Investigate Data Changes
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Select the Compare tab in Backup and Recover to open the Compare tool.
- Discover how the Compare tool helps identify potential data issues.
- Locate specific records and files in your backup history.
- Evaluate the changes made to data using the Compare tool.
Investigate Before You Restore
Shortly after arriving at her office, Nina Brown, a Salesforce admin at Cloudy College, receives an alert notifying her that there was a mass change to the Student object in her Salesforce org. Nina needs a tool that can quickly help her identify what those changes are and if they were intended. Enter the Compare tool.
The Compare tool becomes her time machine, enabling her to:
- Compare data between different backup points.
- Identify changes that occurred between two selected backups in time.
- See what data was added, updated, or deleted.
- Understand the scope of data issues.
The Compare Tool: Analyze Data Over Time
Before you can restore data that has been lost or corrupted, you need to understand what happened to the data and identify the scope of the problem. The Compare tool is your investigative layer that sits above the recovery options which you’ll explore in the following units. Think of the Compare tool as your data detective kit. Just like a detective wouldn't start building a case before gathering evidence, you shouldn't start restoring data before understanding what went wrong.
Understand the Data Changes
When Nina uses the Compare tool, she selects two different backup points. She selects one from before the issue was reported when she knows the data is correct and one from after the changes happened. The tool shows her exactly what changed between those two points, highlighting the differences so she can quickly identify the problem and continue with the recovery process.
The Compare tool displays data between two selected backups, and highlights the following information:
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Additions: New records that were added
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Modifications: Existing records in which fields were changed
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Deletions: Records that were deleted
Using the Compare tool, Nina sees that the Email field in several hundred student records were either corrupted or erased from the most recent backup.
Sum It Up
The Compare tool is your first line of defense when dealing with data issues. It helps you understand what happened, when it happened, and how extensive the problem is. This investigation phase is critical for choosing the right recovery approach and avoiding unnecessary disruption to your organization.
Remember to investigate first, identify the impacted records, and then restore. Your future self (and your users) will thank you for taking the time to understand the problem before implementing the solution. Next, you learn to restore with Precision Repair.