Upgrading legacy replication sets to V2 in Instance Data Replication

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated May 13, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Upgrading legacy replication sets to V2 in Instance Data Replication

    ServiceNow encourages customers to upgrade legacy replication sets to V2 in Instance Data Replication (IDR) to improve message processing speed, replication performance, and reliability. Legacy replication sets, created prior to the Utah release, utilize an older Kafka message transport system and are planned for deprecation by the Zurich release. V2 replication sets leverage the ServiceNow Hermes Messaging Service, an AI Platform capability that offers faster, scalable, and highly reliable data replication.

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    Key Features

    • Automatic Hermes Messaging Service: Enabled when the IDR plugin (com.glide.idr) is activated, providing enhanced Kafka message transport and delivery.
    • Seamless Upgrade Process: Upgrading from legacy to V2 replication sets does not require pausing replication; active data replication continues uninterrupted during the upgrade.
    • Data Retention: Data sent from a V2 producer replication set is retained in the message queue for 24 hours, supporting reliable processing.
    • Upgrade Eligibility Checks: Eligibility is based on both producer and consumer instances running Utah or higher and certain configuration criteria. Customers can verify eligibility via the Upgrade Eligibility column in the Consumer Subscriptions related list.
    • Compatibility Requirements: V2 producer replication sets only work with V2 consumer replication sets, so both sides must be upgraded to realize the benefits.

    Practical Guidance for ServiceNow Customers

    • Identify legacy replication sets created before the Utah release and check their upgrade eligibility.
    • Plan to upgrade all legacy replication sets before the Zurich release to avoid disruption, as legacy sets will be deprecated.
    • Upgrade both producer and consumer replication sets to V2 to ensure compatibility and improved replication performance.
    • Use the documented upgrade procedures which allow replication to continue during the process, minimizing operational impact.
    • Be aware that some Utah legacy replication sets might not be eligible for upgrade due to specific configurations, such as bidirectional or discrete replication setups.
    • If any issues occur during upgrade, the system automatically rolls back changes to maintain stability.

    Expected Results

    After upgrading to V2 replication sets, customers can expect faster data replication with higher reliability and scalability, thanks to the Hermes Messaging Service. This upgrade ensures continued support and improved performance for data replication across ServiceNow instances, enabling smoother operations and better data consistency.

    Improve message processing and replication performance by upgrading your legacy replication sets in IDR to V2.

    Legacy and V2 replication sets

    Important:
    Legacy replication sets are planned for deprecation by the Zurich release. To continue replicating data, you must upgrade all legacy replication sets to V2.
    • Legacy replication sets use a ServiceNow Kafka message transport and delivery implementation that was created prior to the Utah release. All replication sets created prior to the Utah release are considered legacy replication sets.

      Beginning with the Washington DC release, you can no longer create legacy replication sets.

    • V2 replication sets use the ServiceNow Hermes Messaging Service for Kafka message transport and delivery, which replicates data faster, at scale, and with high reliability. The Hermes Messaging Service is a ServiceNow AI Platform capability that's automatically enabled when the IDR plugin (com.glide.idr) is activated. All replication sets created after the Washington DC release are V2 replication sets.
    Note:
    Data sent from a V2 producer replication set is retained in the message queue for 24 hours.

    Upgrading legacy replication sets

    Upgrade your eligible legacy replication sets to V2 to take advantage of the benefits provided by Hermes. Upgrading replication sets from legacy to V2 is a seamless process. Active data replication from the producer to consumer continues throughout the upgrade, which means you don't need to pause replication before you begin. Replication continues using the V2 replication sets after the upgrade is finished.

    You can either create new V2 replication sets or upgrade existing legacy replication sets to V2. See Upgrade legacy replication sets in Instance Data Replication.

    Upgrade eligibility

    Legacy replication sets are eligible for upgrade to V2 when both the producer and consumer instance are on Utah or higher. Note that some Utah legacy replication sets aren't eligible for upgrade to V2, depending on their configuration (for example, the replication set can't be bidirectional or discrete).

    You can confirm upgrade eligibility by viewing the producer replication set and checking the Upgrade Eligibility column in the Consumer Subscriptions related list.

    • If the value for each subscribed consumer is Eligible, you can begin the upgrade process by following the steps in Upgrade legacy replication sets in Instance Data Replication.
    • If the value for a subscribed consumer is Not eligible, this means that either the consumer instance isn't on Utah or higher, or the consumer replication set is on Utah, but isn't eligible for upgrade to V2 because of its configuration.

    For details on which types of legacy replication sets are eligible for upgrade in Utah, refer to the "Upgrading legacy replication sets to V2" topic in the Utah version of the IDR documentation.

    Compatibility

    V2 producer replication sets are compatible only with V2 consumer replication sets.

    If you upgrade a producer replication set to V2, you must upgrade the subscribed consumer replication sets to V2 as well to take advantage of the V2 processing improvements.