Some questions about sandbox environment

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Posted on by Andrea Antolini

Hi to all,

I would like to know, if possible, a bit more about the management of the sandbox instances on a SaaS D365BC environment.

I've been working for a while in a production environment of a customer who's "preparing" its test on a sandbox, which was activated a few months ago,just after the D365BC subscription activation.

Our extensions are deployed and "maintained" on the sandbox because the customer is doing the tests there, so meanwhile, in production tenant, the release upgrade was occurring (13.0.0.0), while the sandbox was "freezed" on the previous release (12.0.xxxxx.0) . This has happened more than a month ago.

Yesterday, while accessing the sandbox environment, we discovered that:

- the release of the sandbox was upgraded to 13.0.0.0

- all the "custom" extensions have disappeared

- the data in the sandbox has remained intact.

Due to the fact that this has happened (as on the production tenant) without any notification, I would like to ask:

1) Is the "sandbox" environment kept aligned on the same release as the production tenant by MS? If so, we have to expect at least an attempt just after the production upgrade?

2) Is there any notification setuppable in order to receive some sort of "alert" when one of the instances is trying to upgrade?

3) It's remotely possible that the situation mentioned before could be caused by an user's attempt to "reset" the sandbox? In relation to this, what's the difference between "Create" and "reset" buttons on the sandbox wizard?

Thanks in advance

Best Regards

Andrea Antolini

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Roberto Stefanetti 12,998 on at

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RE: Some questions about sandbox environment

hi,

some answers.

Yesterday, while accessing the sandbox environment, we discovered that:

- the release of the sandbox was upgraded to 13.0.0.0

right, Sandbox is updated to last release (October's in this case), Microsoft update Sandboxes how and when wants.

- all the "custom" extensions have disappeared

it happened to me too, ans appear other extensions to install in the list, I will ask to Stanislaw in the GIT \ AL portal to understand the right way to use Sandoboxes.

- the data in the sandbox has remained intact.

Microsoft could erase also the data in Sandboxes if needed, (for example will happen in the April 2019 release when they move all fields that now still in base tables) on extensions, for production instead they arrange themselves by copying data in temp tables.

Due to the fact that this has happened (as on the production tenant) without any notification, I would like to ask:

1) Is the "sandbox" environment kept aligned on the same release as the production tenant by MS? If so, we have to expect at least an attempt just after the production upgrade?

Yes, at different times though, if you recreate or reset a Sandbox today, it is aligned to production release (13.0 in this case)

2) Is there any notification setuppable in order to receive some sort of "alert" when one of the instances is trying to upgrade?

You can schudule the upgrade for production environment and sanboxes from Upgrade Windows, notifications: you can create Notifications recipients from CSP portal for messages handling about upgrade\restarts etc of instances.

3) It's remotely possible that the situation mentioned before could be caused by an user's attempt to "reset" the sandbox? In relation to this, what's the difference between "Create" and "reset" buttons on the sandbox wizard?

Differences Create Vs Reset:

• Create Sandbox

A sandbox environment (Preview) is a non-production instance of Business Central. Isolated from production, a sandbox environment is the place to safely explore, learn, demo, develop, and test the service without the risk of affecting the data and settings of your production environment.

• Reset Sandbox

Resetting the sandbox environment will remove it completely, and then create it again with the default demonstration data (like a "FAST REBUILD")

You need to enter low information than in Create (FAST).

• Create Sandbox (copy data from Production)

and you can create a new sandbox with production data from CSP portal !

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Andrea Antolini on at

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RE: Some questions about sandbox environment

Hi Roberto,

Thanks a lot for your clarifications!

just one more question:

you say "Microsoft could erase also the data in Sandboxes if needed, (for example will happen in the April 2019 release when they move all fields that now still in base tables) on extensions, for production instead they arrange themselves by copying data in temp tables."

This means, I guess, that MS will prepare the architectural change on these tables by: move the field structure between the standard tables, change the business logic, and run the upgrade codeunits to move the data from the source tables to the target tables. If so, all the data involved will be moved automatically without a post-intervention by the partner. Is my assumption correct?

Thanks again and regards,

Andrea Antolini

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Roberto Stefanetti 12,998 on at

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RE: Some questions about sandbox environment

hi and Ciao,

yes, it should, so they told the Directions EMEA

..... but they also said "the best upgrade is no upgrade!" and everything can change in near future... Marko ?

Unfortunately I do not have access to the database on Azure SQL to check "to date" where are the fields and to check .... and where they will be in the future .... what is certain is that everything will be on estension (they have almost finished bring everything).

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Andrea de Franco 5 on at

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RE: Some questions about sandbox environment

Hi Roberto,

relating to the "little" issue discussion proposed by Andrea Antolini, I've another question: Is there a notification process performed by Microsoft for D365BC installation when it's planned an Update of platform (both Live and sandbox environment)?

It can be possible different scenarios for which the MS partner is a reseller, so the license is sold by another CSP.

Another scenario is that in which the MS partner is CSP too.

thanks in advance

Andrea

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Stefano Demiliani 37,166 Most Valuable Professional on at

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RE: Some questions about sandbox environment

If you have an extension with platform 12.0.0.0, normally in a production environment before a major release update you can receive alerts. When the tenant is updated, your extension that not applies with the tenant release are unpublished. Your app.json platform must match the tenant platform.

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Andrea Antolini on at

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RE: Some questions about sandbox environment

Hi Stefano,

thanks a lot for your clarification.

So, on every Major Update, we have to be aware that at the time of upgrade, we will have to re-publish the extension on every tenant? And this has to be done always after the upgrade?

What do you suggest to prevent the users to potentially "run" the business logic without customizations that can cause an inconsistency on their data after the re-publish?

I think, for example, of a case when partner adds some fields + business logic on the posting routine and on entries, and the entries posted while the extension is published are missing the populated fiels... this behavior can be "silent" and can cause episodes of PMA (post-mortem analysis) to eventually fix the data...

Thanks in advance

Andrea

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Stefano Demiliani 37,166 Most Valuable Professional on at

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RE: Some questions about sandbox environment

The upgrade cycle is normally like this:

Uninstall App --> Tenant upgrade --> Install App.

If your extension works after the upgrade, all is ok. If something is wrong, the tenant upgrade is "queued" and Microsoft will contact you.

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