- Article
- 11 minutes to read
You can create environments of different types. Which type of environment to choose depends on what you need it for.
Tip
If you're new to environments, get an overview of how Azure Active Directory, environments, and companies work in Business Central online at Understanding the infrastructure of Business Central online.
Production environments
Production environments are meant to be precisely that: Environments that a business can run their daily business in Business Central in, deployed on performance tiers in Azure with a guaranteed high level of availability and support.
Production environments are backed up automatically and frequently to help protect business data. For more information, see How often are production databases backed up?.
You can create additional production environments for training or performance testing, for example. However, for training purposes, in many cases organizations will prefer to create a sandbox environment with production data. You can also create additional production environments to support offices in different countries.
Note
The Premium and Essential subscription types give each Business Central customer one production environment and three sandbox environment free of extra charge. If the customer requires more production environments, they can buy additional environments through their CSP partner. Each additional production environment comes with three additional sandbox environments and 4 GB additional, tenant-wide database capacity. In addition, starting in 2023 release wave 2, there's a limit on how many companies you can have on a single tenant (see Operational limits).
Administrators can create the additional environments in the Business Central administration center. The environments can be created and used in any country or region where Business Central is available, including the countries or regions where the customer's existing environments are running. The environments quota is applied when you try to create a new environment, or copy an existing environment, in the Business Central administration center.
Note
A production environment can have a state of suspended if the subscription has been suspended, or if the environment has not been accessed for a long time. In those cases, you can only publish extensions to such an environment if it only has evaluation companies. If the suspended environment has been used for actual production so that it contains companies that are not evaluation companies, then you cannot publish extensions to it.
Manage production environments
Use the Business Central administration center to manage the environments manually. For more information, see Managing Production and Sandbox Environments.
Instead, use the Administration Center API.
Sandbox environments
Sandbox environments are meant to be precisely that: Environments that you can play around with, use as a testbed for development, and delete at will. You can deploy apps straight from Visual Studio Code to a sandbox environment, and you can attach a debugging session to a sandbox.
Important
Apps that are published to a sandbox from the development environment or created using Designer are published within the scope of the service node that hosts the environment. When the sandbox is upgraded, these apps are removed because the environment is moved to another node that is running the new version. However, the data of the app is not removed, so you only have to re-publish and install the app to make it available.
Apps that are uploaded to the environments of both types (production and sandbox) using the Upload Extension action from the Extension Management page are published within a global scope. When the environment is upgraded or moved, these apps are downloaded to the service node and installed, which means that they will not disappear.
You can also safely use sandboxes for training, such as for following a learning path from Microsoft Learn, because it's a safe environment to experiment with. If anything goes wrong, you just delete the sandbox and start over.
Important
The automatic backup that applies to production environments does not apply to sandbox environments. If you want to export data from a sandbox environment, you can use Excel or RapidStart, but you cannot request a database export.
You can create a sandbox environment that includes data from your production environment for debugging purposes, for example. But if you want to run performance tests, or similar benchmarking, the sandbox is not reliable enough for that purpose. This is because sandboxes run in a different performance tier on Azure than production environments. Instead, create a dedicated environment based on the Production environment type - this gives you the exact experience and performance that users will experience in the actual production environment.
Sandbox environments are handy for certain types of development scenarios because the debugging endpoint is open by default. This means that you can attach Visual Studio Code to a running system and debug through running code. It also allows you to publish directly to the environment from Code.
If your organization has more than one sandbox environment, you can switch between environments by opening the App Launcher, choosing the Dynamics 365 tile, then choose the Business Central Sandbox tile. The sandbox environment picker shows the available sandboxes, so choose the one that you want to switch to.
Note
The Premium and Essential subscription types give each Business Central customer one production environment and three sandbox environment free of extra charge. If the customer requires more production environments, they can buy additional environments through their CSP partner. Each additional production environment comes with three additional sandbox environments and 4 GB additional, tenant-wide database capacity. In addition, starting in 2023 release wave 2, there's a limit on how many companies you can have on a single tenant (see Operational limits).
Administrators can create the additional environments in the Business Central administration center. The environments can be created and used in any country or region where Business Central is available, including the countries or regions where the customer's existing environments are running. The environments quota is applied when you try to create a new environment, or copy an existing environment, in the Business Central administration center.
Partner sandboxes
As a partner, you can buy the Dynamics 365 Business Central Partner Sandbox license. You'll need a valid Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) ID. You must also have at least five employees who will use the partner sandboxes that you create using this license. This offer was made available in February 2022 to support partners that need non-production environments to learn, test, and deliver end-to-end customer demos with their solutions. The Partner Sandbox license gives access to Business Central Premium functionality.
Important
The environments that you acquire through the Dynamics 365 Business Central Partner Sandbox license are strictly meant for use only on the partner’s tenant. You are not allowed to use this license in a customer tenant, nor in a production environment.
Use the Partner Sandbox license for an Microsoft 365 account that does not currently have a Business Central license. This gets you 1 production environment + 3 sandboxes. Alternatively, use the Partner Sandbox license to replace existing Business Central licenses in an existing environment; however, the license will not give you any additional environments on top of the environments you already had.
Partners can purchase the unique, partner-only license via Web Direct to create flexible, cost-effective solutions that do not expire. Accessing the SKUs and pricing is simple: Go to experience.dynamics.com and submit a request for the Dynamics 365 Business Central Partner Sandbox license. Use a valid MPN ID. Once your request is approved, you receive a token to purchase the SKUs directly. Pay by credit card. If the total billing is over $500/month for your company, then you can pay by invoice.
Precautions for sandbox environments with production data
When an environment is created as a copy of another environment, a number of precautions are taken for that copy:
Tasks in the job queue are automatically stopped
To see which scheduled jobs are stopped, and to decide which jobs to restart in the new environment, go to the Scheduled Tasks page in Business Central. There, you can set tasks to be ready to run in the job queue. However, only tasks that are marked as belonging to the current environment can run. For more information, see View Scheduled Tasks in the business functionality content.
Any base application integration settings are cleared
Any irreversible features that were enabled in the original environment will also be turned on in the copy. For more information, see Features that can't be turned off.
Development extensions that are published from AL-Go for GitHub or Azure DevOps and any extensions that depend on them are uninstalled when the source environment is a sandbox. Any data that was created in the original environment by the extensions that are now uninstalled in the copy will not be deleted. Any updates to per-tenant extensions that are slotted to be upgraded with the next minor or major upgrade will be retained.
Outbound HTTP calls from extensions are blocked by default and must be approved for each extension, otherwise instead of an external call, the system will display the following error message: The request was blocked by the runtime to prevent accidental use of production services.
To enable outbound HTTP calls, go to the Extension Management page in Business Central, and choose Configure. Then, on the Extension Settings page, make sure that Allow HttpClient Requests is selected. This setting must be enabled for each extension, including libraries.
(Video) Create your Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central sandboxAny General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) action must be handled separately and repeated for the environment. There is no synchronization with the original environment after the copy has been created.
The internal administrator has the same tools and responsibilities for the copy as they do for the original environment. As a data processor, Business Central offers the same level of data protection and data handling restrictions to all types of environments, both sandboxes and production environments.
- The following setups are set to status disabled
- Doc. Exch. Service Setup
- Curr. Exch. Rate Update Setup
- VAT Reg. No. Srv Config
- Graph Mail Setup
- CRM Connection Setup
- CDS Connection Setup
- All records in the Service Connection table
- All records in the Exchange Sync table
- The following data is cleared
- Password in the OCR Service Setup table
- SMTP Server in SMTP Mail Setup
- Exchange Service URL in the Marketing Setup table
- The following changes are made for first-party extensions
- AMC Banking 365 Fundamentals
- The Service URL in AMC Banking Setup is reset to default for Sandbox environments
- Email - Outlook REST API
- All email accounts of types "Microsoft 365" and "Current User" are deleted. Deleting these records turns any existing field monitoring setup non-valid.
- Email - SMTP Connector
- SMTP Server details are deleted
- AMC Banking 365 Fundamentals
- The following changes are made for specific localizations
- Spain
- SII Setup is set to disabled
- United Kingdom
- Password in GovTalk Setup table is deleted
- Netherlands
- All Digipoort related fields in the Elec. Tax Declaration Setup table are cleared
- Spain
Manage sandbox environments
Use the Business Central administration center to manage the environments manually. For more information, see Managing Production and Sandbox Environments.
Alternatively, use the Administration Center API.
Pre-sales performance evaluation
If you want to provide a prospect with an online environment where you want to demonstrate the performance and reliability of Business Central online in addition to demonstrating functionality, you must take a few extra steps.
To demonstrate the functionality of the default version of Business Central, without focusing on performance, you can quite simply use your own trial experience based on a Microsoft 365 demo account. We recommend that you show the full functionality of the default version by switching the tenant to the 30 day trial and the associated My Company. You can then enable the Premium user experience in the new My Company's Company Information page, populate the new company with the data required for their evaluation scenarios, and present the environment to the prospect.
To demonstrate the functionality of the service, with a focus on performance, you can take the same step as outlined above, but then also sign up the prospect for the Business Central Premium Trial offer that is available through your CSP access in the Partner Center, wait 24 hours, and then run your performance evaluation. For more information, see Preparing Test Environments of Dynamics 365 Business Central.
That 30 day trial is as close to an actual production environment performance as you can get. You only have those 29 days to run your tests and convince the prospect, of course, but provided that you have prepared everything in advance, it should give you time enough.
If the prospect is convinced and decides to buy Business Central, you can then either let them keep the environment that they are currently using, or create a new production environment for them. If the tenant is yours rather than the prospect's, then a new tenant will be provided to them.
For more information about performance and Business Central, see Performance Overview.
Advanced user experience
It is possible to enable and try the full functionality of the standard version of Business Central in a sandbox environment by setting the Experience field on the Company Information page to Premium. Find the Company Information page in the 
menu in Business Central. However, we recommend that you as the admin set up dedicated demonstration environments instead. For more information, see Preparing Demonstration Environments.
Complete sample data
The standard demonstration company in Business Central includes sample data for a limited number of scenarios. You can also create a new company with the Advanced Evaluation - Complete Sample Data option. In this type of company, users can take training or step through walkthroughs that require more sample data, such as Walkthrough: Receiving and Putting Away in Basic Warehouse Configurations. This sample data is different from the standard sample data, and we advise that you do not capture and share screenshots with this advanced sample data.
For more information, see Creating New Companies in Business Central in the business functionality content.
See also
Managing Environments in the Administration Center
Preparing Demonstration Environments
Preparing Test Environments
Steps to set up a sandbox environment and Visual Studio Code
Get started with the Container Sandbox Development Environment
FAQs
What is the difference between sandbox and production environments? ›
The main difference between Sandbox and Production is the data that is returned by the APIs. In Sandbox test data is returned while in Production live data is returned. The Sandbox environment enables you to develop and test your application.
What is the difference between sandbox and production environment in Dynamics 365? ›The only difference is that Sandbox supports manage the instance like delete,add,reset or copy and production does not support. Production instance is considered as your LIVE environment which was made available to your end users and You cannot perform some admin actions on your Production instances. Hope it helps.
What is sandbox environment in Business Central? ›With Business Central online, you can easily get a safe environment where you can test, train, or troubleshoot without disturbing your company's work processes or business data. Such a non-production environment is called a sandbox.
What is production environment in Business Central? ›Production environments are meant to be precisely that: Environments that a business can run their daily business in Business Central in, deployed on performance tiers in Azure with a guaranteed high level of availability and support.
How do you know if its sandbox or production? ›If you want to know that about current environment you can query IsSandbox field from Organization object. [select IsSandbox from Organization limit 1]; IsSandbox Indicates whether the current organization is a sandbox (true) or production (false) instance.
How do I know if Salesforce is sandbox or production? ›- Look at your URL, if you log in at test.salesforce.com it's sandbox - and will bring you to csX.salesforce.com (x replaced with a number). ...
- Sandbox is not a stand-alone product, you need to have a Production SFDC org in order to get a Sandbox.
Sandbox environments can be converted to production environments, and production environments can also be converted to sandbox environments (and then reset).
What is production and sandbox environment in Salesforce? ›A sandbox is a copy of your organization in a separate environment that you can use for a variety of purposes, such as testing and training. Sandboxes are completely isolated from your Salesforce production organization. The operations you perform in your sandboxes don't affect your Salesforce production organization.
What is the purpose of a sandbox environment? ›In the world of cybersecurity, a sandbox environment is an isolated virtual machine in which potentially unsafe software code can execute without affecting network resources or local applications. Cybersecurity researchers use sandboxes to run suspicious code from unknown attachments and URLs and observe its behavior.
Which environments are called as sandbox environments? ›A sandbox environment is any non-production environment of Microsoft Dataverse. Isolated from production, a sandbox environment is the place to safely develop and test application changes with low risk.
What are sandbox staging production environments? ›
A staging environment is essentially a test sandbox or a close replica of a live production environment where developers can freely test software. Even though staging and production environments are very similar, they are completely separate.
What is the difference between sandbox and production environment in Powerapps? ›Apart from the sandbox being used for development and prod for Go Live, there is one major technical difference which is you can not register C# plugins assemblies pipeline events on Production, it has to register and test only on Sandbox, and with Solution deployment, Plugin Assembly will be to move into production.
What are the different production environments? ›The main three environments are: development, stage, and production.
What is considered a production environment? ›Simply put, a production environment is where the latest versions of software, products, or updates are pushed live to the intended users. Think of it as a final phase of production. This is the environment where the end user can see, experience, and interact with the new product.
How to convert Sandbox to production in Business Central? ›To change the environment type:
From the left-side menu, select Environments, and then select an environment to change. Select Convert to production or Convert to sandbox. Select Continue. On the confirmation page, select OK.
- #1 Native Method: Using Data Loader to Copy Data from Production to Sandbox.
- #2 Sandbox Refresh to Copy Metadata from Production to Sandbox.
- #3 Templating: Sandbox Cloning for a Production-like Template.
- #4 ETL Testing.
- Login to the target organization.
- Navigate to Setup and enter Change Set into the Quick Find box.
- Click Inbound Change Sets.
- Under "Change Sets Awaiting Deployment," click your Change Set's name.
- Click Validate to validate the components. ...
- Click Deploy.
- From Setup, enter Sandboxes in the Quick Find box, then select Sandboxes.
- Click New Sandbox.
- Enter a name (10 characters or fewer) and description for the sandbox. ...
- Select the type of sandbox you want. ...
- Select the data to include in your Partial Copy or Full sandbox.
As a consequence, Sandboxes tend to run slower. Sometimes they simply crawl. @crmprogdev - yes, it makes sense to a degree. > 100 seconds to save single file is a showstopper.
Can we deploy from production to sandbox in Salesforce? ›Yes, you can deploy change sets between any two orgs tied to the production instance, including from a Production instance to a Sandbox.
Can we deploy users from sandbox to production in Salesforce? ›
You can migrate configuration changes from your sandbox to production using Salesforce Change Sets. Change Sets are a convenient way to move configuration changes from one Salesforce org to another, and only includes changes you make under the Setup menu in Salesforce. No record data is included.
What are the major drawbacks of sandbox? ›| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| No unauthorized data access to the host system | Complex sandbox tools are costly and require lots of resources |
| No conflict between programs or operating system and programs | |
| Secure online browser by protecting against malware |
Refreshing a sandbox updates its metadata from the source org. If the sandbox is a clone or if it uses a sandbox template, the refresh process updates the org's data and its metadata.
What do you need to consider when deploying from a sandbox to production? ›- Log in to Target Organization.
- Navigate to set up then change set to Quick Find box.
- You need to click the Inbound change sets.
- Click the name of your Change set under the “Change Sets Awaiting Deployment”
- Click the “Validate” in validating components.
Salesforce Environments that have active paying users accessing business critical data are known as Production Environments. It stores the live data that is actively used to run the business. Custom Force.com application can be developed for: Own production use.
What is sandbox in production? ›A sandbox is a testing environment that isolates untested code changes and outright experimentation from the production environment or repository, in the context of software development including Web development, Automation and revision control.
What is the purpose of sandbox in Salesforce? ›A sandbox is a copy of your organization in a separate environment that you can use for a variety of purposes, such as testing and training. Sandboxes are completely isolated from your Salesforce production organization. The operations you perform in your sandboxes don't affect your Salesforce production organization.
What are the two types of sandboxes? ›- Developer Sandbox. A Developer Sandbox is the simplest and smallest Sandbox. ...
- Developer Pro Sandbox. ...
- Partial Copy Sandbox. ...
- Full Sandbox.
UAT (the environment) might be "level" with production, and is essentially a sandbox for users to try new features with. UAT (the environment) might be "ahead" of production, so that new features are not deployed to production until they have been evaluated.
What is the difference between sandbox and test environment? ›Test environments are usually kept fairly clean for QA teams to test new features. Sandboxes are generally more of a playground for developers.
What is the difference between VM and sandbox? ›
For example, if you download a virus or malware within the Sandbox, it will be discarded once you close the application. A virtual machine is an application that replicates a completely separate computer. Inside of the Virtual Machine, applications are able to access everything around it including your host.
What is Salesforce production and sandbox? ›A sandbox is a copy of your organization in a separate environment that you can use for a variety of purposes, such as testing and training. Sandboxes are completely isolated from your Salesforce production organization. The operations you perform in your sandboxes don't affect your Salesforce production organization.
What is the difference between a sandbox and staging environment? ›It has less restrictions than a staging environment because it is designed to allow the engineers to try out things easily and quickly. A sandbox environment is likely to drift away from the production environment as engineers try out different versions of the product, dependancies, plugins etc.
What is meant by sandbox environment? ›In the world of cybersecurity, a sandbox environment is an isolated virtual machine in which potentially unsafe software code can execute without affecting network resources or local applications. Cybersecurity researchers use sandboxes to run suspicious code from unknown attachments and URLs and observe its behavior.