Backing out of update sets

[smayers]

Hi All

I have another question regarding backing out of update sets. I am new to SNOW Administration and had little 'hand over' before I took over. The procedure I was taught to follow regarding developments was to build an update set in the development environment. (I have learnt since to have many small update sets for a development rather than one huge one). Transfer to test once that particular stage of the development is complete and finally once it is tested and approved, transfer and apply the update set (sets) to Production. It was explained to me that if there was a problem after the update set was applied to production that it could be backed out.

I have two questions regarding this:

1   If you are applying multiple update sets to production as part of a development and you need to back out, it is only in the last update set that the back out button is available. If I were to back out of the last update set, would the back out button become available in the second to last update set I applied. If so, and I backed out of this second to last update set would the back out button become available on the third to last update set etc. so that eventually I would be able to back out of all the update sets I had just applied?

2 Is it generally considered good practice to rely on the back out functionality if something goes wrong when you move to production or not?

thanks

Sue

[Mark Stanger]

As much as I wish there were a better answer, the back-out functionality just isn't reliable enough to be counted on in these situations.   I always disable the button right away when setting up a system for a customer just so there's no confusion.   My advice is to test thoroughly in your test environment so that you can identify any potential issues there, then roll forward with a fix into test if you've got an issue, rather than rolling back.   If your test instance is a clean replica of production, then you can apply the update sets in the exact same order (along with any fixes) in a reliable manner.

Roll forward with a fix, don't roll back!

[smayers]

Thank you for your reply. I had found your post from earlier this year regarding back out of update sets. I must admit I tend to agree with you. My SNOW Admin training notes had 'do not use' scrawled over this part of the course!

However, some people seem to backing out of update sets successfully, perhaps the back out function is more successful you have not taken over a system that another person has developed where there is several developments in progress in development and test, (this was the case when I took over), and more than one person making changes!

[Siva Panja]

Back out an update set

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