Data snapshots and multiple breakdowns

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Data snapshots and multiple breakdowns

    The Data snapshots feature in Platform Analytics enhances Performance Analytics by enabling multiple breakdown levels for analyzing indicators (KPIs). Unlike classic Performance Analytics, which limits breakdowns to two due to computational complexity, Data snapshots uses change data capture (CDC) technology to efficiently handle multiple breakdowns without matrix calculations. This advancement allows deeper, more granular data analysis and broader insights.

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    Note that Data snapshots requires the RaptorDB Professional database and does not support domain-separated instances. A Performance Analytics subscription and admin role are also necessary.

    Key Features

    • Multiple breakdown levels: Apply more than two breakdowns to indicators, overcoming previous limitations.
    • Change Data Capture (CDC) architecture: Captures data changes from configurable tables optimized for real-time scores and time series.
    • Support for specific indicator types: Supports automated, non-scripted indicators; formula indicators based on non-scripted contributors; and nested formula indicators with underlying non-scripted indicators.
    • Platform Analytics experience only: Multiple breakdowns are supported in Data visualizations and KPI Details components but not in Core UI components like PA widgets or the Analytics Hub.
    • Data snapshots plugin: Activation of the Data Snapshots (com.snc.pa.mlb) plugin is required, automatically installed on qualified instances with Australia Patch 3 or later.
    • Storage impact: Data snapshots collection jobs increase storage use by copying subsets of source tables and storing daily changes.

    Practical Considerations

    • Data collected before enabling Data snapshots supports only two breakdown levels; attempting to apply more results in empty data visualizations for those dates.
    • Indicators not supporting Data snapshots will show warnings on their records explaining incompatibility.
    • Filters behave differently depending on whether indicators support multiple breakdowns, which can affect dashboard consistency.
    • Testing Data snapshots in a development environment before production activation is recommended.

    How to Enable and Use Data snapshots

    • Activate the Data Snapshots plugin at the instance level and then individually enable it for supported indicators.
    • Create and analyze automated indicators and formula indicators using Data snapshots to leverage multiple breakdowns.
    • Administrators can disable Data snapshots per indicator or for the entire instance if needed.

    Limitations and Requirements

    • Domain-separated instances are not supported.
    • Only non-scripted and certain formula indicators support Data snapshots; scripted indicators do not.
    • Core UI components like PA widgets do not support displaying more than two breakdowns.
    • Some features of indicators and breakdowns are incompatible with Data snapshots and multiple breakdowns.

    Expected Outcomes

    By enabling Data snapshots, ServiceNow customers can analyze KPIs with enhanced granularity through multiple breakdowns, gaining deeper insights into their performance data. This improvement resolves previous limitations, allowing more flexible and detailed reporting and analysis within Platform Analytics.

    The Data snapshots feature in Platform Analytics allows for multiple breakdowns while analyzing your indicators (KPIs). This architecture uses a change data capture (CDC) process, which captures data changes from configurable tables that are optimized for generating scores and time series at run-time.

    Classic Performance Analytics calculates multiple breakdowns applied to an indicator through a matrix. Mathematically, the number of calculations increases geometrically with the number of breakdowns. Practically, this approach limits you to a maximum of two breakdowns that can be applied to an indicator simultaneously.

    The Data snapshots feature does not use breakdown matrixes. Thanks to the use of CDC instead, you can apply multiple breakdown levels. The ability to apply more than two levels of breakdown addresses one of the longstanding pain points of Performance Analytics. This feature deepens your ability to analyze data and broadens the insights you can gain through Performance Analytics.

    Important:
    • Data snapshots requires that your instance uses the RaptorDB Professional database.
    • Domain-separated instances are not supported.
    • To get Data snapshots and enable multiple levels of breakdown, activate the Data Snapshots (com.snc.pa.mlb) plugin. A Performance Analytics subscription and the admin role are required. If you have Australia Patch 3 or later, the plugin is installed automatically on qualified instances.
    • Consider testing the Data snapshots feature in a development environment before activating it on a production instance.
    • To convert classic Performance Analytics indicators to Data snapshots, check whether the indicator supports Data snapshots. Then activate Data snapshots for the indicator if it does. For more information, see Activate Data snapshots.
    • Only Platform Analytics experience components (Data visualizations, KPI Details) support Data snapshots. You cannot show more than two levels of breakdowns in Core UI components like PA widgets and the Analytics Hub.
    • Data snapshots collection jobs may result in increased storage use by Performance Analytics. The jobs copy subsets of the source tables and store every daily change for related records.
    The following indicators support the Data snapshots feature:
    • Automated indicators that do not use scripted aggregations (non-scripted indicators).
    • Formula indicators with only non-scripted, automated contributing indicators
    • Formula indicators that contain other formula indicators, provided that ultimately the underlying indicators are non-scripted, automated indicators.

    If an indicator does not support Data snapshots, the reasons appear in a warning on the indicator's record page.

    Important:
    You cannot apply multiple breakdowns to data that was collected before the feature was activated. You can apply only two levels of breakdown to such data. If you try to apply more levels of breakdown, the result is an empty area for that date range on your data visualization or KPI Details chart.

    Supported and unsupported indicators

    Filters apply differently to visualizations of indicators that support and that don’t support multiple breakdowns. In this example, you have a dashboard with two pivot table data visualizations. One pivot table shows the indicator Number of open incidents. This indicator isn’t scripted and thus supports multiple breakdowns. The other pivot table shows the indicator Summed age of open incidents. This indicator is scripted so doesn’t support multiple breakdowns. The dashboard has three filters, each of which filters on a breakdown that is on both indicators. All three filters are being applied. The filters were applied in the following chronological order: first Priority, then Category, then State. The visualization of Number of open incidents shows three filters applied, but the visualization of Summed age of open incidents shows only two.
    Dashboard with visualizations of an indicator that supports multiple breakdowns and one that does not.
    Examining the filters that are applied to the Number of open incidents indicator, you see that all three filters are being applied.
    An indicator that supports multiple breakdown with three breakdowns applied.
    For the Summed age of open incidents indicator, you see that only the first two filters that were applied to the dashboard apply to this indicator.
    An indicator that does not support multiple breakdowns, showing that only the first two of three breakdowns applied to the dashboard are applied to the indicator.

    KPI Details for an indicator that uses Data snapshots

    This example shows the KPI Details for the indicator Number of open incidents. The indicator supports Data snapshots and multiple breakdowns, as is shown by a badge in the header. Two breakdowns have been set, each with two elements.
    KPI Details for an indicator that supports multiple breakdowns, with two breakdowns selected.
    You can select a third breakdown. However, Data snapshots were only implemented on this instance a few days ago. Once you select a third breakdown, no data before this date is shown. You have a banner warning you to this effect.
    KPI Details for an indicator that supports multiple breakdowns, with three breakdowns selected but no data from before the implementation of multiple breakdowns.