Intelligent export and import of service representations

A computer-implemented method comprising:

• receiving, by a source computational instance of a remote network management platform, an instruction to export a representation of a service to a file, wherein the source computational instance includes a first set of computing devices and a source configuration management database (CMDB), wherein the source CMDB contains the representation of the service as deployed on a managed network, and wherein the representation of the service includes metadata, service group membership, and an entry point;
• copying, from the source CMDB and to a metadata object in the file, the metadata;
• determining, from a mapping between service groups associated with the managed network, a hierarchical subset of the service groups that are related to the service;
• writing, to one or more service group objects in the file, the hierarchical subset of the service groups that are related to the service;
• determining, from a list of entry points of the managed network, that the entry point is of the service;
• determining, from the source CMDB, a class of the entry point;
• and
• writing, to an entry point object in the file, the entry point and the class of the entry point.

A computer-implemented method comprising:

• receiving, by a target computational instance of a remote network management platform, an indication to load a file, wherein the file contains a metadata object specifying metadata of a service deployed on a managed network, one or more service group objects specifying a hierarchical subset of service groups related to the service, and an entry point object specifying an entry point of the service, wherein the target computational instance includes a set of computing devices and a target configuration management database (CMDB), and wherein the file was exported from a source computational instance of the remote network management platform;
• copying, to temporary storage in the target CMDB, the metadata from the metadata object, the hierarchical subset of the service groups from the one or more service group objects, and the entry point from the entry point object;
• copying, from the temporary storage to a metadata table in the target CMDB, a representation of the metadata;
• copying, from the temporary storage to a service group table in the target CMDB, representations of the service groups;
• copying, from the temporary storage to an entry point table in the target CMDB, a representation of the entry point;
• and
• initiating, by the target computational instance and by way of the entry point, discovery of the service on the managed network.