Article

Migrating a Service Catalog to Another ServiceNow Instance with Ease

Author: Agus Budi Harto, 2025-07-28 10:26:36

Introduction

Creating a Service Catalog in ServiceNow involves a series of interconnected activities. These steps include:

  1. Creating a flow using Flow Designer.
  2. Building a catalog using Catalog Builder, which calls the flow created in step 1.
  3. Creating a client script using Catalog Client Script, if required.
  4. Creating a server script using Script Include, if needed for step 3.
  5. Creating a UI Policy, if necessary.

After completing these activities in the Development instance, the next step is to migrate the Service Catalog to another instance, such as QA, for testing purposes. Do you need to repeat all the steps from scratch? The answer is no. You can efficiently migrate the Service Catalog using Update Sets with a single key process.

Steps to Migrate Service Catalog Using Update Sets

Follow these steps to migrate your Service Catalog to another instance without starting from scratch:

  1. Ensure all steps 1–5 above have been completed and the Service Catalog is ready for use.
  2. Navigate to All > System Update Sets > Local Update Sets, and click New.

  3. Fill in the Name field as needed, keep the State as "In progress," fill in other fields or leave them blank, then click Submit and Make Current. The "Globe" icon will display a red circle around it.
  4. Open the Service Catalog you created via All > Service Catalog > Catalog Definition > Maintain Items.
  5. Find and click the link named Add to Update Set.

  6. Return to Local Update Sets, change the State to "Complete," and click Submit. The "Globe" icon will return to normal without the red circle.
  7. Locate and click Export to XML on the Local Update Sets page. You will be prompted to save the XML file to your local computer.
  8. Move to the QA or Production instance and navigate to All > System Update Sets > Retrieved Update Sets.

  9. Find and click Import Update Set from XML, then select the XML file saved in step 7.
  10. Verify that all components appear in the Customer Updates tab.
  11. Click the Preview Update Set button, and after ensuring there are no errors, click Commit Update Set.
  12. Your Service Catalog has now been successfully copied to the new instance without needing to rebuild from scratch.

Conclusion

By using Update Sets, you can efficiently migrate a Service Catalog from one ServiceNow instance to another, such as from Development to QA or Production. This process eliminates the need to recreate the catalog from scratch, saving time and ensuring consistency across instances. Follow the steps above to streamline your migration process and ensure a smooth transition.

LinkedIn

Tags: Opinion Servicenow

358 reviews

Add comment