Use On-Demand Sandbox Credits Efficiently

The credit system provides flexibility so you can use the credits that you purchase the way you want. For example, depending on your needs, you can keep just a few sandboxes running for an extended period or create many short-term sandboxes.

Users assigned to the Sandbox API User role can control how credits are spent. When managing sandboxes and sandbox credits, keep these considerations in mind:

• When created or started, a sandbox begins consuming uptime in credits per minute. The number of credits a sandbox consumes per minute depends on which resource profile option a sandbox uses. For example, by default, sandboxes use a medium resource profile. A sandbox using the medium resource profile consumes 1 credit per minute or portion of a minute. A sandbox using a large or extra large resource profile consumes uptime credits at a higher rate.
• Stopped sandboxes consume fewer credits per minute. When stopped, regardless of which resource profile they use, all sandboxes consume downtime credits at a rate of 0.3 credits per minute or portion of a minute.
• When you delete a sandbox, it stops consuming credits.
• Sandboxes that are down due to technical issues, do not consume credits.

Because sandboxes consume credits while in a stopped state, make sure to delete sandboxes you don't need. Then create them again when you want to use them.

Stop and restart sandboxes only when you want to retain the exact set of data that you created for the sandbox. To better manage sandboxes in a realm, you can set the sandbox autoScheduled parameter to yes and create an Operation Scheduler to automatically start and stop the sandboxes.

If you need a sandbox repeatedly for the same purpose, consider using APIs to automate creating a sandbox and importing the applicable data and code. Then you can quickly recreate the sandbox environment after it's deleted.

You can easily import Storefront Reference Architecture (SFRA) into a sandbox using Business Manager. It isn’t necessary to keep a sandbox in the stopped state just to maintain an environment that uses SFRA.