Sandbox Environment

Absorb LMS provides access to a Sandbox Environment, which is a near-exact replica of your Live Production Environment at the time of Sandbox creation. Some organizations call this a Stage or Staging Environment. The purpose of this environment is to test updates, new content, user imports, etc., and ensure the quality of these tests in a production-like environment before live deployment. 

A Sandbox refresh updates the portal with the previous night's backup. Changes made on the refresh date will not be represented or captured in the data.

Important: Edits to the Sandbox Environment will not reflect in the corresponding Live Production Environment. Likewise, changes to the Live Environment will not impact the Sandbox Environment.

The Sandbox Environment is a snapshot of your Live Environment at the time of the sandbox creation. 
Live data feeds do not exist between these two environments.  You can request a Sandbox Environment refresh from our team to create a new, up-to-date copy of your Live Environment.

This action will overwrite any existing testing data within the Sandbox Environment.

Important Details

• Sandbox Environments do not send emails: This lets you test features and course setups without worrying about Users receiving test messages.
  • Be aware that the Forgot Password feature will not send out the usual email when initiated from a Sandbox Environment. 
  • Contact our team if you need assistance with a manual password reset.
    • If you are currently onboarding, please contact your Implementations Manager.
    • All other requests can be sent to Absorb Support or your Client Success Manager.
      
      
• Due to the Sandbox environment, we cannot guarantee performance standards, uptime guarantees, or disaster recovery procedures.
  
  
• Not all of the content from your Live Production Environment is copied to the Sandbox Environment. Specifically:
  • SCORM, TinCan (xAPI), and AICC courses will not launch.
  • Videos will not launch.
  • E-Commerce settings are not copied to Sandbox Environments.
  • Single Sign-On (SSO) settings are not copied to Sandbox Environments.  Unless SSO has been established with the Sandbox Environment, you must manually log in with your Absorb-specific credentials.
    
    
• Sandbox Environments will be deleted automatically without any activity for six months or longer.
  
  
• If you have received a Demo Portal during the Sales process, this is different from the Sandbox Environment, and the Demo Portal will eventually be archived.
  
  
• A sandbox refresh erases all sandbox data and replaces it with a copy of the production data. There is no option to do a 'partial' refresh.

How to Access your Sandbox Environment

Once an Absorb staff member has created your Sandbox Environment, they will contact you to provide the unique URL to access (company.sandbox.myabsorb.com).

• You log in to the Sandbox Environment using your Live Production Environment credentials.
  • A Sandbox Refresh updates your Sandbox Environment password to the current password used for the Live Environment.
  • Remember, Sandbox Environments do not send emails. For this reason, the Password Reset workflow and automatic messages do not work for Sandbox Environments. 
    • Contact our team if you need assistance with a manual password reset.
      • If you are currently onboarding, please contact your Implementations Manager.
      • All other requests can be sent to Absorb Support or your Client Success Manager.

Note: If you are using incoming Single Sign-on (SSO) to access your Live Production Environment, you should confirm that you remember your Live Production Environment password and reset it if needed before requesting a Sandbox Environment. Changing your password in Production does not affect incoming SSO.