# Does overall history size affect performance?

**URL:** <https://community.temporal.io/t/does-overall-history-size-affect-performance/4462>\
**Category:** Community Support\
**Tags:** history, search-attributes\
**Created:** [April 18, 2022, 1:16pm UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/does-overall-history-size-affect-performance/4462 "2022-04-18T13:16:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 2

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**Author:** ![tihomir](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.temporal.io/tihomir/32/6580_2.png) [@tihomir](https://community.temporal.io/u/tihomir)\
**Post date:** [April 18, 2022, 3:35pm UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/does-overall-history-size-affect-performance/4462/2 "2022-04-18T15:35:49Z")

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Hi @Alexander

1. I believe you should be using [Search Attributes](https://docs.temporal.io/docs/concepts/what-is-a-search-attribute/) for these types of requirements rather than workflow history.
2. Temporal allows you to set a retention period per namespace for completed workflows. The default retention period is 2 days and min is 1 day and max 30. For closed workflows that hit the retention period both history and visibility data are removed. If you need your workflow histories and visibility data for closed workflow beyond the max 30 days you would need to look into setting up [Archival](https://docs.temporal.io/docs/server/archive-data).
3. There is no official support, but there are users using it, see for example [this](https://community.temporal.io/t/possible-to-support-scylladb/532/5) post.

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