Direct production changes and field type risks
Which requests are safe to make directly in production and which must go through a sandbox pipeline, why field type changes lose data or are blocked, how configuration edits take effect at once and get overwritten by the next deployment, and why timing and freezes matter.
Given a detailed customer environment scenario including a specific request, explain the implications for incorporating the request directly in a production environment.
~8 min read · 11 practice questions ·
What the exam expects
- Decide whether a request can be made directly in production or must be built in a sandbox and promoted, and explain what skipping the pipeline gives up.
- Predict what a field type change does to data, external IDs, encrypted fields and the Apex or flows that reference the field.
- Explain why configuration edited in production (validation rules, custom metadata records) affects users and integrations at once, and what the next deployment does to it.
- Recommend when a change should run, given peak usage, record locking and change freezes.
Key terms: direct production change (a change made in production's Setup or data instead of deployed through the pipeline), field type conversion (changing a custom field's data type in place), external ID (a field an upsert matches records on), release moratorium (a planned period with no releases), row lock (a record lock that makes a competing save fail).
Key facts
- Detail
- Can't be developed there; use a sandbox, scratch org or Developer Edition org
- Detail
- Email templates, users, permission sets and profiles
- Detail
- Limit Customize Application to admins; few users with deploy permissions
- Detail
- Any orgs affiliated with the same production org; no records
- Detail
- Referenced by Apex, Visualforce, processes or flows; lead conversion mapping; Shield-encrypted
- Detail
- Only to text, number or email
- Detail
- 85 million field type conversions for a deploy() or package upgrade; some conversions run over 24 hours
- Detail
- Run whatever the data source, including API and Data Loader
- Detail
- Creates or updates the components it contains
Sources for this section (6)
- Deploying Apexdeveloper.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Deployment Best Practiceshelp.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Change Setshelp.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Considerations for Converting the Field Typehelp.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Operational Excellencearchitect.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- deploy()developer.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Why does a field type change in production threaten more than the field's own data?
- When is a change fine to make directly in production rather than through the sandbox pipeline?
- What happens to list views built on a field whose conversion loses data?
- Why can a bulk record update fail when run during peak hours?
The questions are free to read. Answers with their sources and self-grading are included with the pack.
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