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    Home Orlando Now Platform Capabilities Now Platform capabilities Instance Data Replication (IDR)

    Instance Data Replication (IDR)

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    Instance Data Replication (IDR)

    Instance Data Replication (IDR) copies data updates from one instance to one or more other instances. IDR enables you to maintain consistent data across different organizations in your company.

    IDR provides a one-to-many replication, which enables one instance to propagate data across different departments and business units to keep data in sync. With IDR, you can also modify data during replication. For example, you could localize the data during replication.

    Watch this video to learn how to set up IDR between multiple instances on the Now Platform.

    Benefits

    • Data is automatically replicated to one or more other instances.
    • Data can be modified and mapped to any table and table column on other instances. For example, you can modify and map table columns to localize data for different locales.
    • Data that is updated on consumer instances can be replicated to the producer instance.

      Data, such as problem requests, can be given on consumer instances to third parties. The third parties can update the problem issue and return it to the consumer instance. The data can then be updated on the producer instance.

    • Business rules can trigger post-replication workflows, such as generating notifications or validating the replication.
    • Data that is in transit during a crash is recoverable.

    How Instance Data Replication works

    You use the Instance Data Replication plugin to replicate data updates on one instance, called the producer instance, to one or more other instances, called consumer instances.

    By configuring a producer replication set, you can specify the tables and table columns on the producer instance to replicate. When you configure a consumer data set, you can specify the tables and table columns on the consumer instances that receive the producer replication set data.

    Next, you activate both producer and consumer replication sets to turn on the IDR functionality. The data that is updated in a producer replication set automatically updates the corresponding data in the consumer replication sets.

    Syncing the producer and consumer replication sets requires that you do a one-time download called seeding of all the producer replication set data to the consumer instances. You can initiate seeding requests on a consumer instance while you are activating a consumer replication set. After seeding, your future replications involve data updates only. An audit trails contain a history of those record updates.

    By default, the table data on a producer instance goes into the tables of the same name on consumer instances. Transformation is the process of replicating producer data in differently named tables or table columns on consumer instances.

    IDR adapters modify data before storing it on consumer instances. Adapters perform string and mathematical operations, such as converting one currency to another, or converting one time zone to another.

    Figure 1. IDR overview
    Data replicates from a producer instance to one or more consumer instances.
    Warning: IDR overwrites data on instances and can replicate sensitive data. Given the potential for data loss and data exposure, test your IDR implementation in a pre-production environment.

    Producer and Consumer instance data replication delays

    After IDR has been set up on the producer instance, a job (IDRProducerJob) runs on producer instances to detect data updates. When there are updates to replicate, the producer instance sends the updates to consumer instances.

    The IDRConsumerJob runs on the consumer instances to detect the data updates from a producer. When IDRConsumerJob finds updates, it updates the data in consumer tables.

    Data lag

    It takes some time for the data updates in a producer replication set to appear in consumer replication sets. You can look on the monitoring dashboard to see how long data updates move from a producer replication set to consumer replication sets.

    If you have significant data delays, contact ServiceNow Technical Support.

    Domain separation

    IDR runs in ServiceNow datacenters only. It functions at the data level so IDR does not explicitly support domain separation. Data moves from a producer instance to a consumer instance without regard to which domain the instance is in. However, you can use business rules to convert from one domain to another. For more information, see About Before Query business rules.

    When not to use IDR

    • Do not use IDR to clone instances.

      IDR does not replicate metadata tables, child metadata tables, and most user and system tables. IDR is designed to replicate data, not clone instances.

    • Do not use IDR if your use case breaks any of the following IDR limitations:
      • Replication must not take longer than seven days to complete.
      • Initial seeding of the tables must be less than 3 million records per replication set.
      • Producer and consumer instances must be in the same geographic region.

    What to do next

    Get an overview of setting up IDR.

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    Release version
    Choose your release version

      Instance Data Replication (IDR)

      • Save as PDF Selected topic Topic & subtopics All topics in contents
      • Unsubscribe Log in to subscribe to topics and get notified when content changes.
      • Share this page

      Instance Data Replication (IDR)

      Instance Data Replication (IDR) copies data updates from one instance to one or more other instances. IDR enables you to maintain consistent data across different organizations in your company.

      IDR provides a one-to-many replication, which enables one instance to propagate data across different departments and business units to keep data in sync. With IDR, you can also modify data during replication. For example, you could localize the data during replication.

      Watch this video to learn how to set up IDR between multiple instances on the Now Platform.

      Benefits

      • Data is automatically replicated to one or more other instances.
      • Data can be modified and mapped to any table and table column on other instances. For example, you can modify and map table columns to localize data for different locales.
      • Data that is updated on consumer instances can be replicated to the producer instance.

        Data, such as problem requests, can be given on consumer instances to third parties. The third parties can update the problem issue and return it to the consumer instance. The data can then be updated on the producer instance.

      • Business rules can trigger post-replication workflows, such as generating notifications or validating the replication.
      • Data that is in transit during a crash is recoverable.

      How Instance Data Replication works

      You use the Instance Data Replication plugin to replicate data updates on one instance, called the producer instance, to one or more other instances, called consumer instances.

      By configuring a producer replication set, you can specify the tables and table columns on the producer instance to replicate. When you configure a consumer data set, you can specify the tables and table columns on the consumer instances that receive the producer replication set data.

      Next, you activate both producer and consumer replication sets to turn on the IDR functionality. The data that is updated in a producer replication set automatically updates the corresponding data in the consumer replication sets.

      Syncing the producer and consumer replication sets requires that you do a one-time download called seeding of all the producer replication set data to the consumer instances. You can initiate seeding requests on a consumer instance while you are activating a consumer replication set. After seeding, your future replications involve data updates only. An audit trails contain a history of those record updates.

      By default, the table data on a producer instance goes into the tables of the same name on consumer instances. Transformation is the process of replicating producer data in differently named tables or table columns on consumer instances.

      IDR adapters modify data before storing it on consumer instances. Adapters perform string and mathematical operations, such as converting one currency to another, or converting one time zone to another.

      Figure 1. IDR overview
      Data replicates from a producer instance to one or more consumer instances.
      Warning: IDR overwrites data on instances and can replicate sensitive data. Given the potential for data loss and data exposure, test your IDR implementation in a pre-production environment.

      Producer and Consumer instance data replication delays

      After IDR has been set up on the producer instance, a job (IDRProducerJob) runs on producer instances to detect data updates. When there are updates to replicate, the producer instance sends the updates to consumer instances.

      The IDRConsumerJob runs on the consumer instances to detect the data updates from a producer. When IDRConsumerJob finds updates, it updates the data in consumer tables.

      Data lag

      It takes some time for the data updates in a producer replication set to appear in consumer replication sets. You can look on the monitoring dashboard to see how long data updates move from a producer replication set to consumer replication sets.

      If you have significant data delays, contact ServiceNow Technical Support.

      Domain separation

      IDR runs in ServiceNow datacenters only. It functions at the data level so IDR does not explicitly support domain separation. Data moves from a producer instance to a consumer instance without regard to which domain the instance is in. However, you can use business rules to convert from one domain to another. For more information, see About Before Query business rules.

      When not to use IDR

      • Do not use IDR to clone instances.

        IDR does not replicate metadata tables, child metadata tables, and most user and system tables. IDR is designed to replicate data, not clone instances.

      • Do not use IDR if your use case breaks any of the following IDR limitations:
        • Replication must not take longer than seven days to complete.
        • Initial seeding of the tables must be less than 3 million records per replication set.
        • Producer and consumer instances must be in the same geographic region.

      What to do next

      Get an overview of setting up IDR.

      Tags:

      Feedback

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