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Data Extension Storage Usage
View and manage your marketing data usage by downloading your data extension storage details as a CSV file. Optimize your storage usage, improve performance, and ensure compliance by removing unneeded data and updating retention policies.
The CSV file lists your tenant’s data extensions that contain data that you’ve loaded into Marketing Cloud Engagement. These system data extensions are also included in the CSV file:
- Einstein data
- Synchronized data from Sales Cloud and Service Cloud
- Customer 360 segments
- Advertising audiences
Download Data Extension Storage Details
View and manage your marketing data usage by downloading your data extension storage details as a CSV file. Data extension storage details are updated daily.
This report is available to MC Administrator and Administrator roles. To make this report available to another role, grant the Administration | Account | Download Data Extension Storage Details permission in all business units in the enterprise.
You must belong to each business unit that you want to report on. To access enterprise-level data, you must belong to all business units in the enterprise.
- From your top-level Enterprise 2.0 account, go to Setup Home.
-
In the Metrics section, under Data Extensions, click Download Storage
Details.
A CSV file downloads to your computer.
Without the correct permissions, users only see View Details.
Data Extension Storage Fields
These fields are included for each data extension in the data extension storage details CSV file.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| EID | The tenant’s Enterprise ID. |
| MID | The Member ID where the data extension is located. |
| BusinessUnitName | The name of the Member ID where the data extension is located. |
| DataExtensionName | The name of the data extension. |
| CustomerKey | The unique identifier for the data extension. |
| IsSendable | Whether the data extension is sendable. |
| DataRetentionPolicy | The retention policy of the data extension, if applicable. |
| RecordCount | The number of records in the data extension. |
| UsedGB | The size of the data extension in gigabytes (GB). This file size is the compressed file size in the Marketing Cloud Engagement database, not the size of the exported or extracted file. |
| DataExtensionPath | The folder path to the data extension in Contact Builder or Email Studio. |
| SampleDate | The date that the retrieved data was last updated for the data extension. If the value is Data_Not_Available, storage details for the data extension will be available in a future report. |
Optimizing Data Extension Storage
Here are some ways that you can optimize your data extension storage.
Establish specific retention policies for each data extension.
- Find your largest data extensions and apply a shorter retention policy if possible.
- For send log data extensions, set a 30-day retention period or shorter. Copy only the data that you need to another data extension for analysis.
- For triggered send data extensions, set a 7-day retention period.
- If your account uses the Contact Delete API to remove contacts, the API removes applicable
data from data extensions where the IsSendable field is
True. Identify data extensions where the IsSendable field isFalse, and ensure that an appropriate retention policy is applied.
Delete old data extensions.
- Delete data extensions with names containing terms such as “backup,” “archive,” “test,” “copy,” or an old date.
- If you have a folder of data extensions that’s no longer needed, save time by deleting the folder instead of each individual data extension.
Store only necessary data.
- Don’t store large fields, such as HTML blob fields, unless your use case requires it.
- If you’re storing engagement opens, clicks, or other data that can be accessed from a Data View, consider using Intelligence Reports for Engagement to analyze your data instead.
- Identify data extensions with an above-average record size using the equation UsedGB / RecordCount. Check whether these data extensions contain one or more unusually large fields that you can remove.
