In this article

What is a Salesforce Sandbox?
Create a sandbox in Salesforce
Salesforce Sandbox Refresh
Salesforce Sandbox Availability and Costs
Sandbox templates
Salesforce Sandbox as a backup solution?
Optimize Salesforce Data Protection

Mastering Salesforce Sandbox Seeding: A Comprehensive Guide for IT Admins

13 Jun 2023

5 min read

Nadeem

Blog Articles

1. What is a Salesforce Sandbox?

Salesforce Sandbox is a powerful feature provided by Salesforce to create a copy of your organization in a separate environment. It is an essential tool for testing and development purposes, allowing IT admins and developers to test new features, configurations, or code without risking the integrity of live data.

1.1. Types of Salesforce Sandboxes

There are four types of sandboxes in Salesforce:

Developer Sandbox: This is intended for coding and testing by individual developers. It includes a copy of your org's configuration (metadata) but no production data.

Developer Pro Sandbox: This is similar to the Developer Sandbox, but with increased storage for larger development and testing tasks.

Partial Copy Sandbox: This sandbox includes your org's metadata and a sample of your production org's data (defined by a sandbox template). It's ideal for user acceptance testing, integration testing, and training.

Full Sandbox: As the name implies, it's a full replica of your production org, including all data and metadata. It is mostly used for performance testing, load testing, and staging.

2. Create a sandbox in Salesforce

2.1. How to create a Developer Sandbox using Salesforce

To create a developer sandbox in Salesforce, follow the below steps:

Step 1: Navigate to Setup > Sandboxes > New Sandbox.

Step 2: Choose the Developer type, give it a name and description, and create a sandbox template to define the sample of data you want to include.

Step 3: Type in a name for the sandbox. You can either create from Production or an existing sandbox.

Step 4: If you have any pre-defined Apex class you want to run immediately after sandbox creation, type it here. Otherwise, leave it blank and click Create.
The sandbox creation will be queued. Once it has been completed, you will receive an email from Salesforce.

Step 5: Create a data export: Navigate to Setup > Data Export > Export Now or Schedule Export. Choose the objects you want to backup and initiate the export. Salesforce will prepare a .zip file with your data and send you an email when it's ready to download.

Step 6: Import the data to the sandbox: In the sandbox, navigate to Setup > Data Import Wizard. Use the wizard to upload the .zip file from the data export process. Monitor the data import for any errors or issues.

Note: Developer Sandboxes do not contain any data, only metadata. The process mentioned above will allow you to populate the sandbox with a subset of your production data.

2.1.1 How to create a Developer Pro Sandbox using Salesforce

The process for creating Developer Pro Sandboxes is similar to that of Developer Sandboxes. The only difference is the increased storage capacity, which allows for larger data imports.

2.2. How to create a Partial Copy Sandbox using Salesforce?

To create a Partial Copy Sandbox, follow the below steps:

Step 1: Navigate to Setup > Sandboxes > New Sandbox.
Step 2: Choose the Partial Copy type, give it a name and description, and create a sandbox template to define the sample of data you want to include.

Step 3: Type in a name for the sandbox. You can either create from Production or an existing sandbox.

Step 4: If you have any pre-defined apex class you want to run immediately after sandbox creation, type it here. Otherwise, leave it blank and click Create.
The sandbox creation will be queued. Once it has been completed, you will receive an email from Salesforce.

Step 5: Check the sandbox: Once Salesforce has created the sandbox, you can log in and confirm that correct data has been included.

Note: Partial Copy Sandboxes include a sample of your production data defined by a sandbox template. You can choose different objects to include in the template depending on your backup needs.

2.3. How to create a Full Sandbox using Salesforce?

To create a full sandbox in Salesforce, follow the below steps:

Step 1: Navigate to Setup > Sandboxes > New Sandbox. Choose the Full type, give it a name and description, and click Create.
Step 2: Check the Sandbox: Once Salesforce has created the sandbox, you can log in and confirm that all your production data has been included.

Note: Full Sandboxes are a complete copy of your production org and include all data and metadata.

3. Salesforce Sandbox Refresh

Refreshing a Salesforce sandbox is the process of replacing its current contents with a fresh copy of the data and metadata from your production org. This is useful when you want to test new features or processes using the most current data, or when you want to reset the sandbox after extensive changes.

To refresh your Salesforce sandbox, follow the below steps:

Step 1: Navigate to Setup > Sandboxes.
Step 2: On the Sandboxes page, you'll see a list of your existing sandboxes. Identify the sandbox you want to refresh. On the right of the sandbox you want to refresh, click on the Refresh link.

Step 3: In the dialog box that appears, choose the type of Sandbox (if available) and, if necessary, choose a Sandbox Template. Then, click Refresh.

Step 4: In the next screen, enable Auto Activate if you want the sandbox to be enabled automatically. If deselected, you will have to manually activate the sandbox from Salesforce mail.

Salesforce will send you an email when your sandbox is ready to use. The refresh process could take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours, depending on the size of your data and the current demand for sandbox resources.

3.1. Refresh Intervals and Considerations

The frequency with which you can refresh a sandbox depends on the type of sandbox:

Developer and Developer Pro Sandboxes can be refreshed once per day.

Partial Copy Sandboxes can be refreshed every 5 days.

Full Sandboxes can be refreshed every 29 days (or every 5 days, for an additional cost).

Notes:

Refreshing a sandbox overwrites all the data in the sandbox, so any changes or test data in the sandbox that you want to keep must be exported or otherwise saved before the refresh.

Make sure to change any email addresses in the sandbox after a refresh if you want to avoid sending emails to users during testing.

4. Salesforce Sandbox Availability and Costs

Salesforce sandboxes are available on different subscription plans. It's important to understand what's available with each plan and the associated costs, which can be significant.

Developer and Developer Pro Sandboxes are available in all editions of Salesforce that have access to sandboxes, namely Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions. Each of these editions comes with a certain number of Developer and Developer Pro Sandboxes included at no extra cost:

Enterprise Edition includes 25 Developer Sandboxes and 1 Developer Pro Sandbox.

Unlimited and Performance Editions include 100 Developer Sandboxes and 1 Developer Pro Sandbox.

If you need more Developer or Developer Pro Sandboxes, they can be purchased at an additional cost.

Partial Copy Sandboxes are not included with any Salesforce Edition for free; they must always be purchased separately.

Full Sandboxes are only included for free with the Performance and Unlimited Editions, and each of these editions gets one Full Sandbox.

5. Sandbox templates

A sandbox template is a blueprint that defines what data should be included when you create a new sandbox. Templates can be particularly helpful when you're creating Partial Copy or Full sandboxes, as they allow you to select specific objects and data to be included, instead of copying everything from your production org. This can save storage space and make it easier to focus on specific areas during testing.

To create a new sandbox template in Salesforce, follow the below steps:

Step 1: Navigate to Setup > Sandboxes.
Step 2: Click on the Sandbox Templates >New Sandbox Template button.

Step 3: Fill in the template name and description fields.
Step 4: Choose which objects you want to include in your sandbox. You can include or exclude standard and custom objects. For each object, you can also specify whether to include all records, no records, or a defined subset of records.

choose objects to include in the sandbox

Note: If you are excluding an object, Salesforce will notify you that the related objects will also be removed.

Sandbox templates are powerful tools that can make your sandbox creation more efficient and targeted. They offer a flexible way to manage your Salesforce data and ensure that your testing and development environments are fit for purpose.

Note:

Sandbox templates only apply to Partial Copy and Full sandboxes. Developer and Developer Pro sandboxes always include a copy of all metadata, but no record data.

Sandbox templates include data as of the point when the sandbox is created or refreshed. If you want to test with the most current data, you'll need to refresh the sandbox.

6. Salesforce Sandbox as a backup solution?

A Sandbox isn't a backup solution in itself. (See the limitations of Salesforce Sandbox as a backup solution) While it can contain a replica of your data, it's primarily designed for testing and development. But it plays a crucial role in backup and recovery strategy. By testing your recovery process in a sandbox, you ensure that you can restore data accurately and efficiently when required.

For example, suppose you've accidentally deleted an Account object, including its related Contacts and Opportunities. You could use your sandbox to practice the restoration process: importing the data from your backup, checking that relationships between objects are preserved, and confirming that no data is missing or corrupted.

Refer to our in-depth admin guides to learn more about Salesforce backup and recovery process:

Admin's Guide to Salesforce Backup

Admin's Guide to Salesforce Metadata Backup

Admin's Guide to Salesforce Recovery

Pro tip

If you don't have access to a sandbox, Salesforce Developer Edition (DE) can be a valuable alternative for testing and development. This fully featured, standalone version of Salesforce is free and doesn't have the data restrictions that sandboxes do.

However, it doesn't include your org's data or metadata, so you'll need to manually recreate any necessary settings. For instance, if you're testing changes to a custom Opportunity object, you'll need to recreate that object, its fields, and any related automation in your DE org.

7. Optimize Your Salesforce Data Protection with SysCloud

When it comes to Salesforce data protection, cost and reliability are paramount. While Salesforce Sandboxes offer a testing and development environment, their high costs and unsuitability as a primary backup solution can be a significant barrier. Additional API calls, which further drive up costs, might seem like a necessity for data protection.

That's where SysCloud steps in. SysCloud provides comprehensive backup and granular restore capabilities fro Salesforce data at a fraction of the cost of additional Salesforce Sandboxes. Starting at just $3/user/month with no minimum billing, SysCloud offers an affordable and reliable backup solution for your Salesforce data and metadata. You don't need to worry about purchasing additional API calls; SysCloud is designed to work seamlessly with your existing Salesforce setup.

In this article

What is a Salesforce Sandbox?
Create a sandbox in Salesforce
Salesforce Sandbox Refresh
Salesforce Sandbox Availability and Costs
Sandbox templates
Salesforce Sandbox as a backup solution?
Optimize Salesforce Data Protection