Sandbox Environment – Zendesk

SkillSync LMS provides access to a Sandbox Environment, which is a near-exact replica of your Live Production Environment at the time of Sandbox creation. Some organizations call this a Stage or Staging Environment. The purpose of this environment is to test updates, new content, user imports, etc., and ensure the quality of these tests in a production-like environment before live deployment.

A Sandbox refresh updates the portal with the previous night's backup. Changes made on the refresh date will not be represented or captured in the data.

Important: Edits to the Sandbox Environment will not reflect in the corresponding Live Production Environment. Likewise, changes to the Live Environment will not impact the Sandbox Environment.

The Sandbox Environment is a snapshot of your Live Environment at the time of the sandbox creation.
Live data feeds do not exist between these two environments. You can request a Sandbox Environment refresh from our team to create a new, up-to-date copy of your Live Environment.

This action will overwrite any existing testing data within the Sandbox Environment.

Important Details

Sandbox Environments do not send emails: This lets you test features and course setups without worrying about Users receiving test messages.
- Be aware that the Forgot Password feature will not send out the usual email when initiated from a Sandbox Environment.
- Contact our team if you need assistance with a manual password reset.
  - If you are currently onboarding, please contact your Implementations Manager.
  - All other requests can be sent to SkillSync Support or your Client Success Manager.
Due to the Sandbox environment, we cannot guarantee performance standards, uptime guarantees, or disaster recovery procedures.
Not all of the content from your Live Production Environment is copied to the Sandbox Environment. Specifically:
- SCORM, TinCan (xAPI), and AICC courses will not launch.
- Videos will not launch.
- E-Commerce settings are not copied to Sandbox Environments.
- Single Sign-On (SSO) settings are not copied to Sandbox Environments. Unless SSO has been established with the Sandbox Environment, you must manually log in with your SkillSync-specific credentials.
Sandbox Environments will be deleted automatically without any activity for six months or longer.
If you have received a Demo Portal during the Sales process, this is different from the Sandbox Environment, and the Demo Portal will eventually be archived.
A sandbox refresh erases all sandbox data and replaces it with a copy of the production data. There is no option to do a 'partial' refresh.
Only Courses that either were created in the Sandbox environment or do not have files associated with them can be duplicated.

How to Access your Sandbox Environment

Once an SkillSync staff member has created your Sandbox Environment, they will contact you to provide the unique URL to access (company.sandbox.myabsorb.com).

You log in to the Sandbox Environment using your Live Production Environment credentials.
- A Sandbox Refresh updates your Sandbox Environment password to the current password used for the Live Environment.
- Remember, Sandbox Environments do not send emails. For this reason, the Password Reset workflow and automatic messages do not work for Sandbox Environments.
  - Contact our team if you need assistance with a manual password reset.
    - If you are currently onboarding, please contact your Implementations Manager.
    - All other requests can be sent to SkillSync Support or your Client Success Manager.

Note: If you are using incoming Single Sign-on (SSO) to access your Live Production Environment, you should confirm that you remember your Live Production Environment password and reset it if needed before requesting a Sandbox Environment. Changing your password in Production does not affect incoming SSO.