Data archiving
Move data that's no longer needed every day from a primary table to an archive table.
Key benefits
- Free up system resources and avoid performance issues in queries and reports by moving older records into an archive table.
- Preserve data for auditing or historical purposes.
- Delete archived data after a specified period using a destroy rule.
Accessing archive rules
You can define and access archive rules for a table by navigating to and selecting the data management policy for the table.
Use cases
- The longer an instance runs, the more likely it is to accumulate data that is no longer relevant. For example, task records from two years ago are typically less relevant than currently active tasks. Old data may eventually cause performance issues by consuming system resources and slowing down queries and reports. You can archive records in core tables such as the Task [task] table and records in custom tables that you create on the ServiceNow AI Platform.
- Archive records when table queries are slow. For example, assume the Incident [incident] table on your instance has grown and users are reporting that queries against the table are slow. You can create an archive rule with conditions like [Closed] [relative] [on or before] [150] [Days] [ago] and [Active] [is] [false] to move records to the Archived Incidents [ar_incident] table when they're closed for more than 150 days.
- Archive records in a primary table, including any records in other tables that reference those records. For example, you can archive records in the Problem [problem] table, and include any incidents that reference a problem record in the Problem in Incident field.
For information on using the data archive feature, see Archiving records in Core UI.
Archiving in columnar storage with RaptorDB Professional V2
When you upgrade to RaptorDB Professional V2 and activate both the Columnar Store Archive (com.glide.db.columnar.archive) and Data Management Columnar Attachments Migration (com.glide.data_management.columnar_attachments) plugins, the archiving process transitions to a modern, columnar storage model. Archived records and attachments are moved off the primary instance to a dedicated columnar store, but remain accessible in the same way as regular tables.
Columnar storage doesn't require additional configuration beyond plugin activation, and is exclusive to RaptorDB Professional V2. For more information on upgrading to RaptorDB Professional, contact your account representative.
Columnar storage benefits:
- Columnar and off-instance storage
- Archived data is stored in a columnar format outside the primary instance, freeing up primary storage and improving query performance for active data.
- Continued accessibility
- Archived records remain accessible to users on the ServiceNow AI Platform, ensuring that historical data can be queried and reported on as needed.
- Scalable storage capacity
- The columnar archive provides greater storage capacity, allowing you to maintain larger archives without impacting primary database performance.
- Separation of archive and active data
- By moving archive records off-instance, the solution reduces primary storage consumption and supports long-term data retention strategies.
During the migration to columnar storage, data management processes that interact with archive tables, like data archiving and table cleaner, are temporarily paused. However, no downtime is required for the upgrade itself. For details on activating the plugins after upgrading to RaptorDB Professional V2, see: