# Plan your ServiceNow deployment

Plan how Commvault protects your ServiceNow data. In most environments, you can start with recommended defaults and adjust only if your environment requires it.

## Start with your ServiceNow environment

Each ServiceNow configuration in Commvault protects a single ServiceNow instance identified by its instance URL (for example, `https://dev12345.service-now.com`). If you manage multiple ServiceNow instances for isolation by region, environment (production, test, development), or business unit, configure each instance separately.

## Align storage with your ServiceNow region

Since ServiceNow is a global SaaS service, neither the access node nor the backup storage has regional placement requirements. You can deploy the access node in any region and use backup storage in any cloud provider and region without impact to backup or restore performance.

## Understand backup behavior

ServiceNow supports both full and incremental backups:

- Full backups — Back up all records in the configured tables
- Incremental backups — Back up only records that changed after the previous backup, identified by comparing the `sys_updated_on` timestamp field

All tables support incremental backups through timestamp-based change detection. Records with `sys_updated_on` timestamps newer than the last backup are included in the incremental backup.

## Plan for performance

Backup and restore performance depends on data size, change rate, and ServiceNow instance throughput. To optimize performance, avoid unnecessary fragmentation of protection scopes, and schedule backups to avoid peak ServiceNow usage periods.

## Confirm permissions early

Make sure the required ServiceNow permissions are in place before configuring protection. For details, see Configure permissions for ServiceNow protection.

## Understand key limitations

Key limitations to consider when planning your deployment:

- System tables with `sys_` prefix are excluded from discovery by default
- ServiceNow development instances that hibernate return HTML instead of JSON, which causes backup failures
- Restore batch size is limited to 150 records per batch
- Records with active workflows might fail PATCH operations during restore

For complete details, see Protect ServiceNow data.

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