Understanding Your Open LMS SaaS Sandbox

Understanding Your Open LMS SaaS Sandbox

The Open LMS SaaS sandbox is a complementary, scaled-down environment provided alongside your dedicated production instance. Hosted securely within AWS and sharing the same codebase as your production environment, the sandbox serves as a safe, isolated space where you can test, train, and troubleshoot without impacting your live user data.

By default, the sandbox is a generic instance rather than an exact copy of your production site. However, you can request to have your production data cloned into the sandbox for more accurate scenario testing.

Primary Use Cases

The sandbox environment is an essential tool for maintaining the health and stability of your Learning Management System (LMS). It is primarily used for:

• Testing Upgrades: Evaluating new features and testing functionality before major and minor releases hit your production site.
• Customization QA: Testing custom CSS, theming changes, and "Brand Match" customizations before applying them to live user experiences.
• Troubleshooting: Replicating bugs or issues in an isolated environment.

Upgrade and Release Schedule

To facilitate thorough testing, sandbox environments are updated on an accelerated schedule compared to your production sites.

• Major Releases: Upgraded approximately one month prior to the major production release.
• Maintenance Packs (Minor Releases): Upgraded approximately two weeks prior to the production release.
• Hotfixes: Deployed automatically as needed for immediate bug or security fixes.

Important Note: We highly recommend testing all site customizations (like CSS and themes) in your sandbox environment after the sandbox has been upgraded, but before the major upgrade is applied to your production instance.

Sandbox Clones and Resets

The SaaS sandbox environment is designed to be a generic, scaled-down instance for testing purposes—it is fundamentally not intended to be an ongoing replica of your production site.

While you can request a “reset” of your sandbox site or a "clone" of your production site into your sandbox to test against real-world data and settings, please be aware of the following policies:

• Requesting a Reset: A reset removes all data and configurations from a site and restores it to a blank/template state. This prepares the environment for new data and configuration.
• Requesting a Clone:
  A clone is a full data copy from one site to another, usually from a production site to a sandbox site. Clones are performed on an “all-or-nothing” basis. Which means:
  • The entire source site is copied.
  • Partial clones are not supported.
  • It is not possible to clone only specific elements (for example, settings only, selected courses, or users without courses).
• Upcoming Pricing Update: Because the sandbox is not intended to serve as a production copy, starting June 2026, all sandbox clones and resets will incur a service fee.
• Turnaround Time for Clones and Reset Requests: After the submission of a request, the Open LMS internal team will review the site and its dataset, and proceed to scheduling. These requests are typically completed within 8–10 business days. Processing time may vary based on the size and complexity of the site, as well as when the request was received.

System Limitations and Resource Allocation

Because the sandbox is a testing ground, there are a few intentional limitations and shared resources to be aware of: