Sandboxes: Staging Environments for Customizing and Testing

Want to customize your organization in a staging environment where you can test changes without affecting your production organization or its users? Want to have an organization that users can log into and test new features before they’re production-ready? Or maybe you just want to log into a Salesforce organization for training or development that mirrors your production organization.

• When to Use a Sandbox
  Sandboxes create copies of your Salesforce org in separate environments. Use them for development, testing, and training, without compromising the data and applications in your production org.
• Sandbox Setup Considerations
  Sandbox behavior is similar to a Salesforce production org, but important differences affect how you configure and test a sandbox org.
• Create, Clone, or Refresh a Sandbox
  Create a sandbox to use for development, testing, and training. Clone a sandbox to copy its data and metadata into another sandbox. Refresh an existing sandbox to update its contents.
• Manage Your Sandboxes
  In Setup, enter Sandboxes in the Quick Find box, then select Sandboxes. Sandboxes displays the available sandboxes that you purchased and a list of your sandboxes in use.
• Inactive Sandbox Expiration
  To better utilize capacity and support growth, we perform a routine cleanup of inactive sandboxes. A sandbox is considered inactive and eligible for deletion if it hasn’t been accessed for 180 days.
• Deploy Your Changes
  Migrate metadata changes between Salesforce orgs by using the deployment tools available in Setup.
• Secure Your Sandbox Data with Salesforce Data Mask
  Data Mask is a powerful data security resource for Salesforce admins and developers. Instead of manually securing data and access for sandbox orgs, admins can use Data Mask to automatically mask the data in a sandbox. Data Mask enables admins and developers to mask sensitive data in sandboxes such as personally identifiable information (PII) or sales revenue.
• Protect the Privacy of Sandbox Data with Anonymize
  Maintain data privacy and regulatory compliance when sharing sandbox data with other product teams for development, testing, or training. Gain stakeholder trust by protecting sensitive, classified, and personal identifier information with Anonymize.
• Populate and Secure Data Sets with Seeding
  Save your company time and ensure data consistency and reliability when you seed data into a sandbox or production org for development, testing, and deployment. Seeding by Own from Salesforce enhances data security and compliance by maintaining object relationships during seeding.