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Day 10 · Free ServiceNow tutorial

ServiceNow Platform administration

Manage configuration with plugins, properties, and update sets.

By Nayeem · ServiceNow Architect and Certified Technical Architect

Understand the concept

Plugins enable platform capabilities, system properties provide configurable settings, and update sets move supported configuration changes between instances. An update set is not a general data migration or a complete application dependency manager.

A practical business example

A team configures a practice form in Development and must review the captured change before moving it to Test.

What you will learn

  • Understand plugins and system properties
  • Capture configuration in an update set
  • Review preview and commit steps

Step-by-step practice

Use a personal learning instance and suitable permissions. Record your starting configuration before changing it.

  1. Create and select a dedicated practice update set in the correct scope.
  2. Make a small supported configuration change and inspect the captured customer update.
  3. Complete the set and retrieve or export it to a compatible test environment.
  4. Preview, investigate collisions or missing dependencies, commit only after review and test the result.

Common mistakes and troubleshooting

Not all records are captured automatically. Do not assume test users, incidents or every property change will move with an update set. Avoid enabling plugins casually; some changes are difficult to reverse.

What is the difference between preview and commit?

Preview checks for issues before applying the set. Commit applies its captured changes; functional testing is still needed afterward.

Watch the lesson

Part 1

Watch on YouTube ↗

Part 2

Watch on YouTube ↗

Part 3

Watch on YouTube ↗

Hands-on lab

Plugins Properties and Update Sets · Estimated practice: 90 to 120 minutes. Download the Word document and work through it alongside the video.

Download Day 10 lab ↓

Keep learning

Use the ITSM interview questions with examples to practise explaining concepts. For platform reference information, consult the official ServiceNow documentation for your release.