Is it OK to deactivate the Auto Flush (sys_auto_flush) record for workflow contexts?

GoBucks · ‎03-31-2017

Is it OK to deactivate the Auto Flush (sys_auto_flush) record for workflow contexts? I've read that older instances have this record. Completed workflow contexts over 180 days old are deleted because of this record. Newer instances do not appear to have this auto flush defined for workflow contexts, so I assume it is OK to set to inactive now?

Why did this exist at one time?

Mwatkins · ‎04-06-2017

Ok, Jeff, I have the answer now.

A long, long time ago, deleting the workflow context history led to an interesting problem with workflows starting afresh, years after the original flow completed. So, the Table Cleaner for Workflow Context was removed in Calgary - I did not realize it was so long ago. This was fine for a while but the flip side was that some heavy workflow customers started to see performance issues around the wf_context, wf_history, and wf_transition_history tables because they were growing so large. So, for Jakarta, we solved the original workflow restart issue and brought the workflow context cleaner back.

You can remove the Cleaner, but those tables will just continue to grow and the usefulness of the data in there is generally short lived. If you delete it, or mark it inactive, you would own the record and wouldn't get our updates to it during upgrades.

So there is the long story.

Hope this helps!

View solution in original post

Mwatkins · ‎04-07-2017

Great Jeff,

Glad I could help! Regarding your question about PRB583095, yes, that was the one from 2013 that resulted in new instances not getting the sys_auto_flush record after Calgary. The only way to view the PRB record itself would be to have an incident related to it. However, there is a brief description of it in the notes for the Dublin Release:Dublin Fixes - ServiceNow Wiki

Regards, Matthew

Teena Singh · ‎04-03-2017

Jeff,

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