Understanding PDIs
Summarize
Summary of Understanding PDIs
Personal Developer Instances (PDIs) are free ServiceNow instances provided to developers through the Developer Program. To maintain active access to a PDI, you must select a specific release, use the instance consistently, and sign in regularly. Inactivity for ten days results in the instance being reclaimed and reset for reassignment to another developer, ensuring resources are efficiently shared among active users.
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Keeping Your PDI Active
To prevent your PDI from hibernating or being reclaimed:
- Sign in to the Developer Site periodically.
- Perform developer activities such as creating applications, tables, fields, or Script Includes.
- Regularly back up your work by committing to source control or creating update sets to avoid data loss from reclamation.
The account menu provides a reminder when inactivity approaches ten days.
Hibernation and Reclamation
When idle, PDIs enter hibernation mode where the database and application server shut down to save resources, but all data is preserved. Signing in wakes the instance and resets the inactivity timer. Instances unused for ten days are reclaimed—reset and reassigned to other developers. This process enables ServiceNow to provide free instances to active members continuously.
Usage Limitations
- PDIs cannot be used as clone sources or targets for customer or partner instances.
- Team development linking between PDIs and customer/partner instances is not permitted.
- Publishing to the ServiceNow Application Repository or Store from PDIs is disallowed.
- PDIs do not support Machine Learning, Instance Data Replication, MetricBase, or many ServiceNow Store applications.
Maintenance
Periodic maintenance on the infrastructure supporting PDIs may render your instance temporarily inaccessible. Maintenance tasks include software updates, patches, and hardware replacement. Your data and work remain unaffected, and expected completion times may be displayed on the My Instance page during planned maintenance.
Release Selection
Use the release selector to choose the ServiceNow release version for your PDI. The selector indicates the release your PDI is running and ensures content compatibility. If your PDI is not on the latest release, follow the upgrade steps to access new features and updates. Releases unavailable for your PDI are grayed out and cannot be selected.
PDIs require you to select a specific release and maintain consistent usage to avoid hibernation.
Sign in to the Developer Site to keep your PDI active. After a period of inactivity, your instance is reclaimed. Back up your work regularly to prevent data loss.
When a PDI is reclaimed, the instance is unassigned from you, reset to its original state, and reassigned to another Developer Program member. Reclaiming instances allows the Developer Program to support active program members with free instances. The Account menu on the Developer Site header includes a reminder in the Activity section that you have ten days of inactivity.
- Creating an application
- Creating a table
- Adding a field to a table
- Creating a Script Include
Hibernation
To keep the developer program free and provide PDIs to everyone who wants one, instances hibernate when they are idle. When a PDI hibernates, the database and application server shut down to conserve computing resources. All your data is preserved when the PDI hibernates. You can wake up a hibernating instance by signing in to the Developer Site. Waking an instance from hibernation resets the ten-day inactivity countdown.
- PDIs are returned to the pool of available instances if they go unused for ten days. Duration may change due to availability.
- Availability is not guaranteed.
- PDIs cannot be clone targets or clone sources for customer or partner instances.
- PDIs cannot be linked via team development to customer or partner instances since they belong to ServiceNow®.
- PDIs cannot publish to the ServiceNow Application Repository or the ServiceNow® Store.
- PDIs cannot work with Machine Learning, Instance Data Replication, or MetricBase.
- Many ServiceNow® Store applications cannot be installed on PDIs.
Mainentance
ServiceNow® occasionally needs to perform maintenance on the underlying infrastructure associated with PDIs. Maintenance includes updating and patching software, firmware, and replacing hardware. During maintenance, your PDI may not be accessible. The length of time required for maintenance depends on the type of maintenance. If available, the My Instance page indicates the expected completion time for planned maintenance. Your work and data on your PDI is unaffected by planned maintenance.
PDIs and the release selector
When content is available for different releases, use the release selector to select a release. The server icon next to the release name identifies the release of your PDI. The bar under the release name identifies the selected release. When working on your PDI, be sure the content matches your PDI.
If the content does not match your PDI release, click the release with the server icon to view the content that matches the release of your PDI.
The selector only shows releases for which the current page of content is available except when the content is not available for your PDI release. When the content is not available for your PDI release, the PDI release is grayed out and cannot be selected.
If your PDI is not on the latest release, follow the steps for upgrading your PDI to get the latest release.