View instance history

Track how instance properties change over time with execution history and diff views.

What is instance data history?

Starting with Platform 6, Lifecycle Manager shows which properties changed with each action executed against an instance. Use this feature to:

• Troubleshoot issues by understanding when properties changed
• Audit infrastructure changes with complete transparency
• Track how endpoints evolved through their lifecycle

View instance history

To access instance history:

The History tab displays:

• User who ran the action
• Action name
• Instance group (if applicable)
• Execution start time
• Execution status

Entries appear in reverse chronological order (newest first).

View execution details

To see what changed during an action:

Execution metadata

The left panel shows:

• Execution status and timing
• User information
• Action configuration
• Execution steps (Pre-JST, Workflow, Post-JST)

Execution data diff

The right panel displays a side-by-side comparison:

• Initial State (left): Instance properties when the action started
• Output State (right): Instance properties when the action completed

The diff view highlights:

• Deletions: Lines removed (red background)
• Additions: Lines added (green background)
• Modifications: Lines changed (yellow background with character-level highlights)

Lines more than three lines away from changes are collapsed by default. Click Expand # lines to show hidden sections.

Understand execution states

Actions can have these states:

View history by action type

Create actions

Create actions show:

• Initial State: Empty object (instance didn’t exist yet)
• Output State: All properties assigned during creation

Update actions

Update actions show:

• Initial State: Properties before the action
• Output State: Properties after the action

Delete actions

Delete actions show:

• Initial State: Properties before deletion
• Output State: Final state defined by the action

View instance group history

Instance group executions display differently:

Understand diff behavior

Key ordering

The diff compares stringified JSON. If an action reorders keys, they appear as:

• Deletion at the original position
• Addition at the new position

This occurs even when values are unchanged.

Whitespace changes

Structural changes (such as nesting data in new objects) are detected as modifications due to indentation differences.

Large strings

Strings containing newlines are treated as single lines. Changes to large strings highlight the entire string rather than individual lines within it.

Performance considerations

Diff calculation time depends on:

• State size: Larger JSON objects take longer to process
• Number of changes: More differences require more rendering

Optimize performance by:

• Minimizing unnecessary key reordering
• Avoiding excessively large string properties
• Splitting large objects into smaller properties when possible

Known limitations

Current limitations include:

• Metadata (instance group, end date) only displays when it exists
• Display names and references are frozen at execution time. Renaming or deleting assets afterward doesn’t affect historical records
• No copy function for individual states
• No way to ignore whitespace or reorder keys in the diff

Next steps