Camunda internal usage of ACT_HI_ACTINST table

I have an instance of Camunda database gone huge because of ACT_HI_ACTINST table.

Since I do not actually need or query the data inside of it from my custom application, I’m wondering can I simply truncate it, or to be more precise, will Camunda internal activities (whatever they might be) continue working? Will I break something by doing so?

I know about history levels, and this will be setup better from now on.

Hi @ilistes,

I think you can remove any entry that satisfies END_TIME is not null. Make sure to create a backup before modifying the database directly.

Cheers,
Thorben

The problem is the table size itself - over 100mil rows.

I even know the type of activity that caused this large database, meaning I could write a query and remove only those rows, but the table size in combination with hardware available makes it virtually impossible (execution time).

I’m in the process of getting faster storage to see if things will get better, but I’m looking at truncate as a back up possibility (to avoid any kind of query against this table).

Hi,

depending on your database technology - you may be able to partition the table and drop partitions…

regards

Rob