Sandbox Pool

A Sandbox Pool maintains a number of running (and ready) sandboxes created from a Template. When a developer creates a new sandbox from that template, one of the ready sandboxes in the pool is picked and handed off immediately, making it available for use without waiting for setup procedures.

Ready Sandboxes

A sandbox pool has a configuration parameter min which defines the minimum number of ready sandboxes to maintain in the pool. When the actual count of ready sandboxes falls below this number, the pool automatically creates more sandboxes to meet the requirement.

If sandboxes fail during the setup procedure (due to a script error or any other cause), the pool marks those sandboxes as errored. They will be removed automatically if the total number of sandboxes in the pool exceeds max, which is optional and defaults to the value of min.

Auto Scaling

The min configuration parameter can have different values for different time windows. This allows org admins to accurately control the pool size according to actual usage patterns, effectively reducing costs during off-peak hours.

Claiming a Sandbox

When a sandbox pool is enabled and has ready sandboxes available, creating a new sandbox from the same template automatically matches the pool and picks a ready sandbox. The system falls back to regular sandbox creation if no matching pool is found or there are no ready sandboxes.

A user can also explicitly claim a sandbox from a pool. This is especially useful when debugging failures in a pooled sandbox — the user can claim the problematic sandbox directly for inspection.

See Also