Working with Sandbox in Zoho Desk

Sandbox is a test environment where configurations can be evaluated before deploying them to the live account. The platform allows admins and developers to modify existing configurations, add or remove data, and set up new configurations to understand its impact on the process flows before implementation.

Key benefits of using Sandbox are:

Mitigate risk - Some use cases or implementations can cause data loss or hinder other processes from functioning; this kind of impact can be avoided by testing the cases before implementing them in the live account.

Resolve conflict - Certain changes can conflict with existing configurations, which can impact the overall flow and stall the essential processes. In Sandbox, you can make these changes and understand every conflict scenario that they bring, finding ways to resolve them before implementing.

Validate data - A detailed breakdown of the changes and the impact they will have on the live data can be viewed and evaluated in the Sandbox environment to allow only valid or qualified changes to be deployed. Sandbox automatically lists down the changes that are qualified based on conflict and issue analysis.

Implement changes in batches - New features, enhancements, or issue fixes that are huge can be broken down into smaller batches and implemented after thorough trial to ensure minimal impact on the existing data.

Availability

Permission Required
Users with Manage Sandbox permission can build a Sandbox and deploy the changes to the production account.
Check Availability and Limits

Building a Sandbox account

Using Sandbox to test, evaluate, and validate configurations is a simple five step process.

While creating a Sandbox, the admin can select the agents or teams that should have access to the account. Only those users will be allowed to use the Sandbox account and deploy the changes into the production account. An email notification is sent to these users along with the access URL once the Sandbox account is successfully created.

To build a Sandbox account

Go to Setup > Data Administration > Sandbox.
Click Build Sandbox.
In the Sandbox creation page, enter the Name of the Sandbox.
Enter the Description, if required.
In Set Permissions, select Agents or Teams.
Click Create.
You will receive an email notification with the access URL once the account is created.

Points to remember

Sandbox is available in Enterprise edition.
Currently, only one Sandbox account can be created.
While all the configurations under Setup can be tested in Sandbox, ONLY the configurations under customization and automation mentioned below can be deployed to the production account.

Layouts and fields, time tracking, modules, templates.
Assignment rules, notify, workflows, skills, blueprint, macros, supervise, and schedules.

Only those agents and teams that are given access to the Sandbox during creation have the permission to test and trial. However, users need Manage Sandbox permission to deploy the changes to the production account.
Sandbox mode is displayed on the top panel to help distinguish it from the live account.
The Sandbox will replicate the live account and display all the features under Setup. It will display the same list of modules on the top panel as the live account, however the records in the modules will not be populated. Users can manually add or import records if required.

Data that will not be copied from production to Sandbox

Modules	Records from the modules will not be copied. It can be added manually or imported. Sample data can be populated.
Company	Details will not be copied.
Channels	Support Emails Social (DMs, tweets, conversations) Chat Community Phone ASAP Web Forms
Zia	Sentiment analysis Field predictions Auto tags Suggested replies (reply assistant) Anomaly predictions
Guided Conversation	Flows will not be copied.
Marketplace	Extensions Integrations

Testing and validating data

The admin who created the Sandbox account and the agents or teams who are given permission to access it, will be sent an email notification with the access URL to the Sandbox account.

Configurations that can be tested	Description
Departments	Departments created in the production account will be copied to Sandbox and can be tested.
Emails	Default email address will be auto-generated (eg., username@sandbox.zohosupport.com) for the default department. Email addresses can be created for the other departments that are added by the users.
Templates	Email and ticket templates can be created.
Channels	Other channels can be created and tested. However, the email addresses or social handles configured in the production account cannot be used in Sandbox.
Notifications	Email notifications will be sent to the recipients. Workflow notifications will be sent to the primary recipient only. Notifications will not be sent to the additional recipients.
Modules	Modules can be created Modules can be organized, enabled, and disabled. Records can be imported or manually added.
Profiles and permission	All profiles and roles will be copied from the production account and can be tested.
Customization	Fields and layouts can be created. Layout rules Validation rules Field dependency Ticket status and time tracking Custom module - creation, customizations, and automations.
Automation	All automations, including Blueprint can be created and tested.
Import/export	Data import and export can be tested and validated.

Data that cannot be tested in Sandbox

Agents - Agents cannot be added and existing agents cannot be disabled.
Data backup cannot be performed.

Deploying changes to production

Users with manage sandbox permission can deploy the changes to the production account. Sandbox allows users to test and evaluate all configurations, however only selected changes can be deployed to the live account. The changes that can be deployed are listed under Change Set.

Changes that can be deployed to the production account are:

Customization

Automation

Layouts

Layout rules

Validation rules

Field dependencies

Fields
Customizations in custom modules

Time tracking

Renaming modules

Templates

Assignment rules

Notification rules

Workflow rules

Skills

Blueprint

Macros

Supervise

Schedules
Automations in custom modules

Note

Mapping of ticket status with the state will not be deployed.
Changes can be deployed only one at a time.

Users can either deploy all or selected changes to production. During deployment, the system will analyze the changes, and the valid changes will be marked as qualified. These qualified changes will be successfully deployed to the live account. The remaining changes will be marked as conflict. Users can resolve the conflict by making the necessary edits before deploying.

Some common reasons for conflicts can be:

Duplication of name such as templates or template folders.
Deletion of record in the live account.
Record updated in both Sandbox and live environment.
Exceeding limit such as number of fields.
Duplicate module

To deploy changes to production

Go to the Sandbox account and navigate to Setup > Data Administration > Sandbox.
Click the Change Set tab.
Select the list of changes or click Deploy All Changes Production.
The system will validate and list the qualified changes and conflicts
Click Proceed Qualified.
Click View Details to see the conflicts.
Click Ok, on the deployed successful message.

Viewing the deployed changes

In the production account, the changes that have been deployed will be listed down under Deployment Logs. The deployed changes can also be viewed under the Audit log in the live account.

Live account

Audit log

Rebuilding Sandbox

In some cases, admins may have to rebuild a sandbox. Some common reasons can be:

New modifications or configurations done in the production account can be pushed into a rebuilt Sandbox account for testing and validation.
Discard the changes that have been previously carried out in the Sandbox account.

Note that rebuilding a Sandbox account will also delete the records that were previously copied from the live account.

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