Inbound event table data archiving and cleanup

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Inbound Event Table Data Archiving and Cleanup

    The inbound event table data archiving and cleanup feature allows ServiceNow customers to manage and purge event data records effectively. It includes configuring retention policies and utilizing table cleaners to maintain optimal database performance by archiving data beyond a specified duration.

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    Key Features

    • Retention Policy and Table Rotation: Configure a retention policy with table rotation to keep eight weeks of event data, ensuring effective data management.
    • Scheduled Jobs: An auto-enabled scheduled job runs every seven days, activating table cleaners to manage records older than seven weeks.
    • Table Cleaners: Two cleaners are specifically designed for processing states (Processed, Ignored) and others (New, Retry, In-progress, Deferred) based on the defined age in seconds.
    • Auto-updates: The frequency of table cleaners updates automatically to every 30 minutes if specific conditions are met, enhancing data management.

    Key Outcomes

    By implementing these features, customers can expect improved database performance, timely data archiving, and effective management of inbound events. The automated processes reduce manual intervention, ensuring that only relevant event data is retained, which ultimately supports better resource utilization within the ServiceNow platform.

    Use table cleaners on the inbound events table to purge event data records beyond a specified period. Configure a retention policy with table rotation on the auto-flush form to manage table size growth and archiving data beyond the specified duration.

    Data management

    The data management feature allows you to enable archiving and purging of inbound event data. Database rotation and table cleanup configurations are enabled to ensure that eight weeks of event data is retained. Instance performance is preserved using ServiceNow AI Platform features such as Database rotation, table rotation, and table cleanup. A scheduled job is auto-enabled two weeks after you upgrade.

    Table rotation on processed inbound events table

    The DevOps processed inbound events [sn_devops_processed_inbound_event_list.do] table contains copies of event data from the DevOps inbound events [sn_devops_inbound_list.do] table, that is in state 'processed' and 'ignored'.

    The processed inbound events table has the table rotation feature enabled. In all, there are eight preconfigured shards, each containing a week's event data from the DevOps inbound event table. By default, once you have 56 days (7 days) (Duration) *8 shards (Rotations) of data in the processed inbound table, table rotation is activated. For more information on applying table rotation, see Apply table rotation
    Tip:
    To modify table rotation configuration, navigate to System Definitions > Table Rotation and open the record for DevOps processed inbound events table.

    Scheduled jobs and Table cleaners

    Important:
    A scheduled job is auto-enabled two weeks after you upgrade . The scheduled job will run every seven days and is deactivated after the last update.
    Scheduled jobs activate tables cleaners on the inbound events if either of the following scenarios are met:
    • A week after you upgrade, and the processed inbound table has records older than seven weeks.
    • Two weeks after you upgrade.
    The table cleanup feature for the inbound events table [sn_devops_inbound_table] has two cleaners that are part of the base system upgrade.
    1. Table cleaners are activated and run on the inbound events [sn_devops_inbound_table_list.do] for events in the following states.
      • Processed
      • Ignored
      based on the value specified in the Age in seconds field against the value in sys_created_on field.
    2. Table cleaners are activated and run on the inbound events table [sn_devops_inbound_table_list] for events in the following states.
      • New
      • Retry
      • In-progress
      • Deferred
      based on the value specified in the Age in seconds field against the value in sys_created_on field.
    Note:
    By default, table cleaners are run on the inbound events table for these states from the time the schedules jobs are activated. The default value in the Age in Seconds field is 4,838,400 seconds (56*24*60*60).

    Auto-updates to table cleaner frequency

    Events in states processed and ignored are backed up and copied to the processed inbound events [sn_devops_processed_inbound_event_list] table. By default, the process cleaners are auto-updated to an interval of 30 minutes or 1800 seconds, on the inbound events table, if the following conditions are met:
    • Two weeks have passed since the scheduled job is active.
    • The processed inbound event table has event data older than 7 weeks.