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Unable to Export Large CMDB Dataset from Query Builder (Excel 500,000 Row Limitation)

Meagan
Tera Contributor

yesterday

Issue Overview

We’ve built a Query Builder model to extract CI records related to a specific Business Application. The application owner is defined on the Business Application table, and they require a full extract of all related CIs for analysis.

The query runs successfully and returns all expected records; however, the export process is failing when we attempt to download the data.

Symptoms

  • Export to Excel or CSV fails to generate,
  • Export times out,
  • Or the file contains only a partial dataset.

We are aware that Excel has a practical limitation around ~500,000 rows for manageable exports (even though the absolute limit is higher), which seems to be creating problems when the dataset approaches or exceeds this size.

What We Need Help With

  1. Is there a known row-limit or performance limitation when exporting Query Builder results?
  2. Does Query Builder have its own export cap separate from Excel and CSV limits?
  3. Are there recommended alternative methods to extract CMDB datasets that exceed 500k rows, such as:
    • CMDB Reports
    • Table API / Scripted REST APIs
    • Exporting through Scheduled Jobs
    • Data Extraction or IntegrationHub ETL
    • Transform Map or data source dumps

Context

The export is required for the application owner of the associated Business Application record, and they need the complete dataset for review.

Request

If anyone has:

  • Worked around large Query Builder export limits,
  • Used alternative extraction patterns for very large CMDB datasets,
  • Or has best practices for mass CI data export,

your insights would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

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CasperJT
Tera Guru

2 hours ago - last edited 2 hours ago

Hi Meagan,

 

My best guess is, you are hitting ServiceNow's limit for exporting to Excel. The export limits are governed by sys_properties. You can read about them here: Export limits • Washington DC ServiceNow AI Platform Administration • Docs | ServiceNow

You may be able to expand the limit temporarily to allow for this export and then set the limit back, but the limit is there to protect your system from being overburdened, so do this with great care.

 

Specifically for Excel it also states:
"

Excel export threshold

Excel exports are intended for relatively small exports with fewer than 500,000 cells. CSV can handle larger exports.

If an exported spreadsheet has more than 500,000 cells, the export process stops. You receive the Excel file at that point. The following message displays in the bottom row: Export stopped due to excessive size. Use CSV for a complete export.

The Excel export cell threshold is customizable using the glide.xlsx.max_cells integer property (or glide.excel.max_cells if using XLS).
Note:
Increasing this threshold may cause a memory issue in your instance. The threshold is set at an appropriate level to prevent resource issues.

The export puts the information into the Excel document with 32,000 rows per spreadsheet.

"

 

Alternatively you could try exporting the data in batches (the simplest would be to filter your results and export X rows per file), maybe there is a way to do this via script, but that is not my expertise.

You could also try running it as a scheduled report to see if that can work.

 

You might be able to use PowerBI to extract the data rather than export it via a file (check out How to Set Power BI ServiceNow Integration: Comple... - ServiceNow Community)

 

Or perhaps the person reviewing the data could go to ServiceNow and work with it rather than sending it to them.

 

Hope this helps.

 

//CasperJT

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