Question 1

Do I need an External ID field in Salesforce?

Accepted Answer

No, which surprises most people. Identity can be any Salesforce field that is filterable and otherwise eligible, so an account number, domain or email column already on the object can serve as the key without creating a dedicated External ID field first. Exact equality is the standard behaviour, and string identities additionally support substring, domain and hostname matching, plus matching against a list of values.

Question 2

How are lookups and relationships set?

Accepted Answer

Either by writing the reference identifier directly, or through generated find by fields that resolve the related record for you. So a contact can be pointed at its account using the account's own identifier or an External ID style lookup, and Salesforce record identifiers do not have to be carried through your warehouse. Where a reference does not resolve, you choose whether to fail the row, omit just the relationship, or skip the record entirely.

Question 3

What does a frequent sync do to the cluster?

Accepted Answer

It competes for the same compute your analysts use, which is the constraint here rather than a per query bill. Put the connecting user in an appropriate workload management queue, since Polytomic does not set one and the query inherits whatever that user has. Use a tracking field so later runs read only changed rows, align the sort key with it, and select just the columns you map. Model syncs are differential after the first backfill, so the write side stays small regardless.

Question 4

What happens on a large first load?

Accepted Answer

The connector picks between the REST and Bulk APIs automatically based on volume, so a large backfill goes through Bulk rather than consuming per record calls, and operations pause at 80 percent of your daily API allowance. Two settings matter at scale: only updating when values differ costs extra reads, and orgs prone to row locking usually want a smaller Bulk batch size with serial processing.

Question 5

How do I connect Redshift to Salesforce?

Accepted Answer

Connect Redshift with cluster details, credentials and an S3 staging bucket, over an SSH tunnel if the cluster is private, and connect Salesforce by authorizing against your org. The connected user's permissions decide which objects and fields the sync can write to, so authorize with someone who has the access you need. Then model the data in Redshift, pick the target object, choose the field to match on, map your columns and set a schedule.

Connect Redshift with Salesforce

Connect Redshift and Salesforce with Polytomic

Match on any filterable field

API quota protected

Differential after backfill

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Step-by-step integration guide

Connect Redshift in Polytomic

Connect Salesforce in Polytomic

Create a sync between Redshift and Salesforce

Map fields and enable the sync

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