Maintain Your Heroku Architect Certification for Summer ’23

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

• Observe faster app dynos with Common Runtime and Private Spaces infrastructure upgrades.
  
• Connect Private Heroku Postgres PgBouncer to Amazon VPCs via AWS PrivateLink.
  
• Upgrade a PostgreSQL extension for Essential Tier.
  
• Install Improved Heroku Postgres extensions.
  
• Subscribe to low-cost options for Dyno and Data small-scale use.
  
• Configure new data streaming connectors.
  

Maintain Your Certification

If you hold the Salesforce Heroku Architect credential, keep in mind that you need to complete this module by the due date to maintain your certification. Another important part of maintaining your credential is ensuring your Trailhead and Webassessor accounts are linked.

Interested in learning more about getting certified? Check out the Salesforce Certified Heroku Architect credential.

Salesforce introduced a ton of great feature enhancements over the past year. Let’s take a look at some of the more important ones.

While anyone can earn this badge, this module is designed for those who hold the Salesforce Heroku Architect certification.

Protect the Integrity of Your Certification

The quality of our certification exams and the value our credentials provide are our highest priority. Protecting the security and confidentiality of our exams is essential to providing our customers with credentials that are respected and industry-leading.

As a participant of the Salesforce Certification Program, you’re required to accept the terms of the Salesforce Credential and Certification Program Agreement. Please review the Salesforce certification exam-taking policies in the Salesforce Credential and Certification Program Agreement and Code of Conduct Salesforce Help article for more details.

Salesforce introduced a ton of great feature enhancements over the past year. Let’s take a look at some of the more important ones.

Observe Faster App Dynos with Common Runtime and Private Spaces Infrastructure Upgrades

The infrastructure powering both Common Runtime apps and Private Spaces has been upgraded. The upgrade process started in March 2023 and was completed on April 17, 2023.

App dynos now run on newer and faster infrastructure. The performance improvements depend on your use cases. To see the impact, compare your metrics for apps on the Heroku Dashboard or other observability tools used to monitor dynos.

Connect Private Heroku Postgres PgBouncer to Amazon VPCs via AWS PrivateLink

Use PgBouncer as a lightweight connection pooler for PostgreSQL. As part of Heroku Enterprise, a Heroku Postgres PgBouncer running in a Private Space is now securely and seamlessly connected to one or more Amazon VPCs via PrivateLink.

See the Dev Center article for more information.

Upgrade a PostgreSQL Extension for Essential Tier

Postgres extension upgrades are now available to all Essential tier Postgres add-on (Mini and Basic) plans. Previously users got the following error when attempting to upgrade an extension:

Extension updates are disabled, you may drop the extension and re-create it.

We disabled extension upgrades as part of our response to Incident 2450/CVE 2022-2625 and our continued commitment to keeping your data safe. We’ve also implemented alternative security measures and will be deploying this change to all of our Standard, Premium, Private, and Shield tier Postgres add-ons in the near future.

Try it for yourself on any of our Mini or Basic plans through the CLI in a heroku pg:psql session.

Create an extension and specify the version with the command:

CREATE EXTENSION extension_name VERSION '1.0';

Upgrade the extension with the command:

ALTER EXTENSION extension_name UPDATE TO '1.1';

Visit the Dev Center for more information on installing PostgreSQL extensions.

Install a Heroku Postgres Extension

Heroku Postgres requires extensions to be installed in the heroku_ext schema as part of our efforts to improve database security. We’ve received valuable feedback from our users, and we’re improving the experience of using Heroku Postgres extensions.

We’ve implemented alternative security measures so users can install extensions outside of the heroku_ext schema. Users can opt in to this new configuration by setting the --allow-extensions-on-public-schema flag at provision time. This flag works for all Standard, Premium, Private, and Shield Heroku Postgres plans.

$ heroku addons:create heroku-postgresql:standard-0 \  --allow-extensions-on-public-schema

All existing databases will continue to require extensions to be installed in the heroku_ext schema. In the near future, we’ll provide a method to change this configuration on existing databases.

See the Extensions, PostGIS, and Full Text Search Dictionaries on Heroku Postgres article for more details on Heroku Postgres extensions.

Subscribe to Low-Cost Options for Dyno and Data Small-Scale Use

New Eco Dynos Plan

A new low-cost Eco Dynos plan is now available. You can subscribe to the plan on the Billing page in your account.

See Eco Dyno Hours for more info about the new plan and how it works.

In addition, Heroku is renaming Hobby dynos to Basic. Heroku automatically began converting existing Hobby dynos to Basic starting November 28, 2022.

New Heroku Postgres and Heroku Data for Redis Plans

New low-cost mini plans are now available for both Heroku Postgres and Heroku Data for Redis.

In addition, Heroku is renaming the hobby-basic plan for Heroku Postgres to Basic. Heroku automatically began converting existing Hobby-basic databases to Basic starting November 28, 2022.

You can provision new databases on these new plans. To change the plan on an existing database, use the heroku addons:upgrade command. 

See further instructions here:

• Heroku Postgres
  
• Heroku Data for Redis
  

Configure New Data Streaming Connectors

Heroku Postgres now streams Change Data Capture (CDC) events to Apache Kafka on Heroku in a Private or Shield Space.

Configure Change Data Capture (CDC) for Heroku Postgres events and stream them to your Apache Kafka on Heroku add-on provisioned in a Private Space or a Shield Private Space. This process involves three high-level steps.

1. Create an app in Private Space or Shield Private Space.
   
2. Provision a Private or Shield Heroku Postgres add-on and a Private or Shield Apache Kafka on Heroku add-on on your new app.
   
3. Create a streaming data connector to enable CDC events from your Postgres to your Kafka.
   

See Heroku Dev Center for more information. For more information about how to best configure a streaming data connector, see Best Practices for Heroku’s Streaming Data Connectors.

Resources

• Heroku Dev Center: Common Runtime and Private Spaces Infrastructure Upgrades
• Heroku Dev Center: The Heroku Dashboard
• Heroku Dev Center: Private Heroku Postgres PgBouncer can now connect to Amazon VPCs via AWS PrivateLink
• Heroku Dev Center: PostgreSQL Extension Upgrades Enabled for Essential Tier
• Heroku Dev Center: Improving the Heroku Postgres extension experience
• Heroku Dev Center: Changes to PostgreSQL extension schema management
• Heroku Dev Center: New Eco Dynos plan available
• Heroku Dev Center: New Heroku Postgres and Heroku Data for Redis plans available
• Blog: Introducing Our New Low-Cost Plans | Heroku
• Blog: Eco and Mini Plans Now Generally Available | Heroku
• Heroku Dev Center: Changing the Plan or Infrastructure of a Heroku Postgres Database
• Heroku Dev Center: Streaming Data Connectors now Generally Available
• Heroku Dev Center: Heroku Streaming Data Connectors
• Heroku Dev Center: Best Practices for Heroku Streaming Data Connectors