Delete all data while keeping the customization on Dynamics 365 CRM

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Hello,

I'm new to Ms. Dynamics 365 CRM. I and my team are now using sandbox environment and made some customization inside. Now I want to switch the instance from sandbox to production . The condition that we want is : Delete all the master and transaction data while keeping all the customization from sandbox to production.

After searching through the internet, I found two ways in the admin center :

1. Edit instance and switch instance from sandbox to production <- Edit button and switch instance to production (but they said this will delete all my data, what about the customization?)

2. Copy the instance of sandbox to production (Full and minimal copy) <- But i didn't find the Copy button, is it because i haven't yet configured the production or is it not supported copy from sandbox to production?

Which one of the two that meets my condition above?

Because i and my team have many customization in sandbox and i'm afraid that we will missed some customization that we might forget to include inside the solution if we backup and import the solution.

Thanks in advance

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Himanshu3110 on at

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Go for minimal copy of your sandbox instance.

1. Configure new production instance

2. Select Copy instance (select Minimal copy - which includes Users, Customization, and Schema from the source)

More information https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/customer-engagement/admin/copy-instance

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Johnny Gong 6,482 Moderator on at

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Hi,

You should use minimal copy operation to finish your goal. Following is the details about your mentioned method

1. Switch Instance will not delete any data which could be referred from the following Official document:

[View:https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/customer-engagement/admin/switch-instance:750:50]

2. A Minimal copy only includes users, customizations, and schema from the source instance and is suitable for Iterative team development, Partner/ISV solutions and Proof of concept.

You could go to Admin centers > Dynamics 365. Choose the Instances tab. Select an instance, and then click Copy to finish the copy operation. Following official linkage is for your reference.

[View:https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/customer-engagement/admin/copy-instance:750:50]

Hope it helps.

Best Regards

Johnny Gong

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gdas 50,091 Moderator on at

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Hi ,

Here is your answers -

1. Switch instance will move all your customization into production ,however I believe this is not a good practice to move development or test environments to production. Microsoft is referring this feature as a good way to swap your vanilla instances to productions nothing else and this is not a good practice for to move day to day customization to production.

2.Copy instance is good when you want to make same kind of environment without data like you want to create one test instance similar with DEV or duplicate DEV instance . This is also not a good practice to move your customization to production as this will move all your unmanaged changes and you cant uninstall them you can say your production environment will be unmanaged.

I would suggest not to use any one of above , always maintained your customization in a unmanaged solution in DEV instance and export managed solution and import it to to production instance.

By the way why you are thinking that you will missed something with solution movement? Managed solution has an advantages, if you found any issue or missed any component you can easily uninstall solution and import again(Make sure uninstall solution will remove the data). So go with solution movement which is best practices .

Hope this helps.

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Community Member on at

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Hi.

Thanks for all the answers. I think i will go with export and import solution to the production environment. As the switch instance is not a good practise and copy instance can't copy sandbox env to production env (only production env to sandbox, not vice versa).

Many thanks for all the answers. You guys are the best!

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