<h2>System clone</h2><br/><div style="overflow-x:auto"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"><head><meta content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /><meta name="copyright" content="(C) Copyright 2024" /><meta name="DC.rights.owner" content="(C) Copyright 2024" /><meta name="generator" content="DITA-OT" /><meta name="DC.type" content="concept" /><meta name="DC.title" content="System clone" /><meta name="abstract" content="Use the System Clone application to copy everything in a database from one instance to another." /><meta name="description" content="Use the System Clone application to copy everything in a database from one instance to another." /><meta name="DC.subject" content="Managing Data, system clone" /><meta name="keywords" content="Managing Data, system clone" /><meta name="DC.relation" scheme="URI" content="../../../administer/managing-data/concept/c_DataManagement.html" /><meta name="DC.relation" scheme="URI" content="../../../administer/general/concept/intro-now-platform-landing.html" /><meta name="DC.relation" scheme="URI" content="../../../administer/general/concept/config-now-platform-core-features.html" /><meta name="DC.relation" scheme="URI" content="../../../administer/general/concept/tables-fields-and-forms.html" /><meta name="DC.relation" scheme="URI" content="../../../administer/managing-data/task/t_StartAClone.html" /><meta name="DC.relation" scheme="URI" content="../../../administer/managing-data/task/cancel-clone.html" /><meta name="DC.relation" scheme="URI" content="../../../administer/managing-data/task/schedule-cloning.html" /><meta name="DC.relation" scheme="URI" content="../../../administer/managing-data/task/modify-cloning-schedule.html" /><meta name="DC.relation" scheme="URI" content="../../../administer/managing-data/task/view-clone-status.html" /><meta name="DC.relation" scheme="URI" content="../../../administer/managing-data/task/t_ViewCloneHistory.html" /><meta name="DC.relation" scheme="URI" content="../../../administer/managing-data/task/roll-back-a-clone.html" /><meta name="DC.relation" scheme="URI" content="../../../administer/managing-data/concept/post-clone-cleanup-scripts.html" /><meta name="DC.relation" scheme="URI" content="../../../administer/managing-data/concept/Clone-UI.html" /><meta name="DC.creator" content="Vaughn Romero" /><meta name="DC.creator" content="Phil Salzman" /><meta name="DC.creator" content="ServiceNow" /><meta name="DC.date.created" content="2023-08-03" /><meta name="DC.date.modified" content="2023-08-03" /><meta name="mini-toc" content="yes" /><meta name="DC.format" content="XHTML" /><meta name="DC.identifier" content="c_SystemClone" /><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../../CSS/commonltr.css" /><title>System clone</title></head><body id="c_SystemClone"> <div class="breadcrumb"><a class="link" href="../../../administer/general/concept/intro-now-platform-landing.html" title="As a platform administrator, you have the power of the Now Platform at your fingertips. The Now Platform is an application platform as a service that automates business processes across the enterprise.">Administer the Now Platform</a> > <a class="link" href="../../../administer/general/concept/config-now-platform-core-features.html" title="The Now Platform provides for a multitude of customization options to your applications. Customize your UI, handle user and data administration, and localize your instance for time zones, currencies, and more.">Configure Now Platform Core Features</a> > <a class="link" href="../../../administer/general/concept/tables-fields-and-forms.html" title="ServiceNow provides options for managing your data on the Now Platform as well as with external data sources and applications.">Now Platform tables and data</a> > </div> <h1 class="title topictitle1" id="ariaid-title1">System clone</h1> <div class="body conbody"><p class="shortdesc"><span class="ph">Use the System Clone application to copy everything in a database from one instance to another.</span></p> <p class="p"><span class="ph">Cloning is typically used to copy a production instance to a pre-production instance to test changes. Cloning data comes from the most recent, nightly backup.</span></p> <div class="p"><div class="fig fignone" id="c_SystemClone__fig_j25_gks_gr"><span class="figcap"><span class="fig--title-label">Figure 1. </span>Clone process</span> <br /><img class="image" id="c_SystemClone__image_ewl_kks_gr" src="../image/CloneProcess.png" alt="Clone process overview" /><br /> <div class="p">In response to a clone request, the <span class="ph">ServiceNow</span> platform performs the following tasks:<ol class="ol" id="c_SystemClone__ol_rkm_vmy_gr"><li class="li">Generates a file to preserve operational data on the target server.<div class="note"><span class="notetitle">Note:</span> This file contains the data preserved by <a class="xref" href="data-preservation.html#t_CreateADataPreserver" title="Data preservers maintain specified data on a target instance.">data preservers</a>.</div> </li><li class="li">Copies the database schema from the source instance to the target instance.</li><li class="li">Creates tables in the target instance database using the source instance table definitions.</li><li class="li">Copies data from the most recent nightly backup of the source instance to the target instance database.<div class="note"><span class="notetitle">Note:</span> Certain exclusions are automatic, large tables are normally excluded. These include audit, log, and email tables. <span class="ph">MetricBase</span> tables are not excluded by default.</div> </li><li class="li">Briefly disables UI traffic and requests to the target instance server.</li><li class="li">Displays the message <span class="ph uicontrol">Clone in progress...</span> to any user accessing the target instance.</li><li class="li">Restores operational data preserved from the target instance.</li><li class="li">Runs any post-clone cleanup scripts on the target instance.</li><li class="li">Briefly suspends all email functions on the target instance.</li><li class="li">Queues an event to regenerate text indexes.</li><li class="li">Enables UI traffic and requests to the target instance server.</li></ol> </div> <p class="p">During a clone, the target instance may be intermittently unavailable. After clone completion, you have up to 24 hours to contact <span class="ph">Customer Service and Support</span> and request a rollback of the target instance to its pre-clone state. You are notified when the rollback is complete.</p> </div> </div> <div class="note"><span class="notetitle">Note:</span> If the source instance has a clone depth level of >=5 then the clone is not allowed.<p class="p">If the source instance purpose is DART (Data Access for Responsible Training) then the clone is not allowed and an error message will be displayed.</p> </div> <div class="section" id="c_SystemClone__section_m45_prc_m1b"><h2 class="title sectiontitle">Clone to an instance on a different version</h2> <p class="p">The System Clone application can target an instance running a different instance version from the source.</p> <p class="p">A central web service controls clone processing and automatically modifies the target instance version to match the source instance version. This matching process starts up to 8 hours before the time specified in the <span class="ph uicontrol">Date and time</span> field on the System Clone form. This web service also ensures that there is enough disk space on the target instance for the clone to proceed.</p> <p class="p">When cloning from a backup, the target instance does not need additional time to upgrade or downgrade. The <span class="ph">ServiceNow</span> platform performs any version changes during a brief window where the target instance is unavailable, after it copies data from the source instance backup.</p> </div> <div class="section"><h2 class="title sectiontitle">Clone from a backup</h2> <p class="p">The <span class="ph">Now Platform</span> uses data from the most recent, nightly backup of the source instance when cloning. Backups that are used for cloning are a maximum of 36 hours old. System Clone begins the initial preparation, including selecting the latest backup to use, only at the date and time processing is scheduled to start.</p> <p class="p">If cloning from a source backup fails, the system uses the legacy clone engine instead. The legacy clone engine cannot preserve data from extended tables, relationships, hierarchies between tables, and dot-walked queries. You may want to restore the target instance from a backup and then reschedule the clone in such cases.</p> <p class="p">After cloning from a backup, the target instance is unavailable for several minutes before the clone is marked as complete in the source instance. If the source and target instances are on different versions of the <span class="ph">Now Platform</span>, the target instance is modified to match the source instance version during this time.</p> <p class="p">When starting a clone from a backup, the date and time the backup was taken, as well as periodic progress messages, appear in the <span class="ph uicontrol">Clone Log</span> related list.</p> <div class="p"><div class="fig fignone" id="c_SystemClone__fig_fg3_34s_gr"><span class="figcap"><span class="fig--title-label">Figure 2. </span>System clone backup log</span> <img class="image" id="c_SystemClone__image_mkg_l4s_gr" src="../image/SystemCloneBackupLog2.png" alt="Clone log backup record" /> </div> </div> </div> <div class="section"><h2 class="title sectiontitle">Clone over production instances</h2> <p class="p">As long as the system property, <span class="keyword parmname">glide.db.clone.allow_clone_target</span> is TRUE, an instance can serve as a clone. Modifying data on the source instance during a clone can cause a data mismatch between records or duplicate record entries.</p> </div> <div class="section" id="c_SystemClone__section_hgz_24c_fzb"><h2 class="title sectiontitle">Clone Admin Console</h2> <p class="p">The Clone admin console provides admins with an overview of their active clones and clone statuses. A new and improved UI for system clone is introduced in the Vancouver release. For more information, see <a class="xref" href="Clone-UI.html" title="The Clone Admin Console provides a new, streamlined experience and enhanced visibility for cloning data between instances, one of our most-used automations. We've brought all your existing clone profiles, exclusions, preservers and scripts into the new console. We've simplified the clone request page, added an on-demand backup option, and provided more visibility into clone progress.">Clone Admin Console</a>. The benefits of the new Clone Admin Console are as follows:</p> <ul class="ul" id="c_SystemClone__ul_iwm_34c_fzb"><li class="li">A simplified clone request experience.</li><li class="li">A new scheduling tool to prevent timing conflicts.</li><li class="li">An on-demand backup option.</li><li class="li">The ability to see all clone-related settings in one place.</li><li class="li">Enhanced visibility via a dashboard to easily view current clone activity.</li></ul> </div> </div> <div class="related-links"> <ul class="ullinks"><li class="link ulchildlink"><strong><a href="../../../administer/managing-data/task/t_StartAClone.html">Request a clone</a></strong><br /> Request a clone to copy data from a production instance to a non-production instance or to copy data between non-production instances.</li><li class="link ulchildlink"><strong><a href="../../../administer/managing-data/task/cancel-clone.html">Cancel a clone</a></strong><br /> You can cancel requested, scheduled, and active clones without negatively impacting system stability or usability. Canceling a clone restores the target instance to the pre-clone state, retaining all original data.</li><li class="link ulchildlink"><strong><a href="../../../administer/managing-data/task/schedule-cloning.html">Schedule cloning</a></strong><br /> You can use <span class="ph">System Clone</span> to schedule automatic cloning, which is the easiest way to keep your cloned instances up to date.</li><li class="link ulchildlink"><strong><a href="../../../administer/managing-data/task/modify-cloning-schedule.html">Modify cloning schedules</a></strong><br /> You can cancel scheduled clonings but not modify them.</li><li class="link ulchildlink"><strong><a href="../../../administer/managing-data/task/view-clone-status.html">View clone status</a></strong><br /> You can view the status of a clone to make sure the cloning process isn't stuck.</li><li class="link ulchildlink"><strong><a href="../../../administer/managing-data/task/t_ViewCloneHistory.html">View clone history</a></strong><br /> You can view the status and history of any system clone request.</li><li class="link ulchildlink"><strong><a href="../../../administer/managing-data/task/roll-back-a-clone.html">Roll back a clone</a></strong><br /> Return a clone target to its state before the latest cloning. Roll back cloning if something went wrong in the cloning process.</li><li class="link ulchildlink"><strong><a href="../../../administer/managing-data/concept/post-clone-cleanup-scripts.html">Post-clone cleanup scripts</a></strong><br /> Cleanup scripts automatically run on the target instance after the cloning process finishes.</li><li class="link ulchildlink"><strong><a href="../../../administer/managing-data/concept/Clone-UI.html">Clone Admin Console</a></strong><br /> The Clone Admin Console provides a new, streamlined experience and enhanced visibility for cloning data between instances, one of our most-used automations. We've brought all your existing clone profiles, exclusions, preservers and scripts into the new console. We've simplified the clone request page, added an on-demand backup option, and provided more visibility into clone progress.</li></ul> <div class="familylinks"> <div class="parentlink"><strong>Parent Topic:</strong> <a class="link" href="../../../administer/managing-data/concept/c_DataManagement.html" title="Data is stored and managed in your instance according to a principled structure that administrators can view and configure. Data management functions include importing, exporting, and archiving database data and configuring fields and tables.">Data management</a></div> </div> </div></body></html></div>