How to Post Comments on Patching and EOL Changes (CHG) to Request Support - Support and Troubleshooting

How to Post Comments on Patching and EOL Changes (CHG) to Request Support Description This article provides instructions for customers on using Parent CHG to communicate about patching and upgrades for their production or sub-production instances instead of creating a NowSupport case. If you need assistance with upgrades or patching for your instances, please contact us via the Main Parent Program Record of Patching or Upgrade CHG by commenting on the CHG with your request. Please note that ServiceNow employees, including Customer Services & Support and Support Account Managers (SAM), are unable to schedule or manage upgrades and patching for customer instances due to security restrictions.

(Remember: We strongly encourage our customers to communicate through their Parent CHG (if there is a Parent Program in place) instead of creating a case with Nowsupport for their CHG-related requests. ServiceNow has a dedicated change team that actively monitors the CHG for any change requests that come through. However, customers without any parent change can create a case for any queries related to patching and upgrades.

Customers can communicate through the Patching and Upgrade Parent Change using the following steps for any CHG-related request:

1. Access the Now Support portal with your customer credentials.

2. Navigate to Instances > Instances Dashboard

3. (Partners only) If you manage other company instances as a partner, you can use the "Switch Company" option below your username to select a different company.

4. Please ensure that you locate the specific instance that needs modification and proceed to click on the number displayed under the 'Scheduled Changes' column to provide comments relevant to the upgrade/patch.

5. Once you open the relevant Parent Change for the Patching/Upgrade that required assistance to modify, please comment on the Main parent change and our dedicated team will assist with your request.

Note Please be aware that commenting on Patching/Upgrade parent changes will flagged for "Action Needed" and closely monitored by our dedicated team which is actively working on and monitoring these changes. However, commenting on child changes is not monitored until the "Action Needed box" is checked. We kindly request that you comment on the parent change to ensure that no requests go unattended or missed. Your cooperation will help us promptly assist you with your request.

Here are some FAQs to help you with Basic requests .

Q. How can I self-schedule, reschedule, modify the version, or cancel the Patching or Upgrade CHG's ?

Refer to our KB0541128 if you wish to self-schedule, reschedule, modify the version, or cancel the Patching or Upgrade CHGs. However, if you need assistance with any of the listed requests, please don't hesitate to reach out to us by updating the Parent Change with your request. We will assist you from there. Once ServiceNow creates a Change record for Patching your instance, you can reschedule within the same month only. For example, if a patch is scheduled for March, it can be rescheduled until March 31st. Only self-scheduled CHG can be cancelled by the customers. If you need to cancel an automated change, please reach out to us by updating the Parent Change with your request.We will assist you from there. Note: The CHG can only be modified more than 2 hours before the planned start date and time of the change request.

Q. What is the latest Release version, and where can I find information about this?

Please refer to this Release Document . If you need assistance with any of this information, please don't hesitate to reach out to us by updating the Parent Change if you have any with your request. We will assist you from there.

Q. What is the latest Patch, and where can I find the information about this?

Please refer to this KB1484881 : Available patches and hotfixes. If you need assistance with any of this information, please don't hesitate to reach out to us by updating the Parent Change if you have any with your request. We will assist you from there.

Q. Why didn't I receive notifications about the Patching or Upgrade Program and how can I start receiving them?

Please make sure to keep your support contacts updated in Now Support (HI), as ServiceNow always send notifications regarding the latest patch and upgrade. It is important to patch your instances as soon as possible. Maintain and update the contacts listed in your company's records to ensure that you receive important notifications related to the Upgrade and Patching program and that they are sent to the appropriate contacts.

For more information on managing company contacts, please refer to this KB0547262: Managing company contacts on Now Support . If you require further assistance, please raise a case with Now Support.

Q. Why is the version not available to select for the Patching or Upgrade change?

Customers are unable to see the version once it is retired Some versions, although not retired, are not visible to customers. They can be provided upon request only once it is released. If there is already an existing change scheduled to apply to the same version. Hence system won't allow you to create a new change for the same instance nor you will see the same version as an option in the dropdown list. Also, you won't be able to apply the upgrade on the instance using a patching change as well.

Q. How far can we push the upgrade schedule? As a customer, you have the flexibility to reschedule the upgrade CHG to any date that is 120 days after the GA release. Once we notify you about a new release, you have 120 days to schedule the upgrade. For example, if Vancouver N-1 is Xanadu GA, you have 120 days from that date to reschedule the upgrade.

Note: The GA date may change as it is a target date and cannot be fixed until it's released.

Q. How far can we push the patching scheduled CHG?

Customers are allowed to reschedule the patching Change (CHG) until the end of the patching month (this may not apply for critical patches). For instance, if a patch is planned for March, it can be rescheduled until March 31st. If you need to reschedule beyond that date, please leave a comment on the Main Parent Program Record with the preferred rescheduled date. The Change team will assist you with the rescheduling process through the Parent Change .

Q. Who do I contact for questions and issues related to my upgrade schedule? ServiceNow communicates End-of-Life upgrade schedules in advance so customers can plan around change freezes, holidays, etc. If there is still an issue with your scheduled upgrade, contact the ServiceNow Communication team through your Main parent program record .

Q. My SUB-PROD/PROD instance was upgraded or patched to (.......) Version without any consent or notifying.

The user on the watchlist receives advance notifications about any CHG's and case updates. ServiceNow always sends notifications in advance to the Company contacts listed in Now Support (HI). Please update and maintain the contacts in your company record to ensure that you receive important program-related notifications sent to the appropriate users.

For more information on managing company contacts, see KB0547262: Company Key Contacts and Notification List Overview on Now Support: https://support.servicenow.com/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0547262

Q. Why is the system not allowing me to reschedule my change to my preferred date? And through this error message "Planned Start Date must be before ...........".

Customers can reschedule and modify the target version of their changes in the Program Record (CHGxxxxxxxx) until the Deadline ("Planned Start Date must be before (....deadline).

If the preferred date is beyond the specified deadline, you will need to submit an extension request form. Customers must fill out and submit this extension form if they cannot meet the upgrade deadline outlined in the message stating "Planned Start Date must be before ...........".

If you need an extension for your CHGxxxxxxxx, Please reach out to us directly by commenting on the Parent CHG. We will send you the extension request link on your Main Program Record (CHGxxxxxxxx) to fill out and submit for review by our relevant team.

Note : Submitting an extension request does not guarantee approval; the decision is made after the relevant team assesses it.

Q. Why the change did not start on the start date/time:

This is an expected behaviour and the upgrade can take up to an hour from the planned start time of the upgrade change. The upgrade is triggered from an hourly job hosted on the instance, customer should already have this information from the upgrade changes. This is covered in the below section of the KB. However, if the Change still hasn't run for more than an hour, Kindly open a case with Now support or visit Customer Support - Contact Us

Please refer to the knowledge base below for further information.

KB0678054 - Upgrade FAQ - Frequently asked questions

Q. Can we cancel the existing CHG and create a new CHG for the same instance with our preferred date/version?

We do not recommend cancelling any automated changes until they have a significant impact. However, we encourage our customers to modify their existing change requests by adjusting the target version or rescheduling if needed.

Note : Please note that any modifications to the change request can only be made more than 2 hours before the planned start date/time. If the change request needs to be rescheduled or the target version needs to be changed, it must be done before 2 hours of the planned start date/time.

Q. Will there be a downtime for the users with the Patching and upgrade?

The instance will remain available during the patching and upgrade. However, if there are any users on the instance, they may experience some slowness during the actual upgrade and may be asked to log in again after the upgrade. Upgrade may take longer depending on the customizations on the instance.

We recommend benchmarking and testing using a non-production instance to understand the behaviour during the upgrade before upgrading the production instance. Please note that patching requires very little testing.

Note : If an instance is down, there should be a maintenance page informing that it is down or not available. If this is the case, please contact Nowsupport ASAP and have the matter investigated.

Q. Please cancel the Patching CHG as we are planning to upgrade our instance to a higher version.

We do not recommend cancelling the automated CHGs unless they are really necessary; instead, we can modify them. If you schedule the upgrade to a higher version for an earlier date, any lower version CHGs will be cancelled. This happens because the higher version upgrade change will be executed first, and once your instance is upgraded to a higher version, any pending change requests for a lower version will be automatically cancelled on the scheduled date by our downgrade protection feature. This feature is designed to prevent your instance from being downgraded.

Note : Therefore, to skip an upgrade or patches, schedule a higher version upgrade on a prior date to cancel the lower version CHG.

Q. Why can I only see the same family version in the change when I try to modify it to a different version?

It appears that the modification is approached through the Patching CHG, Please note that the system does not allow you to use patching changes to apply an upgrade to a different family version. Patching changes are only meant to apply patches to the same family version. If you wish to modify to a different family version, you will need to do this using an Upgrade CHG.

Q. We keep receiving the warning message "You have instances that are at end-of-life"

The warning message is a feature ServiceNow has rolled out just to notify customers that they are nearing the end of life for a particular release family. Customer's instances would show the same message if upgrades were not scheduled for them. The message shows regardless of which version they are scheduled to upgrade to and goes away once on the newest family of releases. The instance is receiving the message if the new family release is due for release and the existing version will become End of Life.

For more info, please refer to the KB attached below: https://support.servicenow.com/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0828060

Note : Once the End of Life (EOL) Program Record has been created for the company, customers can use that same upgrade child changes to your advantage, modify each child CHG instance's target version to any of the available versions, and/or reschedule them at a preferred date and time.

Q. Why I am not able to see the preferred time slot for rescheduling the Patching/Upgrade change?

We have certain limitations in our environment that restrict the number of simultaneous activities. If you don’t see your preferred time slot, it means that the maximum capacity has already been reserved. The system automatically calculates available time slots by excluding those already occupied by scheduled changes and maintenance activities, allowing only unreserved slots for selection. Since overlapping upgrades or internal maintenance may occur within the same database, your preferred time slots might not be available. Therefore, it is advisable to plan upgrades and book your desired date and time as early as possible to avoid conflicts.

If you need immediate assistance, please use one of the contact numbers from our support contact page: http://www.servicenow.com/support/contact-support.html

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