Refreshing your Eloqua sandbox environment is essential to ensure that testing and development processes accurately mirror your live production environment. Regularly refreshing your sandbox helps maintain data consistency, validate new features, and troubleshoot issues more effectively before they affect your live system.

In this article, I would like to share some insights from my experience in handling an Eloqua Sandbox refresh. Having recently been involved in this kind of project, I found that comprehensive information was lacking in existing knowledge sharing articles. So here is what you need to keep in mind when you refresh a Sandbox.

How to start a sandbox refresh?

To initiate the refresh, all you need to do is to go to Settings > Sandbox Management > and hit the Refresh button next to the specific sandbox.

As shown in the picture, the refresh took about an hour. However, you should generally expect the process to take between 4 and 8 hours.

Once it is completed, you can log in using the same user and password as you do for the production environment.

What is transferred?

• Emails, Forms, Landing Pages (with the sandbox microsite), Campaigns, Programs, CDOs, Events, all items from Component Library, Segments, Lead Scoring Models, Shared Lists, Shared Filters, Account Groups, Account Filters, Account Linkage, Form Update Rules, Data Tools
• CDO Services enabled in production are also enabled in sandbox
• Event Services enabled in production are also enabled in sandbox
• Email Setup and Website Setup with adjustments to the sandbox Eloqua environment
• Users and user groups
• Security Settings
• Display Preferences & Database Setup (picklists are populated)
• Native CRM Integration (connected to Production CRM)

What is NOT transferred?

• Your contacts, accounts, visitors, CDO records, event registrants, activity data (including user activity, bulk API, scored leads, CDO records, email sends, form submissions, page views, inbound or outbound in CRM, list uploads), shared list members
• Campaigns and Programs (Contact, CDO, Program Builder) are deactivated in sandbox
• Lead Scoring Models are deactivated in sandbox
• Lookup tables are not populated
• Apps and developed apps
• Microsite certificates
• SSO configuration and certificates

What do you need to do once the refresh is completed?

• Get ready to populate the lookup tables
• Activate any relevant campaigns, program canvases, program builders
• Adjust the CRM integration connection in case you don't need the linkage to production
• Enable CRM Internal Events and External Calls queues, Auto-synchs, and other data transfer integrations
• Re-install apps (Contact washing machine, Cloud form submit, etc.)
• Get ready to reconfigure the cloud form submits from your campaigns and programs once the app is installed.

Good to know:

• Do not refresh your Eloqua sandbox during the Eloqua release
• Any configuration built-in the sandbox, without an equivalent in production, will be lost once the refresh is completed. Please make sure to document or migrate anything you need from a sandbox before a refresh.
• Insight is not available in the sandbox

Final Thoughts

For further insights into optimizing your sandbox environment, including how to set up an Eloqua replication sandbox, read more here.

Are you unsure if an Eloqua sandbox is the right fit for your requirements? Or perhaps you need assistance in utilizing your Eloqua sandbox effectively? Don't hesitate to reach out to us, and we'll gladly provide the guidance you need.