Archive Data migration process for "Retain reference".

[rlatorre]

With our upgrade from Orlando to Quebec, Data Archiving has an enhancement to retain field references.

In the past version, the Display Name of referenced records were stored as strings in the archive table.

After activating this attribute on existing Archive Rules, newly archived records are storing the sys_id's of the referenced records but the archive tables still have string fields.

There is a migration process documented to update past archive table structure and populate reference fields.

How is this process triggered? Is there any significant performance impact when it runs?

[rlatorre · Accepted solution]

As far as steps to enable this for existing data that was archived do the following:

1. Go to corresponding Archive Rule.
2. Click the checkbox 'Retain References' and update the record (NOTE: Once checked, this can't be unchecked and will become read only)
3. Click on the 'Recalculate Estimate' related link at the bottom left of the Archive rule record to get an estimate of how many records will be targeting the expected amount of records. This may take a few tries before the data is marked to be reprocessed and shows up on the "Record Estimate" field on the Archive rule.
4. Once confirmed, proceed with clicking on Run Archive and this should kick off the process.

Here is some documentation info on the RefCopy job and the update to the dictionary as well:

https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/quebec-platform-administration/page/administer/database-rotation/reference/archive-reference-migration.html

Performance issues should not be as concerning as the scheduler is released after 10k records are collected to allow any other jobs that are waiting to continue in peace. However, I would recommend you do this off peak hours to be safe.

Hope this clears it up. Please let me know if you have any additional questions that I may address.

Best regards,
Staff Technical Support Engineer
ServiceNow | The Enterprise Cloud Company

[Jeff Boltz1]

Hi All,

What are the pros/cons or other considerations for taking this approach either way for the new "Retain reference" checkbox?

Thanks,

Jeff

[mathieu_brule]

Hi Jeff,

Did you have any reflexions on your interrogations ?

I have (4 years later) the same.

Thanks for your feedback !