Commercial to Regulated Market(SPP-ServiceNow Protected Platform) Instance migration FAQ (Technical Support prespective)

1. Can we clone from Commercial to SPP? 2. Can we do a restore from Commercial to SPP? 3. If we are planning for migration, should we maintain commercial instance names on SPP? 4. Will there be any change in the Customer Support URL after migrating to SPP? 5. Will my Instance IP change when migrated to SPP? 6. How long will it take for the migration? 7. Will there be any outages during the migration? 8. Will there be any data loss during the migration from Commercial to SPP? 9. Will we get the same number of nodes/database capacity allocated once we migrate to SPP? 10. Will there be any change in end-user access to the instance after migrating to SPP? 11. Will my Instance URL change? 12. Does SPP support custom URLs? 13. Will my instance email address change? 14. Can we perform a dry run of the migration? 15. Can I perform a dry-run Commercial X to SPP Y migration? 16. What are the high-level steps for migration? 17. How will I keep track of progress during migration? 18. Can we do a dry-run Commercial Prod to SPP Prod migration? 19. Can we enable commercial to SPP email forwarding? 20. Can we enable commercial to SPP URL redirection? 21. How long will the URL redirection and email forwarding run after Go Live to SPP? 22. Will there be any changes done to the commercial instance in lieu of a dry run? 23. What happens to the commercial instance after it gets migrated to SPP? 24. Will we be able to access a commercial instance after SPP Go Live? 25. What happens to existing integrations post-SPP migration? 26. Is there an option to roll back SPP to Commercial after going live ? 27. Do I have to reconfigure MID servers after migrating to SPP? 28. Will all existing features on the instance work in the SPP environment? 29. Can we use ServiceNow store functionality in SPP? 30. Can we use App repo functionality to install our custom scoped application after migrating to SPP? 31. Are my existing published custom scoped application versions available after Go Live? 32. Will the existing clone targets work after migrating to SPP? 33. What data will be changed on the instance post-migration to SPP? 34. How do I purchase Apps for my SPP instance? 35. Will my partner apps work in SPP? 1. Can we clone from Commercial to SPP? We cannot clone from Commercial to SPP as these are in 2 different infrastructures. SPP is high security so there is no direct connection between SPP and Commercially hosted or other Regional Regulated Market infrastructures.

2. Can we do a restore from Commercial to SPP? Restore can be initiated but there are many prerequisites to be met first. You must match the backend infra versions to SPP/Regulated Market-approved versions (FIPS approved) before using the backup to initiate the restore. These activities do not create any functionality issues with the existing instance and must be one-time configurations.

3. If we are planning for migration, should we maintain existing Commercial instance names on SPP? Yes. It is better to retain the existing name as there are encryption keys generated linked with the instance name. During the migration the source names should match the destination names; after migration, they can be changed within the Regulated Market infrastructure after Go Live.

4. Will there be any change in the Customer Support URL after migrating to SPP? Commercial support is support.servicenow.com and Regulated Market support will have its own support URLs. These links will be provided by your account representatives.

5. Will my Instance IP change when migrated to SPP? Yes. The IPs will be changed on the Regulated Market Infrastructure.

6. How long will it take for the migration? This depends on the size of your instance and how you want to move the data. This information can only be provided by performing a dry run for the Restore and calculating the time it takes to copy and restore the data to the Regulated Market infrastructure. Please work with your account representatives and discuss with impacted teams once the dry runs are complete.

7. Will there be any outages during the migration? Yes. The high-level summary is as follows:

Customer should disable "Email Send" and "Email Receive" before "instance down" so that the emails stay on the infra and will not be processed by instance. The customer should confirm the “Instance down” time as a case update. ServiceNow Shut down the Commercial instance == Outage starts here Perform the backup of the Commercial instance Transfer the backup of the Commercial instance to the Regulated Market. Initiate the restoration of Regulated Market Infrastructure. Once the instance is up, make the database changes from the backend to update the properties and configuration based on the Regulated Market Infrastructure. Repoint the nodes to the DBI on Regulated Market == Outage Ends here ServiceNow confirms the migration completion. Customer can test the instance and enable the "Email Send and "Email Receive", which will process the emails from the infra. These timelines can be captured only with a dry run of the migration Restore. The outage ballpark time is 4 hours+ time taken to restore the pre and post-restore infrastructure. The estimate is different in every case based on the complexity.

8. Will there be any data loss during the migration from commercial to SPP? No data will be lost during migration. During the migration window, the instance is shut down and the database is read-only so no users can connect to the instance. A backup of the database is performed and is restored on the Regulated Market infrastructure.

9. Will we get the same number of nodes/database capacity allocated once we migrate to SPP? The resources linked to the Regulated Market instance will remain the same as configured on the commercial instance.

10. Will there be any change in end-user access to the instance after migrating to SPP? Regulated Market instances can only be accessed from allow-listed IPs. These IP ranges are provided to your ServiceNow account representative and added to our infrastructure so end users can access the migrated instance. The URL is provided well in advance. An OOB instance with the same name will also be created on the Regulated Market infrastructure well in advance. IPs and other secure information can be provided and set up before the migration process. During migration, only the data is migrated from the commercial to Regulated Market.

11. Will my instance URL change? Post-migration, the URL will be changed from "instancename.service-now.com" to "instancename.servicenowcloud.* (depending on the Regulated Market domain)".

12. Does SPP support custom URLs? Yes, SPP supports custom URLs.

13. Will my instance email address change? Yes. Instance email will be changed from instancename@service-now.com to "instancename@servicenowcloud.* (depending on the Regulated Market domain)".

14. Can we dry-run the migration? Dry runs can be performed for migrations several times. Prerequisites and implementation take a few days, so dry runs should be planned correctly to accommodate all segments of the timeline. Please work with your account representative/architect for more information and to set up dry runs.

15. Can I perform a dry run for commercial X to SPP Y migration? Unfortunately, we can only do a dry run for matching source and destination. For example, X to X, prod to prod, dev to dev, or test to test. X over Y (prod over dev) cannot be tested because of dependencies of the instance and the encryption keys generated. You can always initiate a PROD to DEV clone within the commercial environment and then run a commercial DEV to SPP DEV.

16. What are the high-level steps of migration? The steps are as below.

Customer should disable "Email Send" and "Email Receive" before "instance down "so that the emails stay on the infra and will not be processed by instance. The customer should confirm the “Instance down” time as a case update. Shut down the Commercial instance and make the instance read only from the database level == Outage starts here. Create backend configuration to an auto URL redirect to SPP instance URL Configure the backend to auto-forward instancename@servicenow.com emails SPP instance email. Create the backup of the Commercial instance. Transfer the backup of the Commercial instance to the Regulated Market. Initiate the restoration of the Regulated Market infrastructure. Once the instance is up, make the database changes from the backend to update the properties and configuration based on the Regulated Market infrastructure. Repoint the nodes to the DBI on Regulated Market == Outage Ends here. Have the customer test the integration and functionality. Customer should enable the "Email Send and "Email Receive", which will process the emails from the infra. Customer to release the instance to end users. URL redirection from commercial and auto email forwarding will function until commercial instances are retired . Commercial Instance retirement is to be requested by the customer_admin/ServiceNow Account representatives when ready. 17. How will I keep track of progress during migration? As there are so many segments to the migration process, once the outage window is established, communication timelines will be set and your account representatives will be provided with status and details. Currently, the process is not automated.

18. Can we dry-run commercial prod to SPP PROD migration? Yes, this is possible. But the commercial PROD will not be shut down; only the restore will be tested. This process will not have any impact on the functionality of the commercial PROD instance. If any LIVE data gets on to "instancename.servicenowcloud.com.XX" as part of post-migration dry run testing, ServiceNow cannot recover/transfer it. Please be careful when testing any live integration during this DRY RUN .

19. Can we enable commercial to SPP email forwarding? This is possible and will work if the commercial instance is available (not retired). Migration will make the commercial database read-only. We use the existing commercial instance record to configure email forwarding.

20. Can we enable commercial to SPP URL redirection? This is possible and will work if the commercial instance is available (not retired). Migration will make the commercial database read-only. We use the existing commercial instance record to configure the URL redirection. Customers can also work with their internal network team to create URL redirection within the customer network if they want a permanent redirection.

21. How long will the URL redirection and email forwarding run after the Go-Live to SPP? The redirection works as long as the commercial instance is available/Operational on the commercial infrastructure. When the instance is retired, the instance record is decommissioned on NowSupport(Commercial) infra and the backend configurations(Old FQDN, DNS, Loadbalancer entries) are removed as well which removes the configuration.

Customers should work with their internal network team to create URL redirection within the customer network if they want to extend the redirection option.

22. Will there be any changes done to the commercial instance in lieu of a dry run? There will be added infrastructure within your commercial environment with the FIPS-approved versions of backend applications such as databases. This is configured for the migration dry run. This will not create any impact on your existing commercial infrastructure and functionality. Few of the legacy encryption components will be disabled on your commercial instance.

23. What happens to the commercial instance after it is migrated to SPP? The commercial instance is put into read-only mode from the database. There will not be any nodes attached to it for users to log in. The instance record will be listed in the "Manage my instance" section on the Support portal until the instance is retired.

24. Will we be able to access the commercial instance after SPP Go Live? Once the instance is migrated, the commercial instance is not accessible. The instance will be put into read-only mode from the backend and there will not be any option to log in to this instance. If a URL redirection is configured(Customer network/NowSupport commercial network), the end user accessing the instance will be redirected to the Regulated Market instance.

25. What happens to existing integrations post-SPP migration? As the instance is a restoration of the commercial instance, the configuration remains intact. However, you must work with customer support and your account reps to make sure that the external integration components are accessible from SPP. This can be tested during the dry run. Please keep in mind that all inbound is restricted by the IP allow list explicitly. External integrations with a public dynamic IP range (Eg: Github with 2500+ public IP) should be revisited for SPP-specific solutions.

26. Is there an option to roll back SPP to commercial after going live? There will not be a rollback option after Go Live. The commercial instance before cutover can be brought up on commercial from a service restore. Delta records created in the SPP instance post-Go Live can be transferred to the commercial instance. These instances are only accessible from allow-listed IPs and ServiceNow cannot transfer any data out of the SPP VM. We will assist customers to restore these records as possible. But this will be a complex manual procedure and we cannot provide a ballpark estimate.

The base SOP for this will be data loss where the instancing functionality will be restored as early as possible. The delta transfer takes a few days based on the amount of data and how complex the requirement. We will involve multiple SME teams from a Fix Forward aspect. See Restoring a Production Instance from Backup

27. Do I have to reconfigure MID servers after migrating to SPP? Existing MID servers will continue to function; if there are any connectivity issues post-Go Live we will assist you to fix them.

28. Will all existing features on the instance work in the SPP environment? Few of the existing features will not work on SPP. This list is managed on this KB Services not available in ServiceNow Regulated and Self-Hosted Environments

29. Can we use ServiceNow store functionality in SPP? Regulated Markets have their version of the Store, which can be accessed from their support portal. See Federal AppStore Login for details.

30. Can we use App repo functionality to install our custom-scoped application after migrating to SPP? You can use app repo functionality, but the app versions published in Commercial AppRepo will not be available for installation once migrated to SPP. You can take the app version as XML and once you are on the SPP instance, this can be committed and future versions can be uploaded to the AppRepo. See How to Move Custom Scoped Applications between instances for more information.

SPP ServiceNow application repository (Custom Applications) Entitlement check

31. Will my existing published custom-scoped application versions be available after Go Live? Currently, we are unable to make published custom-scoped applications available after Go Live. Should this be a requirement, we will attempt solutions. Backing up the App version in XML from commercial dev before the migration is one way to solve this issue.

32. Will the existing clone targets work after migrating to SPP? They will not work, because a new target needs to be created; the Domain of the instances will be changed.

33. What data will be changed on the instance after migration to SPP? Regulated Market specific properties for automation and management will be changed from the ServiceNow backend during the Go live outage change window. There will not be any customer changes created in data or configurations on the instance.

34. How do I purchase Apps for my SPP instance? Purchasing Apps in SPP will be done in the same way it was done in the commercial. You can work with your account representatives and in the case of any licensing issues, we can fix them after the ServiceNow Go live outage change window. There will not be any changes to customer-created data or configurations on the instance.

35. Will my partner apps work in SPP? Yes. As we have regulated the Market Store, these apps will be available for download and installation based on your entitlement status.