System Admin Mode (SAM)

When System Admin Mode (SAM) is enabled, the following conditions are enforced:

• Only administrative users with System Administration Mode application permission can log on to the system. All other users are restricted from logging on.
• All Write operations are restricted, with these exceptions:
  • Metadata (schema) changes
  • Enumerated string conversions from single to multivalued selection
  • Setting changes that are made through the user interface

Before you enable SAM, you may want to notify application users to log off the system. If a user is already logged on to the system when SAM is enabled, the user will only be able to view objects and will not be able to create new instances of objects or save any modifications made to existing objects.

Depending on your configuration, SAM mode might not start until all asynchronous background jobs run to completion. For more information, see Asynchronous background jobs and administrative functions.

You must be in System Admin Mode (SAM) if you:

• Want to create, re-create, or drop a reporting schema. For more information see, Managing the reporting schema.
• Have an existing reporting schema and you want to add, remove, or refresh a reporting period.
• Have configuration changes to make to the system, such as changes to the object model hierarchy or modifications to object types, field groups, and object fields.
• Are converting an enumerated string value from a single selection to a multi-value selection. For more information, see Defining enumerated string fields.
• Set up field level security.

In all other instances you can make configuration changes without enabling SAM. However, there may be situations where you want to enable SAM to restrict general user access. For example, if you need to modify one or more object text labels, you may not want users to create new instances of the object type while you are making these changes.