bottom of the same form are the same skipped
records for the current upgrade you saw earlier.
Before you begin reviewing skipped records, first filter out those
identified with a lower priority. They are for customizations that hold
little risk, such as field label changes. Locate a Priority 5 skipped record,
select just to the left of the green dot, right-click at that same location,
and then select Filter Out. If there are any Priority 4 skipped records,
they can also be filtered out in the same manner.
Now, you are ready to take on the remaining skipped records. In this example,
you will review a skipped record for the Script Include
named CatalogTransactionCheckoutTwo. Select the File name link to open the
skipped record.
The Upgrade Details form displays information about the skipped record. Show
Related Record navigates directly to the corresponding record as it currently
stands within the instance – in this case, the Script Include. But, to view the
record differences between the new ServiceNow release and your
customizations, select Resolve Conflicts.
On the Resolve Conflicts form, notice the record values for the new ServiceNow
release appear on the left. The values for your customized version appear on
the right. The blue highlighted areas spanning across the two versions identify
where there are differences. To get a closer look at the differences, select the
blue highlighted area of either Script.
On the Resolve Conflicts - Script window, notice the differences between new
ServiceNow release and your customizations. In this case, you want to retain
your customizations and not take any changes from ServiceNow. You want to
keep your customization for the cart start name. You will not be taking the
Requested for functionality added by ServiceNow. Therefore, no further action
needs to be taken. Select OK to return.
Since you will retain all of your existing customizations, select "<" in the upper-left
to return back to the Upgrade Details form.
Enter a Comment to help document why you have chosen to retain your
customizations and leave behind the new ServiceNow release changes.
Select Reviewed and Retained as the skipped record Resolution. To save the
skipped record Resolution and Comment, select Update.
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Back on the System Upgrades form, select Skipped Changes Reviewed to verify
the skipped record was transferred to the reviewed related list.
That is all there is to review and retain a skipped record. Refer to other
videos in the series for details on reverting and merging skipped
records. Thanks for watching. All the best for your next ServiceNow
upgrade!
