Using restore points to enable error recovery

Restore points mark a significant point in time for your system. You can roll back to a restore point later to return the rules and data of the system to that point in time. For example, if importing an application caused problems, you might want to roll it back.

Pega Platform automatically creates restore points after any archive import. You can also use the prpcServiceUtils command-line tool to create and manage restore points.

Note: You must have a running Pega Platform instance to use the prpcServiceUtils tool.

The available restore point features depend on the users' roles and permissions:

  • All users can create, list, and display restore points.
  • System administrators who have the SysAdmin4 role can delete restore points.
  • System administrators who have the pxRollbackSystem privilege can roll back to a restore point. The pxRollbackSystem privilege is part of the SysAdmin4 role.

There are limitations to what you can restore when you roll back. Pega Platform uses history records to return most of the system to the restore point state. Changes to the following items do not generate history records and are not rolled back by the roll back feature. Decide on a case-by-case basis whether to remove these changes manually, or whether they can remain on the system.

  • SQL changes
  • Java .jar imports
  • Some custom data instances

    When you configure the class for a data type, you can specify not to generate a history record for instances of that type. If the data instance does not generate a history record, changes to the data instance cannot be rolled back.

You can specify which rule and data instances are returned to the previous state:
  • System: Roll back every rule and data instance with a history record. This is the default setting.
  • User: Roll back rule and data instances modified by a specific user.
    Note: If any rule was changed by more than one user, you will see an error message and must use the system rollback.
  • Application: Roll back rule and data instances in a specific application.