How to retain data when migrating to production environment

[sienna28]

So far we are having to import data when we migrate a solution to a new environment.
We are moving as a managed solution.
How can we prevent overwriting or data loss when migrating from sandbox to a production environment?

Any help appreciated.

Thank you

[Moximox]

What data are you thinking of. When you import solutions into environment you don’t affect data?

[sienna28]

That's what I am hoping, but data has been wiped so we had to import it again via csv.

We made a change to a table field in one environment and when the solution was imported to the new environment we found the data had gone.

[Moximox]

Hey

are you saying that you had data in a table in prod and you imported a solution into prod with changes to this table and data in prod was deleted? If so what did you change for this table? The only scenario I can see this happening is you change a field which the data is dependent upon such as lookup, primary or key field

[jaeiow]

I had the same encounter, I need to use a dataflow in the new environment. Tables don't come with the data.

[Moximox]

No tables moved with solution does not include data. But that was not the issue explained? Issue was that data was deleted in the target environment?

[jaeiow]

I don't think that is correct. It doesn't say that data existed, only that solution was imported.

[Moximox]

It said “How can we prevent overwriting”  

Overwriting is only possible if data already exist in target environment - would you not agree?

[sienna28]

Sorry for the delay in coming back.

We had data in the production environment....just a few lookup tables.

In test environment we had removed a field (not from lookup tables, but another table)

When the solution went to production, the lookup table data had vanished on production so we had to import data to these tables to get things working again.

Just want to clarify that table field changes (in dev/test environments) should not affect data held in production when the solution is moved there.

[Moximox · Accepted solution]

It will affect data in target environment if the changes make it impossible for the data in the target environment to sustain. This can be for example a required lookup field which you remove, autoincrement or key fields. 
If data in a table is deleted and there are cascading rules in places via the lookup referential configuration- then any related records might also be deleted. 

mox