Platform Analytics Historical Data Collection from a Specific Date Range

[nitin gupta1]

Hello ServiceNow Community,

I am currently working with Platform Analytics and have created several indicators. At present, historical data is being collected daily, and I understand that out of the box the historical data collection limit is controlled by a system property, which is set to 732 days by default.

However, I noticed that this value is dynamic. For example, if the collection job runs today, it retrieves data from the last 732 days from today's date. If the job runs again 10 days later, the starting point also shifts by 10 days.

My requirement is slightly different. Instead of a rolling date range, I would like to collect and maintain historical data starting from a fixed date, such as January 1, 2024, up to the current date and continue collecting data going forward.

I would appreciate guidance on the following:

1. Is there a recommended approach to collect historical data from a specific static start date instead of a rolling date range?
2. Are there any best practices for configuring historical data collection in Platform Analytics?
3. What is the recommended or maximum value that can be configured for the historical data collection system property, considering performance and storage impacts?

Any insights, recommendations, or experiences would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance!

Regards,
Nitin Gupta

[Mark Manders]

What exactly are you collecting? Historical data is just that: historical data. It doesn't change. What's the use case that you need to collect it daily? Why not just add the uncollected data from the previous day to add it to the already collected data? Historical data collection is usually only done to have a start set of data to report on. After that the daily collection runs to collect new data.

[Mark Becker]

Similar to what Mark Manders already said but here's my responses to your questions:

1. Is there a recommended approach to collect historical data from a specific static start date instead of a rolling date range? - The recommended approach is to run historical data once ad-hoc and then schedule a daily run to add to the data already collected.
2. Are there any best practices for configuring historical data collection in Platform Analytics? - There are certain fields that you usually should not run historical data back for if it changes over time, Breakdowns like Priority, Assigned To, etc..
3. What is the recommended or maximum value that can be configured for the historical data collection system property, considering performance and storage impacts? - I am unsure on this one but again you should just be running historical job once to gather data and then only daily scheduled to add data to the indicators.