Instance data replication, or IDR...
... enables syncing specified data between ServiceNow instances in either a one-directional or bi-directional replication.
One instance will be configured as a producer to distribute data...
... and the others will be configured as consumer instances to receive data.
Once configured, IDR operates automatically to keep data in sync.
If the IDR plugin is setup on the instances that will share data...
... and you have the admin or idr_admin role, you can begin setting up data replication.
In the producer instance, we’ll create a new replication set…
…name it…
…and submit.
Next, define the table and fields to copy over.
For this example, we’ll use the incident table.
We can see the Sys ID field is mandatory...
... and there may be other mandatory fields depending on your setup.
We’ll go ahead and copy over all fields.
Now, how do we map this data?
From the consumer instance, we’ll create a new consumer replication set…
…add the producer instance URL…
… and give it the same name as the producer replication set.
The request from the consumer to producer was automatically made.
Next, we'll go to the producer instance to approve the consumer's request.
In the consumer instance, we see the approval.
Now, activate and sync the data.
If you need to populate your consumer instance with existing data from the tables in the producer instance...
... click Seed to initiate copying the records over from the producer instance.
Check Seeding Requests to monitor seeding status.
The status shows as complete when all the data copies over from producer instance.
When we compare the incident table from both the producer and consumer...
... we see that they're synced.
The replication worked!
How do I know it works automatically for new incidents?
To test the one-directional data replication, we’ll create an incident in the producer instance...
…then refresh the incident table in the consumer instance.
There it is!
How do we make the replication bi-directional?
Before, the producer was set up as the single source of truth.
Now, we want to create a bi-directional replication.
This means each instance will act as both a producer and consumer.
Create a new producer replication set like before...
... except this time start in the consumer instance.
We’ll use the same name add the word “inverse” to the end.
Then in the producer instance, we'll create a consumer replication set for the inverse...
…the approval is automatically requested like before…
…approve…
…activate...
... and sync.
To test the bi-directional data replication...
... we’ll go to the consumer instance and modify the description in the incident created earlier…
… we'll go to the producer instance…
…refresh the list…
… and as we expected, the producer incident data reflects the description change.
For more information, see our product documentation, knowledge base, or podcast.
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