Upgrade Preview for ServiceNow helps teams efficiently analyze and prepare for ServiceNow upgrades by providing a centralized view of configuration changes, potential conflicts, and upgrade impacts before they are applied to the target instance. It enables administrators and developers to review customized configurations against the upgraded version, identify changes introduced by the upgrade, and understand which components may require attention.

Users can seamlessly perform upgrade analysis, comparison, and validation across different versions of ServiceNow configurations. The module helps identify modified, added, or conflicting records and provides visibility into potential upgrade-related issues, allowing teams to assess the impact of customizations and make informed decisions before proceeding with an upgrade.

Designed for proactive upgrade management and risk reduction, Upgrade Preview helps administrators maintain configuration integrity, minimize unexpected issues, and ensure a smoother and more controlled ServiceNow upgrade process. By providing clear insights into configuration differences and potential conflicts, ConfigBot enables teams to prepare, validate, and manage upgrades with greater confidence.

The following article explains how to use the Upgrade Preview module in ConfigBot to analyze upgrade changes, identify potential conflicts, compare configurations, and perform different upgrade-related operations.

Step 1: Log in to ConfigBot

Enter your username and password, then click Submit to access the portal.

Step 2: Access the Upgrade Preview Module

From the Home Screen, Navigate to Impact Analysis and click on the Upgrade Preview module tile.

Step 3: Create a New Iteration

Click the Gear Icon to create a new iteration and start the analysis process.

The Gear Icon provides the options required to configure and initiate a new Upgrade Preview analysis.

In the pop-up window, you can see there are two options available

• New Analysis - create new iteration
• Existing Analysis - use already created iteration

Creating new iteration

• Enter the Iteration Number
• Select the Workspace or ADD New Workspace
• Enter Host Address
• Enter your Company ID and Username
• Enter your User Password
• Add a short Description
• Then click Run Analysis

Note: When creating the analysis for the first time, leave the Upgrade Release Title field empty.

When the Upgrade Title is left empty, ConfigBot analyzes the instance and retrieves the available ServiceNow upgrade release titles. This allows you to identify which upgrade releases are currently available for the selected ServiceNow instance.

This execution retrieves the available release titles for the ServiceNow instance. These Releases can then be used when creating a new Upgrade Preview analysis.

Step 4: Review Available Upgrade Releases

Once the analysis is complete

• Select the prepared iteration on which we ran the analysis.
• Click on the gear icon again to review the results

Step 5: Create an Analysis with an Upgrade Release Title

After the available release titles have been identified, create another iteratoin for the same instance.

In the pop up window

• Enter your iteration Number
• Select the Workspace same as before
• Host Address you entered before
• Company ID you entered before
• Enter the Username you entered before and password
• Enter the Upgrade Release Title so then the Configbot gives you dropdown of the title that has been backfilled

In the Preview Type you will get 2 options

• Execute Preview
• Check & Execute Preview

• Select Execute Preview Option, then the bot will run a new upgrade preview, then generate the report based on new upgrade preview.
• Select Check & Execute Preview then ConfigBot will check if the upgrade preview is already executed for the release title selected in the Upgrade Release Title field and the generates Report based on it.

For now, I am selecting a Check & Execute Preview.

ter completing the form, click on Run Analysis

Step 6: Upgrade Preview Processing

Now Upgrade Preview process is initiated.
If you have executed Update Preview, depending on the instance and the upgrade process, it can normally take approximately 30 to 180 minutes.
During this period, ConfigBot continuously waits for the ServiceNow process to complete.

Step 7: Report Generation

Once ServiceNow Completes the Upgrade Preview process, ConfigBot detects the completed process and proceeds with report generation.
Users can then select the completed iteration and review the generated report.

Step 8: Review the Upgrade Preview Report

Navigate to the Upgrade Preview Iterations sections and select the completed Iteration.
Open the iteration to view the generated Upgrade Preview report.

The report provides the results of the Upgrade Preview analysis and helps administrators review the information associated with the selected ServiceNow release.

User can also use the iteration history and review the logs of an iteration by clicking on the reload icon.

Step 9: Developer worklist tab:

In the "Developer Worklist" tab, users can review the generated report.
This section can be used for configuration, that will be cover in the next execution "Automation section".

In the generated report, records are categorized for users to quickly review the most important updates.

• Auto Reviewed → A record is marked as “Auto Reviewed” when there are no differences between the current and previous versions of the associated record, no record is configured as a skip record, and no previous version exists for the associated record.
• Needs a Manual Review → A record is marked as “Needs a Manual Review” when differences are identified between the current and previous versions of the associated record.

Click on the record to view the ServiceNow record that is associated with this update.

Click "Compare" to view the difference in current and previous version of the record associated with this update

Click on the "View Skipped Record" button to review the record of skipped update from upgrade preview.

Automation (Configure Records using ConfigBot):

Step 1: Select the Records

Click on the on the Hamburger Menu and select “Request Reprocess”

In the Developer Worklist tab, select the respective records you want to run automation on.

Step 2: Select the Automation type

Here you can see three available actions:

• View Compare → Allows you to view the differences between the current and previous versions of the record associated with the update.
• Retain Customization → Allows you to retain your customizations for the respective record during the upgrade.
• Revert to Base System → Allows you to revert the respective record to the ServiceNow upgrade release version, removing the existing customization.

For this demonstration, we will perform the Retain Customization operation.

Click on “push to instance” record to run the automation.

In the pop-up window

• Enter the user’s password
• And select push to instance button

Step 3: Check the Status

Iteration is being Processed, you can check logs from Execution history

Step 4: Review the Results

After the Automation Status changes to complete
A new card will appear with the number of records we selected.

You can also see the status of each record after the automation. By Clicking the Developer Worklist tab.

This workflow allows administrators to identify available releases first and then run a targeted Upgrade Preview against the selected ServiceNow release.

Thank You

Updated on: 09/19/2026