Creating Sandbox

Creating Sandbox

Creating  sandbox account
CRM admins can create multiple sandboxes in one account to test different configurations independently. While creating a sandbox you need to do the following:

1. Choose the sandbox type: There are two types of sandboxes to meet different business requirements: Configuration and Configuration and Data. The table below explains the benefits of both types of sandboxes.

Sandbox Type
Useful For
Sandbox Specification
Configuration

Testing and deploying the  CRM configurations using your own data.

 
Users can test either all of the available CRM configurations or a selected specific configurations in the sandbox based on your requirement.
Configuration and Data

Testing and deploying the  CRM configurations inside sandbox, along with populated CRM records data. This saves time, and also lets you test with real time data. 

Users can either choose to populate sample data or production data along with the configurations to test in the sandbox.  While deploying the changes to production, only the configurations will be copied, any records created in sandbox will not be copied.



2. Select the configurations:  You can select the configurations to test, from the Items availability in Sandbox . For example, to test user related configurations, you can check the required features  under Users and Control. Only the selected configurations will appear in the created sandbox.



3. Select the data population type:  The sandbox account can be tested with pre-populated sample data or data from the CRM account. However, any changes made to data in the sandbox account cannot be deployed to production. 

(i) Sample Data Population : If you want to save the time spent on manually creating records or importing them to the sandbox account or don't want developers or users to view CRM records  you can populate sample data for testing. On choosing this option 10 sample records each for the Leads, Accounts, Contacts, Deals, Tasks, Calls, Meetings, and Notes modules will be populated. You can access records under the respective modules and make edits as needed. During deployment these records will not be populated on to the CRM account. 




(ii) Partial Production Data Population
If you want to see the exact changes that will happen to the CRM records  you can populate some of the  CRM data into the Sandbox environment. You can choose the number of records that should be populated in each module. You can also choose the specific modules that needs to be populated with data in the sandbox account.  


For example if you choose 100 records/module, the most recently added 100 records of the chosen module will be populated onto the Sandbox account.  If the module contains a mandatory lookup field, i.e a lookup field marked as required, then the lookup module's data will also be populated in the sandbox with recent records of the selected record count. The association between these modules will be maintained inside the Sandbox.



In the above example , 500 recent records from Leads, Contacts, and Quotes modules will be  populated to the Sandbox account. Since, Quotes module has two mandatory lookup modules (Account and Products) and another non-mandatory lookup module for Deals , automatically data from Accounts and Products modules will be populated onto the Sandbox account. You cannot unselect any of the mandatory lookup modules that gets selected automatically.
Number of Sandbox accounts that can be created depends on the subscribed CRM edition:
  1. Enterprise : Configuration type - 3, Configuration and Data type - 2
  2. Ultimate : Configuration type  - 7, Configuration and Data type - 3
  3. Trial editions Enterprise, Ultimate : Configuration type  - 2
4. Set accessibility of the sandbox accounts: You can add CRM users who you want to access and test the  configurations in the sandbox account. When you create multiple accounts different users can be given access to different accounts based on what you want them to test and validate. They will be able to access only those accounts to which they are added. 
Once added, an email invitation will be sent to the users along with the sandbox URL for easy access.

Availability
Permission Required
Users with Manage Sandbox permission can carry out the following actions:
  1. Create or edit sandbox
  2. Rebuild sandbox 
  3. Add developers
  4. Deploy changes to production
  5. Deactivate the sandbox account
  6. Delete sandbox account

Creating a sandbox

To create a Sandbox
1. Go to Setup >  Data Administration > Sandbox.
2. In the  Sandbox page, Click the Create New Sandbox.
3. In the C reate New Sandbox pop-up, do the following:
  1. Enter a name for the Sandbox.
  2. Enter a brief description of the Sandbox.
  3. In Type , choose the type of sandbox from the drop-down. 
  4. If you choose Configuration, then select All or Selected . 


  5. If you choose Configuration and Data, select Sample Data or Partial Production Data.



  6. In Accessible To , select the the CRM users email address from the drop-down list.
4. Click Create.

You can access the sandbox by clicking the Go to Sandbox button on the top-right corner. This Sandbox environment will have a bright orange Sandbox ribbon. This is used to differentiate Sandbox from your production setup. 



Adding a developer

A developer is a non CRM user who can be added to sandbox accounts to test and validate different CRM functions. A developer can be a part of as many Sandbox accounts as possible.  The purpose of adding a developer is to:  
  1. Ideate, create, and test all complex processes involved in automation tools like 
  2. workflow rules, schedules, functions and others. 
  3. Write and test custom functions for activities that involve complex processes. 
  4. Make sure all the processes are error-free before deployed into the production account.
  5. A developer must be assigned a role, profile, and reporting manager. You can select the existing CRM Roles and Profiles based on the record access and configuration permissions you want to give for the developer. For example, developers with Manage Webform permission can create and test with webforms. Read more on Roles and Profiles.  A user higher than the selected role can be set as the reporting manager and they will be able to access the sandbox of that developer.
To add a developer
  1. Go to Setup > Data Administration > Sandbox.
  2. In the Sandbox page, click the   icon on the top right corner.
  3. Click Add Developer .

  4. In the Add Developer popup, enter the following details:
  5. First Name of the developer.
  6. Last Name of the developer.
  7. Email address of the developer's email to which the activation invitation is  sent.
  8. Role : Select the role of the developer in the Sandbox account.
  9. Profile : Select the profile of the developer in the Sandbox account.
  10. Accessible to: Select the Sandboxes that will be accessed by the developer.
  11. Reporting manager: Select a user in manager profile as the reporting manager.
    5. Click Save.
Note:
  1. An email invitation is sent to the developer with the Sandbox URL to access the account. 
  2. The Add Developer button is available only after at least one sandbox account is created. For one account, up to 5 developers can be added.
  3. You need not purchase CRM user licenses to add the developers. 
  4. A developer can access only the sandbox account.
  5. If the role or profile you want to select is not available in the sandbox account, the developer will be automatically assigned the default role (CEO) and profile (Administrator).

Viewing list of sandbox accounts

Users who have Manage Sandbox permission in their profile can view the list of  Sandbox accounts that are created by going to the your CRM Setup > Data Administration > Sandbox.  This page will categorize and display all necessary information about the sandbox accounts  such as the account name, changes, accessible users and developers, creation date, and status. 

From here, one can click on a desired sandbox and go to Change Set to view the changes made during the testing.

       

Deletion of Sandbox Account for Trial Editions

Sandbox is available in Enterprise and Ultimate trial editions. If the user or org downgrades to free edition or any other editions that does not support sandbox then the account will be deleted after a grace period of 30 days  However, the account will be retained if: 
  1. Within the grace period if the user or org decides to retry the trial editions, the Sandbox account will be retained for another 30 days. After the end of the trial period the account will be deleted. 
  2. Within the grace period if they purchase Enterprise or Ultimate edition.

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