Dev and PROD desynced following a backup restoration

AdrianS94

Hello Everyone,

I have taken over the Workspace Administrator responsibilities within the business and I am still learning about the basic model maintenance tasks.

We've had a deployed PROD model synced with a DEV model to sync any structural changes and using revision tags.

Recently, I have taken a copy of a PROD model before making some non-structural changes but I wasn't happy with the outcome. I decided to archive that PROD model and restore the latest PROD model backup. However, when doing so, I lost the apps so I decided to restore the PROD model I wasn't happy with only to find out it actually looked fine and I was looking at the wrong comparatives.

I got my apps back, but equally I lost sync with the dev model - I cannot add any revision tags.

My questions are:

1. How can I restore sync between DEV and PROD?
2. If I can't easily do the above, can I change the mode of my PROD model from Deployed to Standard without notable consequences? I need to make some changes in the structure which I cannot perform now given the mode set up currently. Can I then switch back to Deployed if need be?

Any responses will be much appreciated.

Thank you.

AjayM

'Copy model' tag is just indicating that you have taken a snapshot of the model - meaning no new structural changes. So you wouldn't find any differences when you compare that with the previous rev tag.

I think you haven't lost the ALM link, which means you can safely do the sync between DEV and PROD. 'Add revision tag' will be greyed out in DEV until you have a new structural change ready.
So try simply renaming a lineitem (just rename it and reset it back to the original name) and then see if you can 'add' the revision tag. And once you have the rev tag, test syncing it to prod. You may want to cancel the test-sync just before confirming (cancel at this stage while syncing as in the image below):

Cheers!

AjayM

Hi @AdrianS94 ,

From the moment ALM is implemented, the first and foremost rule is to never take deployed models out into a standard mode. When you unarchived the prod model, I am assuming you have unarchived it into standard mode and also made some structural changes in it - that's the only way you might have lost the ALM link.

Even while unarchiving, you must unarchive it in deployed mode to avoid such ALM break.
For any structural changes (including creation of revision tags), you must do them in DEV, and sync them over to PROD always. Hope you are clear about what are structural and non-structural changes, refer Model data and ALM.

There are few articles in our community on ALM topic, I am sharing a couple for your reference:
1. Revision tag best practices

2. Roll back a production model

To re-establish link between DEV and PROD, refer article #2 above.
If #2 is not achievable, and if there was no significant development done in the DEV after unarchived PROD's state, simpler way is to take a copy of PROD and convert the copied PROD into new DEV by taking it into standard mode. From this point, you would be able to sync the deployed PROD only from newly created DEV.

Cheers!

AdrianS94

Hi @AjayM,

Thank you for getting back to me so quickly. I appreciate you sharing the supportive articles with me.

I've only really had a top level overview of managing the models and use revision tags and everything was fine until I wanted to restore a backup.

I can see you mention presence of structural changes a few times. Based on what I remember I don't think I have made structural changes that time. Aside from the proposed solutions provided above, I wanted to ask about one other thing.

When I'm in "Manage models" and I click on the PROD model and then "Compare/Sync" I can see the Dev model is available to select. Does this actually mean the link could be restored that way or am I simplifying this too much?

Thank you.

AjayM

Since you are finding DEV model already, it means the ALM link is still there. If the link had broken, it would throw below error when you click on 'Compare/sync':

If DEV model is still appearing, why would you think the link is broken between DEV and PROD?
Hope you are making changes in DEV, creating rev tag in DEV, and trying to sync it to PROD :)

AdrianS94

Hi AjayM,

Thank you for getting back to me.

The reason I thought the link might have broken was because I cannot add revision tags - that option is greyed out, whereas it was possible to do so just before I restored the archived model.

Yes, I do make changes in DEV, creating revision tags in DEV and syncing to PROD.

The last revision tag I have in DEV is "Copy model" and when comparing to a previous revision tag it doesn't show any differences.

Given what I've now said, do you think I can safely use Compare/Sync to reenable Dev effectively? Will that work?

Thank you.

AdrianS94

Hi @AjayM,

You're an absolute star, I followed your instructions and managed to sync the models just fine. As you've said, the link was not broken at all. I didn't realise that "Add revision tag" option might not be active if I'm not making structural changes and just assumed the link has broken.

Thank you so much for your time and expertise!

AjayM

Glad the ALM link is in-tact.
Remember the golden rule, never take deployed models out into standard mode.

Cheers!

AdrianS94

The rule is now engraved in my brain, thank you @AjayM :)