Migrating legacy custom column data to ServiceNow out-of-the-box fields

This topic describes how to migrate data from custom columns to standard ServiceNow out-of-the-box fields for supported classes.

Before you begin

Ensure that you have migrated data from existing classes to out-of-the-box classes. See Migrating data from existing custom classes to out-of-the-box classes.

About this task

In ServiceNow version 1.6.0, newly discovered data was stored directly in standard ServiceNow out-of-the-box classes instead of custom classes. While new data was automatically saved to the out‑of‑the‑box classes, existing data in custom classes was migrated by using the provided scheduled migration scripts. However, the IBM Mainframe, IBM Mainframe LPAR, and IBM z/OS Server classes already existed as out‑of‑the‑box classes and therefore did not require migration. As a result, some attributes continued to be stored in legacy custom columns within these classes.

Starting with version ServiceNow version 1.6.2, you can migrate data from these legacy custom columns to the standard or updated columns in the out-of-the-box tables. When a corresponding out-of-the-box field is available, the data is mapped to that field. If no equivalent field exists, the data is mapped to related lists and displayed in the Additional Fields section to ensure that the information remains available.

For example:

The MemorySize custom column in the IBM Mainframe class is migrated to the standard RAM (MB) field.
SMFID is displayed in Additional Fields for the IBM z/OS Server class.

To make this data available in the corresponding out-of-the-box fields and Additional Fields, you must manually migrate the data using a migration script.

Procedure

Ensure that the scheduled flow is deactivated. To deactivate the IBM Z Discovery Scheduled Flow, open Flow Designer, search for and select IBM Z Discovery Scheduled Flow, and click Deactivate in the top‑right corner.
Go to System Definition > Scheduled Jobs and search for the Custom Column to Related Item Migration migration script.

Run the migration script to begin the migration process.

To run the migration immediately, click Execute Now. The script runs regardless of whether it is active or inactive. If its inactive, the script runs only once.
To run the script at scheduled intervals, set Run to Periodically and select the Active checkbox to activate the script. The script runs automatically based on the configured interval. By default, scripts are configured to run every 15 minutes. You can modify the interval as needed.
To prevent the script from running on a schedule, change the Run mode to On Demand. The script only runs when manually triggered.

Important: The migration does not delete any data. Instead, it moves the data to the appropriate location and marks the original custom columns as Deprecated. To view the migrated data, use the corresponding out-of-the-box fields or open the class record and view the data in the Additional Fields section.

The following table shows the legacy custom columns and where the data is available after migration. You can also view this information in a temporarily provided extended view. The extended view is named <zTable> (Extended). For example, to view migrated data for the IBM Mainframe class, open IBM Mainframe (Extended).

Table 1. Legacy custom columns and the new locations. The following table shows the legacy custom columns and where the data is available after migration.
Class name	Custom column (Deprecated)	Location after migration
IBM Mainframe	MemorySize	RAM (MB)
	NumCPUs	CPU Count
	Machine Type	Additional Fields section
	Process Capacity Units	Additional Fields section
	Processing Capacity	Additional Fields section
IBM Mainframe LPAR	Machine Type	Additional Fields section
IBM Mainframe LPAR	LPAR ID	LPAR ID
IBM z/OS Server	SMFID	Additional Fields section
	LPAR	Not migrated
	SYSPLEX	Not migrated