When using a sandbox environment, you may need to copy over data or configurations from another environment. Once you have set up your sandbox environment, you can use the Copy environment option in the Microsoft Power Platform admin center to copy your Engage environment and data between environments. You can select two levels of copy: Everything or Customizations and schemas only.

 

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Before You Begin

Note:  The target environment will be listed in the Select environment to overwrite drop-down. If you don't see an environment, that means you can't overwrite it. For example, you can't overwrite production environments so you won't see any environments of type production.

• You can only copy to an environment in the same tenant and region.
• Components that have not been added to a solution (including canvas apps, flows, custom connectors, and connections) might not be part of the copy. You should validate your apps post copy.
• You can't copy from or to a default-type environment.
• Copy and restore operations can take up to 8 hours, unless a lot of data needs to be copied or restored, in which case they could take up to 24 hours.

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Copy Over Everything Option

An Everything copy includes all application data, users, and customizations, and schemas from the source environment and is suitable for:

 

• User acceptance testing
• Upgrade testing
• Preview in production 
• Training

 

After the Everything copy is complete, log into the sandbox environment and make the necessary changes to make sure that production external services won't be impacted by the sandbox environment. Once changes are complete, turn off administration mode and enable background services. You are now able to use the Everything copy sandbox environment to do testing and later manually import the solution into production.

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Copy Over Customizations and Schemas Only

Customizations and schemas copy only includes users, customizations, and schema from the source environment and is suitable for:

 

• Iterative team development
• Partner/ISV solutions
• Proof of concept

 

Customization and Schemas Only copy does not contain any production data or users. After modifying and enabling some of the plug-ins, the developer sandbox environment functions the same and is isolated from the production application. After a successful round of testing and signoffs, the changes can be manually deployed to production.

 

The following tables will be truncated when you do a customizations and schemas only copy:

 

Tables
Account	InterProcessLock	SocialActivity
AccountLeads	Invoice	SocialInsightsConfiguration
ActivityMimeAttachment	InvoiceDetail	SocialProfile
ActivityParty	KnowledgeArticle	SqlEncryptionAudit
ActivityPointer	KnowledgeArticlesCategories	Subscription
AdvancedSimilarityRule	KbArticle	SubscriptionClients
Annotation	KbArticleComment	SubscriptionManuallyTrackedObject
AnnualFiscalCalendar	KnowledgeSearchModel	SubscriptionStatisticsOffline
Appointment	Lead	SubscriptionStatisticsOutlook
Attachment	LeadAddress	SubscriptionSyncEntryOffline
Audit	LeadCompetitors	SubscriptionSyncEntryOutlook
AzureServiceConnection	LeadProduct	SubscriptionSyncInfo
BulkDeleteFailure	Letter	SystemApplicationMetadata
BulkOperation	License	SystemUserBusinessUnitEntityMap
BulkOperationLog	List	SystemUserLicenses
BusinessProcessFlowInstance	ListMember	Task
BusinessUnitNewsArticle	MailboxStatistics	TeamProfiles
Campaign	MonthlyFiscalCalendar	TeamRoles
CampaignActivity	Notification	Territory
CampaignActivityItem	Opportunity	TimeZoneLocalizedName
CampaignItem	OpportunityClose	Topic
CampaignResponse	OpportunityCompetitors	TopicHistory
Competitor	OpportunityProduct	TopicModel
ChannelAccessProfile	OrderClose	TopicModelConfiguration
CompetitorAddress	OrganizationUI	TopicModelExecutionHistory
CompetitorProduct	OwnerMapping	TraceAssociation
CompetitorSalesLiterature	PhoneCall	TraceLog
Connection	PluginTypeStatistic	TraceRegarding
Contact	PluginTraceLog	UnresolvedAddress
ContactInvoices	Post	UntrackedEmail
ContactLeads	PostComment	UserApplicationMetadata
ContactOrders	PostFollow	UserEntityInstanceData
ContactQuotes	PostLike	UserEntityUISettings
Contract	PostRegarding	UserFiscalCalendar
ContractDetail	PostRole	UserForm
CustomerAddress	PriceLevel	UserQueryVisualization
CustomerOpportunityRole	PrincipalObjectAccess	WizardAccessPrivilege
CustomerRelationship	PrincipalObjectAttributeAccess	WorkflowLog
DelveActionHub	ProcessSession	WorkflowWaitSubscription
Discount	Product	BusinessDataLocalizedLabel
DiscountType	ProductAssociation	DynamicProperty
DocumentIndex	ProductPriceLevel	ChannelPropertyGroup
DuplicateRecord	ProductSalesLiterature	DynamicPropertyAssociation
Email	ProductSubstitute	DynamicPropertyInstance
EmailHash	QuarterlyFiscalCalendar	DynamicPropertyOptionSetItem
EmailSearch	QueueItem	Position
Entitlement	Quote	ChannelProperty
EntitlementChannel	QuoteClose	RollupJob
EntitlementContacts	QuoteDetail	SLAKPIInstance
EntitlementProducts	RecurrenceRule	SystemUserManagerMap
EntitlementTemplate	TextAnalyticsEntityMapping	SystemUserSyncMappingProfiles
EntitlementTemplateChannel	RecurringAppointmentMaster	OfficeGraphDocument
EntitlementTemplateProducts	RelationshipRole	SimilarityRule
ExchangeSyncIdMapping	RelationshipRoleMap	BookableResource
BookableResourceBookingExchangeSyncIdMapping	ReplicationBacklog	BookableResourceGroup
ExternalParty	SalesLiterature	BookableResourceBooking
ExternalPartyItem	SalesLiteratureItem	BookableResourceBookingHeader
Fax	SalesOrder	BookableResourceCategory
FixedMonthlyFiscalCalendar	SalesOrderDetail	BookableResourceCharacteristic
Goal	SdkMessageProcessingStepSecureConfig	BookableResourceCategoryAssn
GoalRollupQuery	SemiAnnualFiscalCalendar	Characteristic
Import	Service	RatingValue
ImportData	ServiceAppointment	RatingModel
ImportFile	ServiceContractContacts	BookingStatus
ImportLog	SharePointData	RecommendedDocument
Incident	SharePointDocument	EmailSignature
IncidentResolution	SharePointDocumentLocation	UserSearchFacet
IntegrationStatus	SharePointSite	GlobalSearchConfiguration

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Copy An Environment

1. Go to https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com/ and sign in using Environment Admin or System Administrator role credentials.

Note: Environment Admins or System Administrators can copy all available environments. System administrators can copy environments for which they have the Environment Admin or System Administrator role.

2. Select Environments and select an environment to copy.

3. Select the desired copy over level, Everything or Customizations and schemas only.

4. If you selected Everything to copy, select whether to copy over audit logs. Copying audit logs is not recommended.

5. Select the target environment.

Warning: The target environment will be deleted and replaced with a copy of the data and customizations from the source environment. You won’t be able to recover any deleted data.

6. To restrict environment access to people in a security group select Edit. 

7. Edit the details for the copied environment and select Copy. 

8. Select Confirm to overwrite the target environment.

 

The overwrite process starts. 

Once the copy process is complete, the target environment is placed in Administration mode and background operations are disabled. The next section describes recommended Administrator actions for the newly created copy (target) environment.

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Next Steps After Copying An Environment

To ensure the newly created copy (target) environment doesn't impact your production environment, once the copy operation is complete, two things happen:

1. The newly created copy environment is placed in administration mode. Only those with System Administrator security roles can sign in and manage the copy environment. Regular users can't sign in and use the copy environment.

2. Background operations are disabled in the copy environment. Disabled operations include workflows and synchronization with Microsoft Exchange.

 

Review Components

 

You should review the status of application components in the copy environment with external connections such as email, plug-ins, custom workflow activities, etc. Review these and consider what action to take:

1. Disable the component.

2. Redirect the component to another service environment such as one running Exchange or SharePoint.

3. Do nothing – leave the component as is in the copy environment. For example, you might decide to allow Yammer posting to both the copy and production environments.

   Here are some possible application components in the copy environment that could have external connections and therefore could impact services with the same connections in your production environment.

 

• Email - A mailbox can't be synced with two different environments. For an Everything copy environment, the user mailboxes in the copy environment must be disabled so the mailboxes don't attempt to send or receive email, or track appointments, contacts, or tasks. Set synchronization for the following to None.

  • Incoming Email
  • Outgoing Email
  • Appointments, Contacts, Tasks

  SharePoint - Deactivate or redirect SharePoint to a sandbox SharePoint environment to prevent impacting documents managed by SharePoint. Go to Settings > Documentation Management > SharePoint Sites. Select your site, and then select Deactivate.

• Platform extensibility - Consider disabling the following that could be running in the copy environment and impacting external service components.

  • Server-side plug-ins.
  • Workflow custom activity.

• Client extensibility - Review the following.

  • Client-side JavaScript. Take a look at your JavaScript and HTML web resources for read/write operations that could impact external services.
  • IFRAMES. Determine if the target of an IFRAME is a production environment.

• Dataverse search - Confirm that search returns the expected results. If the results aren't accurate, you can turn off the Dataverse search for 12 hours and then turn the Dataverse search back on again to refresh the index. You may enter a ticket to our Support Team if you're still experiencing issues.

• Flows - In the target environment, existing solution flows will be deleted but existing non-solution flows will remain. Review the flows in the target environment to ensure that triggers and actions are pointing at the correct locations. Solution flows will be disabled so enable flows as needed.

• Connection References - Connection References will require new connections. Create and set connections on Connection References.

• Custom Connectors - Custom connectors should be reviewed and, if needed, deleted and reinstalled.

 

Note: When navigating to Activities Plus in a copied environment, you may encounter a license error. If so, please contact our Service Team via a support ticket and we will update your license information.