Salesforce Instance Refresh Maintenance

Salesforce instance refresh maintenance is a regular process where Salesforce upgrades the underlying infrastructure of your specific instance (a cluster of servers) in their data centers. This process involves moving your instance to a new data center and potentially changing the instance’s name. Salesforce does this to provide customers with the latest hardware and ensure optimal performance.

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Why it happens: Salesforce periodically performs instance refreshes to upgrade the hardware and software supporting your instance. This allows them to keep up with technological advancements and maintain the performance and reliability of the platform.
What it entails: During an instance refresh, your instance will be moved to a new data center, which may result in a change to the instance name (e.g., EU3.salesforce.com to EU13.salesforce.com).
Impact on your organization: You might need to make some updates to your Salesforce configuration to reflect the new instance name, especially if you have hard-coded references to URLs or use My Domain.
Notification and preparation: Salesforce will notify you about the upcoming instance refresh in advance, usually at least six weeks before the actual maintenance window. You can find helpful resources like the Pre-Instance Refresh Checklist and Post-Instance Refresh Checklist on the Salesforce website.
Potential for changes: You might also see changes to your organization’s status during the maintenance window, such as being in read-only mode.