Inbound event table data archiving and cleanup

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Inbound event table data archiving and cleanup

    This feature in ServiceNow’s Xanadu release enables customers to efficiently manage inbound event data by archiving and purging records beyond a specified retention period. It helps maintain optimal instance performance by controlling table size growth through automated data management processes like table rotation and cleanup.

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    Key Features

    • Retention Policy and Table Rotation: Customers can configure retention policies with table rotation on the auto-flush form to automatically archive and purge inbound event data older than the defined period.
    • Database Rotation and Cleanup: System defaults retain eight weeks of event data, leveraging ServiceNow AI Platform capabilities for database rotation, table rotation, and cleanup to optimize performance.
    • Processed Inbound Events Table: The DevOps processed inbound events table stores processed and ignored event copies from the inbound events table, with eight shards each holding one week of data. Table rotation activates after retaining 56 days (8 weeks) of data to manage storage effectively.
    • Scheduled Jobs and Table Cleaners: A scheduled job automatically activates two weeks post-upgrade and runs weekly to manage cleanup tasks. Table cleaners target specific event states (processed, ignored, new, retry, in-progress, deferred) based on event age, purging records exceeding the retention threshold.
    • Auto-updated Cleaner Frequency: After two weeks of scheduled job activation, if the processed inbound events table contains data older than seven weeks, the cleanup process frequency is automatically adjusted to run every 30 minutes to maintain data hygiene.

    Practical Implications for Customers

    • Customers can expect inbound event data to be automatically archived and purged, preventing table bloat and preserving instance performance without manual intervention.
    • The feature ensures only relevant recent event data is retained, supporting efficient DevOps monitoring and analysis.
    • Administrators can customize table rotation settings via System Definitions > Table Rotation to suit organizational retention requirements.
    • Automated scheduled jobs and table cleaners reduce administrative overhead by managing data lifecycle consistently after upgrades.

    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.