Apply update set from lower major version to higher one.

[kozy_f]

Hi all, just one question.

Is it supported to apply update sets created on the Istanbul instance and apply it to Kingstone instance ?
I know some regression tests should be completed before releasing to prod instance, but I want to make sure if this is a supported procedure or not.

Thank you in advance !

[Hussain Kachwal]

Hello,

When the update set comes from a lower version to higher then there is no problem, but if it comes from a higher to lower version there there is a lot of issues & not a recommended one.

Kindly mark as Answered or Helpful, if applicable.

-Hussain K

[Anurag Tripathi]

Yes, backward compatibility is always there, not the other way though.

[morris_hudson]

As a technical service engineer with ServiceNow (and one who has worked on update set issues over the past four years), I can tell you that this is not a good idea. 

The instances need to be on the exact same family and version. Period. This is supported by the official documentation as well, as you can see in the official doc page called "Get started with update sets" (https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/madrid-application-development/page/build/system-update-sets/reference/get-started-update-sets.html), you will see the following statement under the "Plan the update process" section: 

"1. Check that both instances are on the same version. Customizations may not work if they rely on code that has changed between versions." 

Trust me, I have seen plenty of incidents raised because the target and source instances were not on the same family and/or patch version, both when the source was higher than the target and the other way around.