OpenAir Sandbox FAQ

See the following for answers to common questions about OpenAir sandboxes.

How can I differentiate between my production and sandbox accounts?

To distinguish a sandbox account from your production account, look out for the following:

The domain part of the URL in the address bar of your browser indicates the type of account. The account-specific domain for a sandbox account is <company-id>.app.sandbox.openair.com/, where <company-id> is a unique account identifier which is typically assigned based on the Company ID for your sandbox account.
The OpenAir UI for your sandbox includes the following mention immediately below the page header: This is a copy of <source-account>. It was created at <created>, where <source-account> is the Company ID for the account where the data was copied from, and <created> is the date and time in the Eastern Time (UTC–5) time zone when the sandbox account was created or refreshed.

What features can I test in a sandbox?

Many OpenAir features can be tested in sandbox accounts. For more information, see Features Available for Testing in a Sandbox.

About Sandbox Refreshes

The following questions and answers are specific to refreshing your sandbox.

Can I specify a date and time for the sandbox refresh?

Refreshing a sandbox account involves deleting the sandbox account and creating a new sandbox account. You can specify when you would like the sandbox refresh process to be initiated. However, you cannot specify exactly when the snapshot of your production account will be taken and the creation of your sandbox account will start. Various factors determine when the new sandbox creation will start and when the snapshot of your production account will be taken, including the time it takes to delete the existing sandbox, size of your production account (the amount of data), current loads on the OpenAir servers, and the number of customers requesting a new sandbox or a sandbox refresh during the same time window.

How long does it take for my sandbox to be refreshed?

Refreshing a sandbox account can take anything from a few hours up to 72 hours to complete. Various factors determine how long it takes to refresh your sandbox, including the size of your production account (the amount of data), current loads on the OpenAir servers, and the number of customers requesting a new sandbox or a sandbox refresh during the same time window.

Can I cancel my sandbox refresh request?

It is not possible to cancel a refresh request.

A refresh completely replaces the content of the sandbox account with the content of the production account. After your sandbox account has been refreshed from production, it cannot be restored to its prior state. Before submitting a request to refresh a sandbox account, please ensure that your company is fully notified and ready for the refresh from production. Your refresh request cannot be canceled or otherwise modified in any way after it has been acknowledged and accepted. See Refreshing Sandbox Accounts.

Is there a limit to the number of sandbox refreshes.

The number of sandbox refreshes is limited to one per month. To increase the limit to one per week, contact your OpenAir account manager.

I have some important data I want to keep in my sandbox. Can my data be saved during the next refresh?

A sandbox is not intended for storage of data. A refresh completely replaces the content of the sandbox account with the content of the production account snapshot. Any data that exists in a sandbox before a refresh is requested is overwritten by the refresh. See Refreshing Sandbox Accounts.

What happens to my sandbox during a OpenAir version upgrade?

All sandbox accounts are upgraded typically three weeks before the production upgrade. Accounts are unavailable during the upgrade, which typically takes several hours.