Viewing data usage by table

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Viewing data usage by table

    The Viewing data usage by table feature in ServiceNow's Data Management Console provides a detailed summary of storage consumption at the individual table level. This enables customers to analyze and monitor data usage trends over time, track storage impact, and manage growth effectively. Data is refreshed daily, ensuring up-to-date insights for data management decisions.

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    Key Features

    • Table Size Tracking: View the total storage used by a specific table in gigabytes (GB) and monitor percentage changes over time to identify growth or reduction trends. Note that data updates may take up to 24 hours after significant changes.
    • Associated Table Size: Assess storage used by associated tables that contain dependent records without their own lifespan, such as attachments, audits, and journals. Track storage trends and apply data management rules to control growth.
    • Data Usage Trend: Visualize storage usage patterns for the selected table and its associated tables across weeks or months to support capacity planning.
    • Driver Tables Identification: Identify tables that contribute to the size of the current table (driver tables), view their storage size and record counts, and manage their growth through targeted data management rules.
    • Associated Tables Analysis: Determine the volume the current table contributes to associated tables, review their size and record counts, and apply data management rules to control associated data growth.

    Access and Roles

    Access to the Data Management Console and the ability to view data usage by table requires the admin role. Navigate via All > System Data Management > Data Management Console > Tables and select the table of interest.

    Key Outcomes

    • Gain comprehensive visibility into how individual tables and their related data impact storage utilization.
    • Enable proactive monitoring and trending of table data consumption to anticipate and address storage growth.
    • Empower data management through informed creation of rules targeting driver and associated tables to optimize storage usage.
    • Support better capacity planning and governance by understanding the relationships between tables, driver tables, and associated tables.

    View a summary of data usage for an individual table.

    Key benefits

    • Analyze data usage at the table-level.
    • Monitor data usage for a specific table over time.
    • Access a comprehensive view of a table's impact on storage usage by checking the size and record count of driver tables and associated tables.

    Details on this page are refreshed once daily.

    Figure 1. View data usage by table in the Data Management Console
    Data usage by table.

    Required ServiceNow AI Platform roles

    The admin role is required to view the Data Management console.

    Accessing data usage by table in the Data Management Console

    Access data usage for a specific table in the Data Management Console by navigating to All > System Data Management > Data Management Console > Tables and selecting the table.

    Table size (GB)

    View the total amount of storage used by the current table. If you've made significant changes to your data recently, it might take up to 24 hours for changes to appear.

    Track storage usage over time by viewing the percentage increase or decrease since a specific date.

    Associated table size (GB)

    Associated tables contain records that don't have a lifespan of their own. Examples include attachments, audits, and journals.

    • View the total amount of storage used by associated tables.
    • Track the rate of storage usage by viewing the percentage change since a specific date.
    • Address growth in associated tables by creating data management rules on the current table.

    Data usage trend

    Monitor data usage for the current table over time.

    • Track the size of the current table over weeks or months.
    • Compare data usage between the current table and associated tables over time.

    Driver tables

    Driver tables are those that contribute to the size of another table. For example, the Incident [incident], Problem [problem], and Change Request [change_request] tables contribute to the growth of the Task [task] table, which makes them driver tables.

    • Determine which tables are driving volume to the current table.
    • View the size of each driver table and the total record count in each driver table.
    • Address growth in the current table by creating data management rules in the driver tables.

    Associated tables

    Associated tables store records like attachments, audit records, and journal entries that don't have a lifespan of their own. For example, the Sys Audit [sys_audit], Attachment [sys_attachment], and Journal Entry [sys_journal_field] are tables associated with the Incidents table, which contributes volume to these tables.

    • Determine how much volume the current table is contributing to associated tables.
    • View the size of associated records and the total record count in each associated table.
    • Address growth in associated tables by creating data management rules on the current table.