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Understand NetSuite Sandbox Refresh Timing

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This article is relevant if you are curious about how NetSuite creates sandbox environments to help you plan your sandbox activation strategy.

Background

As a NetSuite Systems Integrator, we are frequently working with our clients’ sandbox environments as we enhance and help our clients test new capacities.  While the sandbox creation process can be a bit mysterious, over the 10+ years working with the platform, the NetSuite sandbox activation process has indeed become more predictable.  The goal is to help illuminate what is happening in the NetSuite sandbox generation process to help you plan.

The NetSuite Sandbox Activation Process

The following is our observation of how the Sandbox activation process behaves.  While we really do not know what is going on behind the scenes, we speculate this is correct as it appears to produce a reliable planning practice:

  1. Midnight Backup: NetSuite appears to backup all the account databases on a nightly basis.  This backup is called a database snapshot.  NetSuite uses this backup to supply the snapshot which will serve as the new sandbox.  It’s not quite clear, in my mind, in which timezone this happens but I suspect it is staggered according to the account settings.
  2. Request Sandbox: request NetSuite that you would like a sandbox refresh.  This sets up the process.  The sandbox does not get produced immediately.  The existing sandbox, if there is one, will still be able to be used.
  3. Notification: an email is sent to the requestor indicating that the new sandbox is ready to be activated.  The program will select the last snapshot that currently exists.
  4. Activation: the requestor can now go into the sandbox status page and activate the new sandbox.  This will effectively clobber or overwrite the existing sandbox.

Planning for NetSuite Sandbox Refreshes

Many times, we are under pressure to get elements configured in the production system so that we may enjoy them when the sandbox refresh is finished.  It’s usually good to give yourself a day in between your setup work and the nightly backup.   It is because that nightly backup is going to serve as the sandbox refresh.  Our basic practice is to finish all of our work today, let the database backup overnight, and then the next working day, make the request.  We then wait for the email notification that we can activate the sandbox.  Thus, we generally sense we need to get a day between us before we have a good working sandbox.

Click on the related images to see more about the process.

Work with NetSuite Professionals

My hope is that these simple rules help you plan our your NetSuite sandbox activation strategy.  If you found this article relevant, feel free to sign up for notification of new posts.   If you would like to work with NetSuite professionals, let’s have a conversation.

Marty Zigman

Holding all three official certifications, Marty is regarded as the top NetSuite expert and leads a team of senior professionals at Prolecto Resources, Inc. He is a former Deloitte & Touche CPA and has held CTO roles. For over 30 years, Marty has produced leadership in ERP, CRM and eCommerce business systems. Contact Marty to set up a conversation.

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About Marty Zigman

Marty Zigman

Holding all three official certifications, Marty is regarded as the top NetSuite expert and leads a team of senior professionals at Prolecto Resources, Inc. He is a former Deloitte & Touche CPA and has held CTO roles. For over 30 years, Marty has produced leadership in ERP, CRM and eCommerce business systems. Contact Marty to set up a conversation.

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