Managing developer sandboxes for Box admins

Developer sandboxes provide Box administrators with a sanctioned and traceable way to manage—create, track, and delete—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 (business plan or above) that's ready for custom development and testing applications without any risk of it affecting the main production instance.

Creating a developer sandbox

If you're an enterprise admin or co-admin, the Admin Console enables you to create up to ten developer sandbox environments at a time, and later delete them.

Using the Admin Console's Sandboxes page, you can quickly, easily, and independently create and manage your enterprise's developer sandbox environments.

To create a developer sandbox:

1. In the Admin Console's left sidebar, click Platform. Box displays the Sandboxes window.
2. In the top-right corner, click Create Sandbox. (If you have no sandboxes, you may have to click Get Started on an interstitial informational page first.) Box displays the Create New Sandbox window.
   
3. In the Create New Sandbox window:
   • in Sandbox Name, type a unique name for the sandbox,
   • in Primary Admin Name, type the name of the primary admin. The primary admin is the developer who acts as the sandbox's admin,
   • in Primary Admin Email, type the primary admin's email address.
     IMPORTANT: Each sandbox you create must have a unique Primary Admin Email value—the same Primary Admin Email value cannot belong to multiple sandboxes—and cannot be an email value of an existing Box managed user. This would require your organization to create a new email address for the purpose of the sandbox. If this is not possible, a personal email can be used, though Box doesn't recommend this.
     
4. In the bottom of the window, click Create Sandbox. Box displays a green notification that your sandbox is successfully created.

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 now appears in the sandbox management page.

Up to ten developer sandboxes can simultaneously exist in your enterprise. To create more, please contact your Customer Support Manager.

The sandbox's primary admin sets up the sandbox account

After you set up the sandbox, Box sends an email to the sandbox's primary admin, who now manages the newly-provisioned sandbox. 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.

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.

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.

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.