Overview

Simpplr Sandbox gives your organization a private, isolated copy of your production environment. You can use it to test new features, train users, build integrations, and try out configuration changes, all without touching live data or affecting the experience of anyone using Simpplr day to day.

Everything in your production environment is copied into the sandbox: your content, configurations, users, and settings. Changes made in the sandbox stay in the sandbox. When you are done, or when you want a fresh start, you can refresh the sandbox to create a new copy from production.

What you can use it for

Testing before you go live

Before rolling out a new feature or a significant configuration change, you can validate everything in the sandbox first. Your quality assurance team can run tests against a realistic, complete copy of your environment and confirm that nothing breaks before the change reaches your employees.

Integration and performance testing

If your organization connects Simpplr to other systems, such as an HR system, a CRM, or an analytics tool, the sandbox gives your developers a production-like environment to test those connections. They can verify that data flows correctly and that the integration behaves as expected, without any risk to the live environment.

Training and onboarding

Customer success and enablement teams can use the sandbox to run hands-on training sessions for new users or to demonstrate new features to stakeholders. Because the sandbox contains a copy of real content and configurations, the experience feels genuine without anyone needing to worry about accidentally changing something important.

Safe configuration and customization

Administrators can experiment with new settings, workflows, and automations in the sandbox before applying them to production. If something does not work as expected, nothing is lost and nothing is disrupted for your employees.

How it works

Creating a sandbox

When sandbox is created, Simpplr makes a complete copy of your production environment. This includes your content, your user accounts and permissions, your site structures, and your configurations. The copy is placed in a separate, isolated environment that has its own web address and behaves independently from production.

The sandbox stays in the same geographic region as your production environment. This ensures your data does not cross regional boundaries, which matters for organizations with data residency requirements.

What happens to sensitive information

To prevent accidental emails, messages, or notifications from going out to real users, Simpplr automatically applies two protections when a sandbox is created or refreshed:

• Sandbox environments contain the same user details, including email addresses and phone numbers as these are copied from the production.

• All outbound notifications, including emails, are turned off by default. Users working in the sandbox will not accidentally send communications to real employees.

Refreshing a sandbox

A refresh creates a completely fresh copy of your production environment in the sandbox. It replaces everything that was there before with the latest state of production. This is useful when you want to start a new round of testing with up-to-date content and configurations.

Important notes:

• The old sandbox is deleted as soon as the refresh starts. There is no overlap between the old and new sandbox.

• You cannot have more than one sandbox active at a time.

• Each refresh is a full replacement, not an update. Any changes you made in the sandbox since the last refresh will be lost. Plan your testing cycles accordingly and save any notes or results you want to keep before refreshing.

You can refresh your sandbox once every 30 days. This limit balances the infrastructure needed to run a full copy operation with your testing needs.

API access

For teams that manage deployments and testing through automated pipelines, Simpplr Sandbox provides API access. You can use the API to create and refresh sandboxes programmatically, and to retrieve information about your sandbox such as when it was created and when the next refresh becomes available.

What's included

Who can manage a sandbox

Contact your Customer Success Manager (CSM) to create, refresh, or delete a sandbox.

Before requesting a refresh, keep in mind that refreshing a sandbox replaces its current content with a new copy of your production environment.

Users working in the sandbox do not need any additional permissions beyond their existing Simpplr access. The sandbox uses the same access controls as your production environment, so users can access only the content they are authorized to view.

Troubleshooting

If something does not work as expected with your sandbox, the situations below cover what may have happened and what to do.

The sandbox creation or refresh is taking a long time

• What happened: Creating or refreshing a sandbox involves copying your entire production environment, which is a significant operation. For large environments, this can take up to approximately 24 hours.

• What to do: Allow the operation time to complete. You will receive an email confirmation when it is done. The status page in the admin console also shows the current progress. If the operation appears stuck for longer than expected, contact Simpplr support.

The refresh failed and my sandbox looks different from what I expected

• What happened: If a refresh fails partway through, the sandbox is kept in its state from before the refresh started. No partial data is left in between.

• What to do: Check the status page in the admin console for any error information. Try the refresh again if the 30-day interval allows it. If errors persist, contact Simpplr support with the details shown on the status page.

Real emails are going out from the sandbox

• What happened: Outbound notifications are disabled by default when a sandbox is created or refreshed. If emails are going out, a setting may have been changed inside the sandbox after it was created.

• What to do: Go to the notification settings in the sandbox admin console and confirm outbound communications are turned off. Do not enable outbound notifications in the sandbox unless you are deliberately testing notification delivery in a controlled way and have confirmed that real users will not be affected.

The Refresh option is not available

• What happened: Sandboxes can be refreshed once every 30 days. If the option is unavailable, the minimum interval since the last refresh has not yet passed.

• What to do: Check the status page in the admin console to see the next eligible refresh date. Plan your testing cycles around the available refresh windows.

A user in the sandbox cannot see content they can see in production

• What happened: The sandbox uses the same access controls as production, so users should see the same content they are authorized to see. However, because contact details are masked, any access that depends on matching a user's email address to a record may not work as expected.

• What to do: Confirm the user's role and permissions in the sandbox admin console. If the access issue relates to email-based matching or user sync behavior, this is expected given that contact details are masked in the sandbox.

Frequently asked questions

Q: What exactly gets copied when a sandbox is created or refreshed?

Ans: A complete copy of your production environment is made, including your content, user accounts, permissions, site structures, and configurations. The copy is a full snapshot of production at the time the sandbox was created or refreshed.

Q: Will employees receive emails or notifications from the sandbox?

Ans: No. Outbound notifications including emails are turned off by default when a sandbox is created or refreshed. Contact details such as email addresses and phone numbers are also masked, so even if a notification were triggered, it would not reach a real person.

Q: What happens to the data I have built up in the sandbox when I refresh?

Ans: A refresh replaces everything in the sandbox with a fresh copy of production. Any work, changes, or data you have built up in the sandbox since the last refresh will be permanently overwritten. Save anything you want to keep before refreshing.

Q: Can I choose to copy only some of my data into the sandbox?

Ans: Not in this release. Simpplr Sandbox is a full copy, meaning it copies everything from production. Selective data copying, where you choose which content to include, is not currently supported.

Q: How long does a refresh take?

Ans: Refresh time depends on the size of your environment. For large organizations, a refresh can take up to approximately 24 hours. You will receive an email confirmation when the refresh is complete.

Q: How often can I refresh my sandbox?

Ans: You can refresh your sandbox once every 30 days. The status page in the admin console shows when the next refresh becomes available.

Q: Can I have more than one sandbox?

Ans: One sandbox is included by default. Contact your Customer Success Manager to ask about additional sandboxes if your organization needs more than one.

Q: Is my sandbox in the same region as my production environment?

Ans: Yes. Your sandbox stays in the same geographic region as your production environment. This ensures your data does not cross regional boundaries, which is important for organizations with data residency or compliance requirements.

Q: Can the sandbox be used to push changes back to production?

Ans: Not directly. Simpplr Sandbox does not include a way to promote changes from the sandbox back to production automatically. If you need to move configuration changes to production, use Simpplr's existing migration tools.

Q: Who should have access to manage the sandbox?

Ans: Only administrators who understand the impact of a refresh should have the sandbox management permission. Refreshing the sandbox permanently overwrites all existing sandbox content, so this action should not be taken lightly.