Question

A data governance analyst needs to audit which users queried a specific table over the past 18 months. They plan to use the ACCOUNT_USAGE schema in the SNOWFLAKE database. When they query the QUERY_HISTORY view, they discover that records older than one year are missing. What is the reason for this behavior?

Accepted Answer

The ACCOUNT_USAGE.QUERY_HISTORY view retains data for up to 365 days (1 year); older data is not available through this view.

Answer

The INFORMATION_SCHEMA must be queried instead, because it retains historical query data indefinitely.

Answer

Time Travel retention on the account is set to the default of 1 day, which truncates ACCOUNT_USAGE views.

Answer

The analyst lacks the MONITOR privilege, so only the most recent 365 days of history are returned.