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Gainsight Inc.

Gainsight Sandbox Management

This article describes the process of refreshing and creating Gainsight Sandboxes and the impacts of refreshing Sandbox orgs on both Gainsight’s Matrix Data Architecture (MDA) and SFDC. It also recommends the actions should be taken by Admins before and after a Gainsight Sandbox is refreshed.

Sandbox

A Sandbox is a Salesforce instance and copy of your production org. Sandboxes contain the same metadata, including configuration information such as the types of custom objects and fields, applications, and workflows similar to your production org. This metadata, as well as data in the case of a full sandbox, is copied to a new org, isolated from your production org. Full sandboxes are a replica of your production org, including all data, such as object records, attachments, and metadata. For more information, refer to the Salesforce's Sandbox Types and Templates article.

A Sandbox is a Salesforce org used for testing the latest features or functionalities in Salesforce and Gainsight after upgrading to a specific version. A Sandbox org contains realistic business data which was copied from production orgs. You can test the latest features and functionalities using this business data. For example, in a Sandbox, you can create a rule with complex configurations, create a report to fetch a specific set of data, etc. After confirming that your configuration or functionality is working as expected, you can migrate these assets using Gainsight's X-org Migration tool. For more information, refer to the Cross-Org Migration article.

Note: Gainsight customers that are subscribed to Sandbox are entitled to use the Sandbox org.

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Create a New Sandbox

Admins can create a new Gainsight Sandbox from the Sandbox Management page. A new Sandbox can only be created if you have available Gainsight Sandbox licenses.

To create a new Sandbox:

  1. Navigate to Administration > Sandbox Management.
  2. Click +Sandbox.
  3. Enter the Salesforce Sandbox Org ID, to which you want to connect from the Gainsight Sandbox.
  4. Click Ok in the confirmation message.

Note: If you want to purchase new licenses for Sandboxes, contact your Gainsight CSM.

Impacts of Refreshing a Sandbox

Salesforce admins refresh the Salesforce Sandbox org periodically to use the latest SFDC production data. Following are the impacts of Refreshing a Sandbox org in Salesforce and Gainsight:

  • A new Salesforce Org Id is created for the Salesforce Sandbox which replaces the existing Org Id.
  • All of the SFDC components/assets (objects, data, configurations) in the production orgs are copied over to Sandbox.
  • Sandbox org loses connection with the existing Gainsight instance, and as a result of this, following data and configurations that are available in the existing Gainsight instance are lost:
    • Configurations such as Scorecards 2.0 config., Surveys 2.0 config, so on.
    • Gainsight data
    • List of Reports that were generated on Gainsight objects. This is because Report Listing on Gainsight objects is stored in Gainsight.
    • Dashboards
    • Rules as Rules listing with the respective configurations are stored in Gainsight
    • Configuration to old S3 bucket
    • User activation in User Management (If any)
    • Permissions like any Dashboard Permissions, so on.

Refresh the existing Sandbox

Admins should use the Gainsight Sandbox Management page to refresh the existing Gainsight Sandbox org and associate it with the respective Salesforce Sandbox org. This process creates a production equivalent Gainsight instance for testing. This page displays the number of available Gainsight Sandbox orgs (remaining Gainsight Sandbox orgs out of the total orgs purchased) and also the number of Gainsight Sandbox orgs already created. When you refresh Gainsight Sandbox, it creates a production equivalent instance in which you have logged in.

Refresh Sandbox Image.png

Numbers and details shown in the previous image are just for reference only (None of them are standard or real). You can see that two Gainsight Sandbox orgs are created out of a total ten orgs (licenses) and another eight orgs can be created.

Some of the key points related to Sandbox org refresh process are:

  • When you refresh your Gainsight Sandbox org, all the current data from your production org is copied to your Sandbox org.
  • If you want to purchase new licenses for Sandboxes, contact your Gainsight Customer Success Manager (CSM).
  • You should refresh your Gainsight Sandbox org only after refreshing the associated Salesforce Sandbox org.
  • You must enter a new Salesforce org ID (15 or 18 digits as collected from the Salesforce org) to initiate the Gainsight Sandbox refresh process. 
  • Once the refresh process is initiated (known as requested in Gainsight terms), the logged-in user who initiated the request, receives an email notification. Another email notification is also sent, once the refresh process is completed.
  • When you initiate the refresh process on a Sandbox org, its status is shown as REQUESTED. Once the refresh process is completed, the status changes to REFRESHED. The refresh process is not instantaneous and it may take up to 24 hours.  
  • You can refresh your Gainsight Sandbox org only once every 90 days. If you wish to refresh your Gainsight Sandbox org more frequently (than once in 90 days), contact your Gainsight Client Outcomes Manager.

Perform the following actions to refresh the existing Gainsight Sandbox:

  1. Refresh your Salesforce Sandbox which is associated with Gainsight Sandbox. To learn more about how to refresh your Salesforce Sandbox, refer to the Salesforce article, Refresh Your Sandbox.
  2. Copy the new org ID of your Salesforce Sandbox org that you have refreshed. This ID is available under the Current Org Id column.

Salesforce_Org Id.png

  1. Navigate to Administration > Sandbox Management.
  2. Click Refresh for your existing Gainsight Sandbox org, associated with your Salesforce Sandbox org.

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  1. Enter the copied new Salesforce org Id, as shown in step 2.
  2. Click OK.

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Two email notifications are sent when the refresh process is initiated and completed. The refresh process is not instantaneous and it may take upto 24 hours.

IMPORTANT: Admins should not switch the toggle Authorize MDA ON until Gainsight Sandbox is created.

You must establish a connection from the refreshed Gainsight Sandbox to the new Salesforce Sandbox. To establish a connection, perform the following steps in the Gainsight Sandbox org:

  1. Revoke all the users in the Gainsight app OAuth. For more information, refer to the Connected Apps OAuth Usage section. This is to ensure that there is no existing OAuth.
  2. Revoke MDA Authorization from the Administration > Connectors page. For more information, refer to the Revoke and Reauthorize OAuth Access section.
  3. Reauthorize MDA. For more information, refer to the Authorize Matrix Data Platform article.
  4. Edit the existing Salesforce Connector details as explained below:
    1. Change the Salesforce Org type to SANDBOX by editing the existing Salesforce Connector details. For more information, refer to the Salesforce Connector > Create Connection article.
    2. (Optional) If your Salesforce org has a custom domain, switch ON the Toggle button and enter the custom domain URL. For more information, refer to the Salesforce Connector > Create Connection article.
  5. Reauthorize the Salesforce Connection. For more information, refer to the Salesforce Connector > Authorize Connection article.
  6. (Optional) Reconfigure permissions in the User Management for User activation. For more information, refer to the Gainsight User Management article.
  7. (Optional) Reconfigure any permissions in Gainsight such as Dashboard Permissions. For more information, refer to the Dashboard Permissions article.
  8. Setup configurations to all of the applications such as Scorecards 2.0, Surveys 2.0, and so on.

Assets and Configurations not Carried Over to new Sandbox

Once the new sandbox is created, all of the assets and configurations in the production org are available in the new Sandbox. If the recently created assets and configurations in the old Sandbox have not been migrated to production org, you lose them. The following is the list of assets and configurations not carried over from production org to new Sandbox:

  • Job or Rule Schedules
  • Sally and its configuration
  • Connectors 2.0 and the data job configurations
  • Sponsor Tracking
  • External Sharing
  • Gainsight Permissions such as user activation and Dashboard Permissions
  • Sites
  • Domains
  • Events
  • Audit Framework

All of the other Gainsight assets and configurations of the latest production org are copied to the refreshed Sandbox.

Refresh Gainsight Sandboxes and Link them to Salesforce Instance

Admins can refresh their Gainsight Sandboxes and link them to the corresponding Salesforce Sandbox instance.

Prerequisite

Sandbox Management should be enabled, and the respective license details should be updated for the Gainsight instance.

To refresh a sandbox linking them to the corresponding Salesforce Sandbox instance:

  1. Copy the Org ID of the Sandbox to be connected to the Gainsight Sandbox.
    Note: The Org ID changes after Sandbox refresh, and should be copied after the refresh completes. The Org ID can be obtained from the Sandbox listing page in Salesforce.

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  1. Navigate to Administration > General > Sandbox Management.
  2. Click Refresh to refresh the Gainsight Sandbox that should be linked to the Salesforce Sandbox. The refreshed Gainsight Sandbox would be connected to the respective Salesforce Sandbox Instance.

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  1. Enter the new Salesforce Sandbox Org Id. The Sandbox Org ID pop-up is displayed.

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Note: The refresh should take a few hours to complete. Once complete, the admin is notified via email and the status would be updated in the Gainsight Sandbox Management tab.

  1. After a successful Sandbox refresh, login to the Salesforce Sandbox, navigate to Gainsight App Settings > MDA Services.
  2. Select the checkbox to enable Enable Matrix Data Architecture Connection.
    Note: Tenant Provision option will not be available.

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  1. Navigate to Administration > Connectors.
  2. Toggle ON Authorize MDA from the left pane.
  3. Click AUTHORIZE.
    Note: After MDA Authorization is complete, you can start creating rules from Rules Engine as per your requirement.

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  1. Provision the S3 bucket to view the S3 jobs copied from the Production instance.
  2. Click Next to provision the bucket.

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Provisioning of the S3 bucket should take less than an hour.

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After the S3 bucket is provisioned, all the jobs created in Production instance will be displayed.

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  1. Navigate to Administration > Integration > Connectors 2.0.
  2. Click the pen icon to edit the Salesforce connection. Edit Connection pop-up window is displayed.

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  1. In the Does you Salesforce org have a custom domain, select SANDBOX.
  2. Click SAVE.

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  1. Click Authorize.

Notes:

  • Authorize the SFDC Connection to ensure that Sync jobs continues to run.
  • All the jobs will be copied to the Sandbox org, but the schedules will have to be set again.
  • Only after the connection is authorized, will the jobs be editable.
  • If any pop up blockers are set at the browser, they will have to be disabled to view the salesforce login pop up.

Sandbox12.png

The Opt out setting will be copied from the Production org. The setting can be verified from the Administration > Application Settings. If the toggle is on, the org will be opted out from the upcoming releases.

Note: To be added to the release process, you will need to contact support.

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