Creating a ServiceNow Instance and Additional Tips

A ServiceNow instance is a collection of applications, databases, libraries, virtual machines, etc., designed to deliver specific services to enterprises. 

Creating a ServiceNow Instance

Users can create a ServiceNow instance in minutes by following the steps below:

1. Sign in to the ServiceNow Developer Site.

2. After signing in, go to the header and click on the Request Instance button. 

3. Choose a version of ServiceNow for the Instance. 

4. Click the Request button.

On completing these steps, users will be notified, “Your instance is ready!” and receive the URL and admin login details for that Instance. 

ServiceNow recommend saving the Current Password securely, so it can be used to access the PDI from integrations or mobile applications in future. 

Clicking the Open Instance button will open the newly created instance in a new browser tab. 

After the Instance has been created, users can also open an Instance from the Developer Site by signing into the site, opening the Account menu, and clicking ‘Start Building.’

Often, organizations want to clone an existing instance. Users can replicate or clone an instance by replicating the instance’s data. This can be achieved through features native to ServiceNow, or using purpose-built applications and solutions.

Replicating a ServiceNow Instance

ServiceNow data can be replicated to support data migration, data synchronization, data democratization and archiving. 

Why Replicate an Instance?

Besides maintaining consistency between systems, data replication is an excellent practice for data recovery and preventing data loss. It ensures that all stakeholders can access credible data in the desired format when needed. 

Data replication facilitates system integration by syncing and replicating data between multiple systems. It helps build operational resilience and enables inter-application workflows.

By extracting and replicating ServiceNow data, users can: 

• Export operational data to an external database for future analytics and reporting needs.
• Enable dynamic data synchronization between systems.
• Dynamically or batch publish critical data from ServiceNow apps/instances to a cloud data repository. 
• Selectively back up critical apps and data for disaster recovery or migration. 

How to Replicate an Instance

Both purpose-built solutions and ServiceNow-native functionality can be used to replicate a ServiceNow instance. 

Instance Data Replication (IDR) is ServiceNow’s native approach to replicating an instance and its and data.

IDR copies data updates from one instance and replicates them to one or multiple instances. Users can sync data between multiple instances in one-directional or bi-directional replication. 

While data transfers are not dynamic, IDR allows users to partially or wholly replicate data.

See also: ServiceNow Instance Data Replication product page

However, large enterprises in particular should be aware of IDR’s limitations, including:

• Users need to set up, configure, and manage IDR themselves.
• Since IDR consumes ServiceNow bandwidth, replicating large data volumes can negatively impact performance.
• IDR has an initial seeding limitation for tables – a table should not have over 3 million records per replication set.
• IDR lacks a dashboard. So users must always run a manual test to check if the data has been successfully replicated. However, since the diagnostic report doesn’t occur in real-time, it may be faulty or irrelevant.
• IDR data synchronization is not dynamic/real-time.

For organizations with more advanced requirements, purpose-built data replication solutions and applications may be required. 

Unlike IDR, purpose-built data replication tools can achieve dynamic, bi-directional synchronization between one or more instances. This is particularly useful for aligning different teams and departments and ensuring they are working from a single and consistent source of truth.

Certain purpose-built solutions also allow organizations to achieve higher-throughput when extracting and replicating data. Solutions that avoid API-calls and web-services are also available, allowing users to move massive volumes of data without impacting performance.

Purpose-built solutions also provide Dashboards to aid users in monitoring the status of the integration and data replication in real-time.

Creating a Backup for Disaster Recovery

As well as replicating ServiceNow data to be used elsewhere in the enterprise, ServiceNow data can also be replicated to support disaster recovery. 

ServiceNow data backups can be created using out-of-the-box functionality, ServiceNow-native applications and third-party tools. 

The Advanced High Availability (AHA) architecture is ServiceNow’s in-built functionality for creating data backups.

AHA makes a daily backup of an instance and stores it for six days in the same data centers where the primary data resides. However, it creates a complete direct-to-disk backup weekly and retains it for 28 days.

By creating regular backups, the AHA architecture restores data and services in the event of unforeseen disruptions.

While this native functionality helps prevent and minimize the risk of data loss, organizations usually have limited control over the backup process. So, they cannot back up selective critical data per their needs and convenience. Additionally, the AHA architecture does not let you restore archived records since it retains backup data for only 28 days. 

Organizations looking for more control over their data backup and restore functionalities should explore dedicated backup and restore solutions for ServiceNow.

Perspectium – The One-stop Solution for ServiceNow Data Replication, Synchronization, and Integration

Perspectium is a ServiceNow-native integration application and managed service. It differs from traditional approaches to integrations, avoiding ETL (and associated security concerns) and API/web-services based approaches that impact instance performance. 

Thanks to this, Perspectium integrations enable massive throughput without impacting performance when extracting and replicating ServiceNow data.

Perspectium supports bulk data extraction and replication through Perspectium DataSync, and dynamic, bi-directional ServiceNow data synchronization through Perspectium ServiceBond.

As a managed service, Perspectium also benefits users by freeing them of the burden of implementing and maintaining integrations. Instead, Perspectium’s integration experts manage the integration in-full, enabling organizations to use internal resources on value-adding activities. 

Want to know more about replicating ServiceNow data with Perspectium? Speak with Perspectium’s integration experts!