Database Footprint

Here is an example of how the Database Footprint for tables like syslog, syslog_transaction, syslog_app_scope looked like for one of my customers:

Only the three syslog tables are already good for almost a Terrabyte of data. Obviously this will differ for every customer.

There are a lot more tables (also syslog extends) that are on Table rotation, though those are usually not contributing that heavily to the Database Footprint.

Lower duration Table Rotation

Out-of-the-box syslog and syslog_transaction are configured for type Rotation, with 8 Rotations, and a 7 days Duration. While one of the rotations will be offline, and one of the rotations is the upcoming one, effectively you have 6 rotations of 7 days. So the syslog and syslog_transaction is kept in your instance for a maximum number of 42 days!

If you want to lower the duration of the Table rotation, navigate to:- System Definition > Table Rotations- Select the Table you are after

- Update the Duration

When changing the Duration, for example by lowering it, be aware that your change will not be fully effective immediately. On the Table Rotation Schedule only the current rotation table and the upcoming rotation table are updated immediately.

For the customer the example shown was from, we lowered the duration of the Table rotation to 2 days. This ensures that at least 13 days and a maximum of 14 days of syslog records are being kept in the instance. The number of rotations was left untouched, though you can update that also.

Result

Only by adjusting the duration of the Table rotation for syslog, syslog_transaction, and syslog_app_scope for this customer, the total number of Gigabytes on the Database Footprint went down from 931.12 GB, to 243.23 GB. A reduction 687.89 GB with such a small configuration change!

Obviously you might decide to go for a different number, higher like 30 days, or even lower like 7 days. Or perhaps you want to differ this over your instances? Since all instances contribute to the Database Footprint size licensing.

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That's it. Hope you like it. If any questions or remarks, let me know!

Kind regards,

Mark Roethof

Independent ServiceNow Consultant

4x ServiceNow Developer MVP

4x ServiceNow Community MVP

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