Important Considerations for Cloning Environments

This topic provides several important considerations for the Cloning Environment feature. To learn more, read:

Supported Cloning Scenarios
Unsupported Cloning Scenarios
Compatibility Between Source and Target Environments
Clone After Scheduled Daily Maintenance
Cloning Options and Key Considerations
Target Account Reconciliation Settings Reset After Cloning

Supported Cloning Scenarios

The following scenarios for cloning are supported:

Migrating to another NetSuite EPM SKU
Production to test cloning
Test to production cloning

Unsupported Cloning Scenarios

The following scenarios for cloning are not supported:

NetSuite Account Reconciliation and NetSuite Narrative Reporting do not support cloning one environment to another environment that is on a previous monthly update.
Cloning may fail if NetSuite Planning and Budgeting contains a renamed seeded period member that has been supplanted by a custom period member. For example, you renamed the seeded YearTotal Period member to unused_YearTotal. Then, you added an alternate type period member with the original seeded member name (YearTotal in this example).

Cloning Uses Current Snapshot

The Clone Environment feature uses the current snapshot (named Artifact Snapshot) that is created by the last daily maintenance.

After the snapshot you will use to clone the environment is created, avoid making changes to your source application. Any changes you make to your application after the snapshot is created will not carry over when you clone the environment.

Tip:

If you needed to modify the source environment, you must use a new snapshot with those changes and redo the cloning process. Before you clone the source environment again, you should remove the application on the target environment by using the Recreate Service feature. Click your user name in the upper-right corner, and from the Settings and Actions menu, select Recreate Service.

Compatibility Between Source and Target Environments

NetSuite EPM Cloud supports cloning from a source environment to a target environment if their monthly updates are within one month of each other. For example, if the source environment is on the 24.08 monthly update, the target environment can be on either 24.07, 24.08, or 24.09. NetSuite Account Reconciliation is the exception.

For NetSuite Account Reconciliation, cloning can only occur between environments that are on the exact same monthly update. For example, if the source environment is on the 24.08 monthly update, the target environment must also be on the 24.08 monthly update.

Clone After Scheduled Daily Maintenance

You should initiate cloning after the scheduled daily maintenance of the source and target environments. On the source environment, if the daily maintenance starts while cloning occurs, the cloning process will be terminated. On the target environment, the cloning process is not affected even if the cloning occurs at the start time of the daily maintenance. In this scenario, the daily maintenance will run after the cloning completes.

If cloning your environment takes a long time, on the source environment, reschedule the start time for daily maintenance. This action prevents the cloning process from being terminated. For information about resetting the daily maintenance start time, see the following help topics in the Oracle Help Center:

If you want to manually start service maintenance instead of waiting for the scheduled daily maintenance, use the runDailyMaintenance EPM Automate command. For more information, see the help topic runDailyMaintenance.

Cloning Options and Key Considerations

The following table lists the cloning options available to you when you clone an environment and the key considerations of those options.

Clone Options	Considerations for Cloning
Users and Predefined Roles	Check this option to ensure that the login names of users are identical in the source and target environments. Do not change the login names of users in the target environment. For example, do not change from short name jdoe to email ID john.doe@example.com. Changing the login names invalidate existing access control settings. You must have the Service Administrator and Identity Domain Administer roles to clone users and their predefined roles. If a user who is not an Identity Domain Administer checks Users and Predefined Roles and then clones an environment, the import of users and their predefined roles will fail. Users with only the Identity Domain Administrator role assignment are not cloned to the target environment. Users assigned to a combination of Identity Domain Administrator role and predefined roles in the source environment are cloned. However, they are assigned only to the respective predefined roles in the target environment. These users will not have the Identity Domain Administrator role in the target environment. If the source environment is OCI, where users are assigned predefined roles by IDCS groups instead of direct assignment, the IDCS groups are not cloned. In the target environment, the predefined roles are directly assigned to cloned users. Changes to the predefined roles of the user update based on the roles that are assigned in the source snapshot. However, role assignments in the target will not be removed to match those in the source snapshot. For example, jdoe is assigned to the Power User predefined role in the target environment. However, jdoe has only the User role in the source snapshot. In this situation, this cloning option assigns jdoe to the User role and does not remove the Power User role assignment in the target environment. You will see the error "EPMIE-00070: Failed to find user during assigned roles import" if both conditions apply: You do not import users. A user in the source snapshot does not have a predefined role on the target environment. This option does not delete existing users from the target environment if they do not exist in the source snapshot. For example, jdoe has an account in the target environment, but this account is not present in the source snapshot. In this situation, the account of jdoe in the target environment is not deleted. This option adds users that do not exist in the target environment. The option does not update current user properties in the target environment even if those properties are different in the source snapshot. For example, if the last name of jdoe in the source snapshot is spelled differently in the target environment. Therefore, the change will not be made in the target environment. This option does not change passwords of existing users in the target environment even if it is different in the source snapshot. A random password is assigned to new users in the target environment. New users will receive account activation emails prompting them to change passwords.
Data Management	Clone only if both the source and target environments are on the same monthly update. You can also clone if the target environment is one update newer than the source environment. For example, you can clone 24.01 Data Management records to another 24.01 environment or to a 24.02 environment only. Cloning Data Management records may take a long time if the staging tables contain a large number of records.
Application Audit	For NetSuite Close Management and Consolidation and NetSuite Tax Reporting, the data for Application Audit is, by default, included in the snapshot. This option is not available in NetSuite Account Reconciliation.
Job Console	This option is not available in NetSuite Account Reconciliation.
Stored Snapshots and Files	The cloning process only clones files that are stored directly in inbox and outbox. The files in sub-folders within inbox and outbox are not cloned. For example, if you have files file1.csv and myfiles/file2.csv in inbox, only file1.csv is cloned. This process may take a long time depending on the number and size of stored snapshots and files in inbox and outbox.
Daily Maintenance Start Time	If you check this option, the maintenance start time will be reset to that of the source environment from which the snapshot was cloned. Clear this option to keep the current maintenance start time of the target environment.

Clone Options

Considerations for Cloning

Users and Predefined Roles

Check this option to ensure that the login names of users are identical in the source and target environments.
Do not change the login names of users in the target environment. For example, do not change from short name jdoe to email ID john.doe@example.com. Changing the login names invalidate existing access control settings.
You must have the Service Administrator and Identity Domain Administer roles to clone users and their predefined roles. If a user who is not an Identity Domain Administer checks Users and Predefined Roles and then clones an environment, the import of users and their predefined roles will fail.
Users with only the Identity Domain Administrator role assignment are not cloned to the target environment. Users assigned to a combination of Identity Domain Administrator role and predefined roles in the source environment are cloned. However, they are assigned only to the respective predefined roles in the target environment. These users will not have the Identity Domain Administrator role in the target environment.
If the source environment is OCI, where users are assigned predefined roles by IDCS groups instead of direct assignment, the IDCS groups are not cloned. In the target environment, the predefined roles are directly assigned to cloned users.
Changes to the predefined roles of the user update based on the roles that are assigned in the source snapshot. However, role assignments in the target will not be removed to match those in the source snapshot. For example, jdoe is assigned to the Power User predefined role in the target environment. However, jdoe has only the User role in the source snapshot. In this situation, this cloning option assigns jdoe to the User role and does not remove the Power User role assignment in the target environment.
You will see the error "EPMIE-00070: Failed to find user during assigned roles import" if both conditions apply:
- You do not import users.
- A user in the source snapshot does not have a predefined role on the target environment.
This option does not delete existing users from the target environment if they do not exist in the source snapshot. For example, jdoe has an account in the target environment, but this account is not present in the source snapshot. In this situation, the account of jdoe in the target environment is not deleted.
This option adds users that do not exist in the target environment. The option does not update current user properties in the target environment even if those properties are different in the source snapshot. For example, if the last name of jdoe in the source snapshot is spelled differently in the target environment. Therefore, the change will not be made in the target environment.
This option does not change passwords of existing users in the target environment even if it is different in the source snapshot.
A random password is assigned to new users in the target environment. New users will receive account activation emails prompting them to change passwords.

Data Management

Clone only if both the source and target environments are on the same monthly update. You can also clone if the target environment is one update newer than the source environment. For example, you can clone 24.01 Data Management records to another 24.01 environment or to a 24.02 environment only.
Cloning Data Management records may take a long time if the staging tables contain a large number of records.

Application Audit

For NetSuite Close Management and Consolidation and NetSuite Tax Reporting, the data for Application Audit is, by default, included in the snapshot.

This option is not available in NetSuite Account Reconciliation.

Job Console

This option is not available in NetSuite Account Reconciliation.

Stored Snapshots and Files

The cloning process only clones files that are stored directly in inbox and outbox. The files in sub-folders within inbox and outbox are not cloned. For example, if you have files file1.csv and myfiles/file2.csv in inbox, only file1.csv is cloned.
This process may take a long time depending on the number and size of stored snapshots and files in inbox and outbox.

Daily Maintenance Start Time

If you check this option, the maintenance start time will be reset to that of the source environment from which the snapshot was cloned.
Clear this option to keep the current maintenance start time of the target environment.

Target Account Reconciliation Settings Reset After Cloning

After cloning, the settings for the target NetSuite Account Reconciliation application will reset to their default values.

If you want to keep the settings of the target application, complete these steps in the following order:

Export the settings from the source environment by using the exportARApplicationProperties EPM Automate command. See exportARApplicationProperties.
Clone the environment.
After cloning is complete, import the application properties into the target environment by using the importARApplicationProperties EPM Automate command. See importARApplicationProperties.