Create configuration revisions

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
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    Summary of Create configuration revisions

    As a Service Exchange provider, you can create and manage revisions of entitlements like remote task definitions and remote record producers. These revisions allow you to deploy updated functionality to consumers, who then have the option to activate the new revision or continue using the previous one. Activation requires consumers to have a compatible Service Exchange application version that matches the compatibility set on the revision.

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    Configuration Revision Life Cycle

    Configurations can exist in several states: Draft, Published, Inactive, Archived, Retired, and Deleted. Key actions you can perform include creating, archiving, retiring, copying, and deleting configuration revisions.

    Creating a Configuration Revision

    • Navigate to All > Service Exchange Provider > Remote task definitions and select a published remote task definition.
    • Check the Compatibility field to ensure version alignment between provider and consumer.
    • Select Checkout to create a new draft revision for editing.
    • Make necessary changes, Save the draft, and Publish to activate the new revision.
    • The previous revision moves to Inactive but remains available to consumers until archived or retired.
    • Consumers can activate the new revision via their instance under Service Exchange Consumer > Provider Connections.
    • Only the latest published revision is active and usable by consumers; multiple revisions can exist but only one active at a time.

    Archiving a Configuration Revision

    • Archive inactive revisions to deactivate them and set their state to Archived on consumer instances.
    • Archived revisions are no longer available to consumers and cannot be published, updated, or checked out.
    • You can still create copies of archived revisions for reuse.

    Retiring a Configuration

    • Retiring a configuration removes availability of all its revisions except archived ones.
    • To retire, select the configuration and confirm the action; the configuration becomes unavailable to consumers.
    • If needed, you can later create new revisions by checking out or copying existing configurations.

    Copying and Deleting Configurations

    • You can copy configurations in Published, Inactive, Archived, or Retired states to create duplicates for further use.
    • Deleting is only possible on the latest retired configuration and permanently removes all associated records.

    Practical Considerations for ServiceNow Customers

    This capability enables you to maintain continuous service delivery while evolving your configurations. Consumers retain control over when to activate new revisions based on compatibility and business readiness. Archiving and retiring provide lifecycle management to phase out outdated configurations safely. Copying and deleting revisions support efficient reuse and cleanup. Understanding these states and transitions helps ensure smooth updates and version management across Service Exchange integrations.

    As a provider, you can edit and create revisions of entitlements that contain updated functionality that can be developed and deployed to consumers.

    When the new revision is deployed, consumers can either activate and use the new revision, or continue to use the old revision. The new revision can be activated only if the consumer is using a Service Exchange application version that is compatible with the Service Exchange application version compatibility set on the revision. If the consumers want to use the new revision, they must upgrade their Service Exchange application to the minimum compatibility that is set on the configuration.

    Configuration revision life cycle

    A configuration can be one of the following:
    • Remote task definition
    • Remote record producer
    Note:
    The following sections describe the various stages in the configuration revision life-cycle of a remote task definition. You can: You can follow the same process to create revisions for a remote record producer.

    Create a configuration revision

    1. Navigate to the All > Service Exchange Provider > Remote task definitions.
    2. Select the remote task definition for which you want to create a configuration revision.
      Note:
      The remote task definition that you select must be in the Published state.
      Service Exchange Remote Task Definition

      Note the Compatibility field. This field shows the Service Exchange version that is being used by the provider. If the consumer is using a compatible Service Exchange version, data can be synced between the provider and consumer instances. But if the consumer isn’t using a compatible version, any new entitlements can’t be activated until the corresponding Service Exchange version is upgraded. See Mismatched version support for additional information.

    3. Select Checkout.
    4. A new revision of the configuration is created and the State is set to In Draft.

      Revisions related list for a Service Exchange

      You can view the older revision by navigating to the Revisions tab under the Related List section. As you can see in the preceding image, the older revision is still in the Published state.

    5. Make the necessary changes and select Save to save the changes. Select Publish to activate the newly created configuration revision. The newly activated revision is synced to the consumer instance. The State of the older revision is set to Inactive.
      Note:
      The inactive configuration is still available to the consumers and data synchronization will continue until this configuration is either archived or retired.
    6. On the consumer instance, navigate to Service Exchange Consumer > Provider Connections. You can see the newly published configuration revision under the Entitlements tab in the Related Links section.Configuration revisions entitled to consumer
    7. Select the newly published configuration reference and select the Entity reference link to navigate to the Remote task definition page.
    8. Select Activate to activate the new configuration revision. When the new revision is activated, the earlier revision moves to an Inactive state. Consumers can continue to use the earlier revision until it’s archived or retired.
    9. You can create multiple configuration revisions for a single configuration but only the latest published revision is active and can be used by the consumers.
      Note:
      • If you create a configuration revision and select Save, the revision is set to the Draft state. If you open the Published revision of this configuration, you’ll notice that the Checkout and Retire options are unavailable. In this case, you must open the draft version to make any changes.
      • If the newly created draft revision isn’t required, select Cancel to delete that draft revision. The already published revision is available to Checkout or Retire.

    Archive a configuration revision

    You can archive an inactive configuration revision. When a revision is archived by the provider, it’s deactivated and the State is set to Archived on the consumer instance. The following steps describe how to archive a remote task definition configuration revision. The same process is applicable to the remote record producers and foundation data sync offerings.
    1. Navigate to the All > Service Exchange Provider > Remote task definitions.
    2. Select a remote task definition in the list.
    3. Navigate to the Revisions tab in the Related List.
    4. Select the inactive revision that you want to the archive.
    5. Click Archive to deactivate the remote task definition. Once archived, this revision is no longer available to consumers.
      Note:
      You can’t Publish, Update, or Checkout an archived configuration revision. You can use the Copy option to make a copy of the configuration.

    Retire a configuration

    You can retire a published configuration. When you retire a configuration, the entire set of revisions associated with the configuration are retired. To retire a configuration, follow these steps:

    1. Navigate to the All > Service Exchange Provider > Remote task definitions.
    2. Select a remote task definition configuration on the list.
    3. Select Retire and then select OK. Once retired, this configuration is no longer available to consumers.
      Note:
      This option retires published and inactive configuration revisions. But configuration revisions in the Archived state aren’t retired.
    4. If you want to use the remote task definition again, you can:
      • Select Checkout to create a new configuration revision.
      • Select Copy to make a duplicate copy of the new configuration.

    Copy a configuration revision

    You can make a duplicate copy of a configuration revision that is one of the following states:
    • Published
    • Inactive
    • Archived
    • Retired
    1. Navigate to the All > Service Exchange Provider > Remote task definitions.
    2. Select a remote task definition configuration revision that is in any of the preceding states.
    3. Select Copy to make a copy of the configuration revision.

    Delete a configuration

    You can delete a configuration that has been retired. There may be many retired revisions present but the Delete option is available only for the latest retired configuration revision. When a revision is deleted, the entire configuration set is deleted.

    1. Navigate to the All > Service Exchange Provider > Remote task definitions.
    2. Select a remote task definition that is in the Retired state.
    3. Select Delete to delete the configuration if it’s no longer required. Once deleted, all records associated with this identity are deleted and can’t be undone.