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Managing developer sandboxes for Box admins

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Developer sandboxes provide Box administrators with a sanctioned and traceable way to manage sandbox environments where developers can build and test applications on Box.


What is a developer sandbox?


Sandboxes are distinct environments associated with the parent enterprise. They are not clones, copies, or representations of a Box production environment. Each sandbox is a new, blank environment based on your existing plan that's ready for custom development and testing applications without any risk of it affecting the main production instance.

The add-ons and plans active in your enterprise’s production environment can be synced in the sandbox. For instance, if production uses the eAdvanced plan with Shield enabled, the sandbox can have the same plan and features activated. See section Synchronizing sandbox with production of this document to learn more.

Note

Sandboxes are included as part of a Box business plan or above. Your sandbox environment reflects your existing plan including add-on products such as Shield or Zones. You can have up to ten developer sandboxes in your enterprise. To create more, contact your Customer Support Manager.

Enterprise Admin vs Sandbox Admin

  • The enterprise admin is responsible for managing your company's main Box instance. The enterprise admin creates a developer sandbox within the main enterprise for custom app development and/or app testing purposes.
  • The sandbox's primary admin is the primary admin for the developer sandbox. Sandbox primary admins manage the sandbox and can add additional developers to the sandbox environment.

Creating a developer sandbox


If you're an enterprise admin or co-admin, use the Admin Console's Sandboxes page to create and manage your enterprise's developer sandbox environments.


To create a developer sandbox:

  1. In the Admin Console's left sidebar, click Platform.
  2. In the top-right corner, click Create Sandbox. .If you have no sandboxes, click Get Started on an interstitial informational page first.
  3. In the Create New Sandbox window, provide the following:
      • Sandbox Name: Enter a name for your sandbox.
      • Sandbox Description (optional): Provide information about the intended use of this sandbox.
      • Admin Sandbox Email: Box automatically generates a unique email address for a sandbox primary admin. It is used as a base for the sandbox admin's login.
      • Co-Admin Sandbox Email (optional): For any co-admins added, Box automatically generates a unique email address.
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  4. Click Create Sandbox. You will be prompted to accept terms and conditions to proceed. By accepting, you are stating that you are an authorized representative of your company, and that you agree to enter into the Sandbox Account Service Agreement on behalf of your company. Accepting the legal terms is required once only, so the message won’t appear when managing an existing sandbox.
  5. After creating the developer sandbox, Box sends a log-in email to the developer who you assigned as the sandbox's primary admin, and the sandbox appears in the sandbox management page. The email notification provides the user ID and prompts the sandbox's primary admin to create a new password to set up the sandbox account

After the sandbox's primary admin sets up the password, they can use the new sandbox credentials to log in by clicking Developer Console in the email, or by going to developer.box.com.

Note

If you want to sign in to a sandbox using SSO, change the email address in the account settings to a unique enterprise email after you create a sandbox.

The sandbox's primary admin can then create individual sandbox user accounts, giving developers access to a new Box environment that reflects the same plan as their parent Box enterprise.

Important

Deactivating a sandbox primary admin’s account in the production environment of your enterprise does not prevent them from logging into the sandbox. To remove their sandbox access you need to delete their account.

Sandbox developer console

Developers access the sandbox through the sandbox's developer console. The sandbox badge in the bottom-left corner of the developer console displays the name of the sandbox environment, letting developers know they're in a sandbox.

Synchronizing sandbox with production

To allow developers to use sandboxes with the same add-ons and plans as your production environment, you need to manually synchronize them.

To do so:

  1. Open the Admin Console.
  2. Click Platform in the sidebar.
  3. Hover over the sandbox you want to sync.
  4. Click the ellipsis button (...) to display the More Options menu.
  5. Select Sync.

Your sandbox then syncs with the add ons and plans on the production environment.

Whenever the add-ons and/or plans change in the production environment, an icon Sync with production appears on the sandboxes list. To synchronize your sandbox, perform the steps 4 and 5 from the list of steps above. 

Deleting a developer sandbox

As an enterprise admin or co-admin, you can also delete a sandbox. Once the sandbox is deleted:

  • it automatically becomes inactive and is archived,
  • developers can no longer log in to the developer sandbox, and
  • all data from the developer sandbox will no longer be accessible.

To delete a developer sandbox:

  1. In the Admin Console's left sidebar, click Platform. Box displays the Sandboxes window.
  2. In the Sandboxes window, hover on the sandbox's name and click "...".
  3. Select Delete Sandbox.

 

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