Sandboxes Overview

About

Sandboxes allow administrators to experiment with various Insightly features, such as role based security, lead routing, or workflow automation, without affecting or altering their organization’s account. Sandboxes can be created in Insightly CRM, Insightly Marketing, and Insightly Service on Enterprise plans. AppConnect and other integrations are not supported in this feature. Read Sandboxes FAQs to learn more.

In the Article

How Do Sandboxes Work?

Creating a sandbox in Insightly will create a copy of the account with a portion of its data. After setup, users can then log into that sandbox account and make changes without endangering their account. The sandbox will be configured to match the account’s System Settings, metadata, custom fields, custom objects, permissions, workflow rules, lead assignment rules, and any other configuration settings. Multiple sandboxes can be created, but only one can be processed and created at a time.

When an administrator creates a new sandbox instance, all users will be copied and added to the sandbox. SAML and OAuth SSO are not supported in all sandboxes, so users will need to use the standard log in located above those options. If the user has an SSO account, they will need an administrator to create a standard Insightly account for them to log in.

How to Login to Sandboxes

To log in, users will enter their log in email with a period and the sandbox name in the email field. For example, if a sandbox is named doe, a user’s email address could be john@gmail.com.doe. The password for a user’s sandbox account is the same as their main account.

Logging In to Multiple Accounts

Users cannot login to their main Insightly account as well as their sandbox account concurrently.

Sandbox Status

When reviewing existing sandboxes in System Settings > Sandboxes, they will have one of the following statuses:

  • Ready: The sandbox is ready for use.
  • Processing: The sandbox is in the process of being created.
  • Pending: The sandbox will begin processing once the other sandboxes ahead of it in the queue have finished processing.

Limits

  • By default, only one sandbox is available. Subsequent sandboxes must be purchased. If the limit is met, the New Sandbox button will be disabled and will display the following text: You have reached the maximum number of sandboxes available for your instance.
  • The record limit is 5,000.
  • The storage limit is 500 MB.
  • The current number of sandboxes and the maximum number of sandboxes that can be added can be found on the account billing page.

How to Create a Sandbox

Administrators can create one sandbox account at a time; subsequent sandboxes will be processed in order of submission once the sandbox ahead of it in the queue has finished processing. The sandbox accounts will have the name of the sandbox appended to the end of the original account name.

  1. Navigate to System Settings > Sandboxes.
  2. Click the New Sandbox button.
  3. Enter a name in the Sandbox Name field box.
    1. The Sandbox Name must only contain letters and numbers and hyphens, with no spaces or other characters. It must be at least 5 characters.
  4. Enter a description in the Description field box.
  5. Select a Sandbox Type.
    1. Test sandboxes replicate a maximum of 10 records per object from the source account to the sandbox. The sandbox's expiration date is set to one year from the created date. 
  6. Click Create Sandbox.

How to Delete a Sandbox

A warning will appear before the deletion process can be completed. Once a sandbox has been deleted, its data can not be recovered.

  1. Navigate to System Settings > Sandboxes.
  2. Click the three dots menu of the sandbox you want to delete.
  3. Select Delete Sandbox.
    1. A sandbox can only be deleted if it is in the Ready state. The option to delete the sandbox will disabled in the menu otherwise. A sandbox can not be restored after deletion and its data is not recoverable.
  4. The Delete Sandbox page will appear issuing the following warning: 
    Warning: Deleting a sandbox deletes all record data, system settings, and configuration options contained within that sandbox for all users.
    • There is no undelete on sandboxes and the deletion will be permanent.
  5. Click Delete Sandbox.
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