Zuora Testing Environments

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Zuora environments represent private tenant access to the Zuora application, APIs, and supported integrations and payments gateways. This article describes the following information for Zuora Billing, Zuora Payments, Zuora CPQ, and Zuora Central Platform. For details about testing environments for Zuora Revenue, see Test Zuora Revenue in different environments.

Testing Environments Currently Offered
- API Sandbox
  Intended for integration testing and release preview testing. Does not come with any data. Zuora application version is one week ahead of the main production environment.
- Developer Sandbox
  Developer Sandbox will allow developers to work on a sandbox with the same configuration as production. It will allow them to copy/refresh only configuration/settings data and no transactional/dynamic data. For more information, see Getting started with Zuora Developer Sandbox.
- Central Sandbox
  Provides additional capabilities on top of API Sandbox. Zuora Central Sandbox copies production data securely and supports production-like performance. Zuora Central Sandbox can be utilized for integration testing, end-to-end production testing, user acceptance testing, and performance testing with guidelines. For more information, see Getting started with Zuora Central Sandbox.
Contrasts Between API Sandbox, Developer Sandbox, and Zuora Central Sandbox

Sandbox Comparisons

See the following contrasts between API Sandbox, Developer Sandbox, and Central Sandbox:

General Information

	API Sandbox	Zuora Developer Sandbox	Zuora Central Sandbox
Does this sound like you?	I just want to test soon-to-be released features. I want to perform data migration functional testing for a small customer base.	I want to test soon-to-be released features against the settings and configuration I have in Production. I want to perform unit testing/integration development and testing.	I want to test features in an isolated environment using my own data. I want to perform small scale data migration functional testing to validate functionalities. I want to perform bill runs timing load tests for an expected increase in volume. I want to perform data migration timing tests.
Suitable for	Previewing and functional testing new Zuora features before they are released to Production.	Unit testing and Integration development and Testing	Functional testing with cloned configuration and data. Heavy-load performance and stress testing ([with guidelines])
Not Suitable for	Performance and load testing	Performance and load testing	Testing beyond Zuora’s standard concurrent request limits and application limits.
Data Migration Testing	Yes Suitable for less than 100,000 records	Yes Suitable for less than 100,000 records	Yes
Data Migration Testing	An example of 100,000 records would be 50,000 accounts + 50,000 subscriptions.
Infrastructure Mimics Production	No	No	Yes, fully hosted on AWS.
Includes Environment Monitoring	Yes	Yes	Yes
Rollback Policy	Rollbacks are not supported on any environment. Zuora recommends that you revert changes yourself – if possible. Reverting changes are possible before posting transactions on a bill run.
Hardware	AWS cloud	AWS cloud	AWS cloud
Location	https://apisandbox.zuora.com https://sandbox.na.zuora.com https://sandbox.eu.zuora.com	https://test.zuora.com https://test.eu.zuora.com	https://test.zuora.com https://test.eu.zuora.com
Supported API Authentication Schemes	OAuth 2.0 (recommended), username and password, authorization cookie, single-use tokens for CORS-enabled operations	OAuth 2.0 (recommended), username and password, authorization cookie, single-use tokens for CORS-enabled operations	OAuth 2.0 (recommended), username and password, authorization cookie, single-use tokens for CORS-enabled operations

Refresh Policy

Zuora performs two types of refreshes: A refresh for a new Zuora version and a data snapshot refresh.

	API Sandbox	Zuora Central Sandbox
Code base Refresh with Latest Zuora Version	Yes Automatically refreshed approximately one week before the production release. Production releases are deployed on a weekly basis unless the scheduled date is close to the month-end. API Sandbox is also automatically refreshed for maintenance releases.	Yes Automatically refreshed. Refreshes follow the API Sandbox release schedule. Maintenance releases also occur in this environment, following the same production release schedule. Note that release for Zuora Central Sandbox may occur a few days prior to, or following the production release.
Data Snapshot Refresh (Includes Scrubbed Data Copied from Production)	No You are responsible for loading your data, including creating user logins and global tenant settings.	On-demand. Refresh limited to once per monthly. Scrubbed data includes user logins, emails and global settings.
Historical PDF-generated Invoices	No You must generate PDF invoices from scratch.	No You must generate PDF invoices from scratch.

API Sandbox

Zuora Central Sandbox

Code base Refresh with Latest Zuora Version

Yes
Automatically refreshed approximately one week before the production release. Production releases are deployed on a weekly basis unless the scheduled date is close to the month-end.

API Sandbox is also automatically refreshed for maintenance releases.

Yes

Automatically refreshed. Refreshes follow the API Sandbox release schedule.

Maintenance releases also occur in this environment, following the same production release schedule.

Note that release for Zuora Central Sandbox may occur a few days prior to, or following the production release.

Data Snapshot Refresh (Includes Scrubbed Data Copied from Production)

You are responsible for loading your data, including creating user logins and global tenant settings.

On-demand. Refresh limited to once per monthly.

Scrubbed data includes user logins, emails and global settings.

Historical PDF-generated Invoices

You must generate PDF invoices from scratch.

Scrubbed Data

The following table provides a summary of the data that is scrubbed.

	API Sandbox	Zuora Central Sandbox
Commerce
Zuora for Salesforce - 360 Sync	N/A	Credentials are scrubbed on the first copy. Once credentials are updated in the Central Sandbox, it is retained on subsequent refreshes.
Commerce Portal	N/A	Users are removed User Emails
Customer Catalog		No information needs to be scrubbed.
Promotion Codes		No information needs to be scrubbed.
Billing & Payments
Customer Account	N/A	Bill To and Sold To Contact information: Work and Personal Email Work, Mobile, Home and Other phone numbers, and Address fields Default Payment Method plus any Electronic Payment Methods
Avalara Integration	N/A	Credentials are scrubbed on the first copy. Once credentials are updated in the Central Sandbox, it is retained on subsequent refreshes.
Notifications and Callouts	N/A	N/A
Payment Method	N/A	After a Zuora Central Sandbox is provisioned, the previous payment methods are no longer available in the Central Sandbox environment. You have to create new payment methods.
Payment Gateway Configurations	N/A	Credentials are scrubbed on the first copy. Once credentials are updated in the Central Sandbox, it is retained on subsequent refreshes.
Finance
NetSuite	N/A	NetSuite integration credentials
Additional Add Ons
Workflow	N/A	User Emails Scheduled Workflows are disabled Authentication tokens will be re-generated Historical jobs are excluded SMTP Settings
Collections (All Apps)	N/A	Account Name API Tokens Usernames, Emails and Company Collections Manager schedules are excluded Statement Generator schedules are excluded SMTP Settings
Appstore Connector		Account Name
Tax Connector	N/A	Seller Company Name, Address, Tax Codes Credentials Historical Tax Requests excluded
OAuth	NA	OAuth credentials scrubbed

Support for Zuora Features, Add-ons, Integrations

Zuora features, add-ons, and integrations are generally supported except where noted in the following table:

	API Sandbox	Zuora Central Sandbox
Notifications	Yes	Yes
Callouts	Yes	Yes
Single Sign-on	Yes	Yes
Two-factor Authentication	Yes	Yes
Reporting	Yes	Yes
New Invoice File Generation Service	Yes	Yes
New Quote File Generation Service	Yes	Yes
Orders UI, including creating Orders through the UI	Yes	Yes
Settings API	Yes	Yes
Data Query	Yes	Yes
Analytics	Yes	Yes
Custom Objects	Yes	Yes
Events and Triggers	Yes	Yes
Add-ons and Integrations
Zuora for Salesforce	Yes	Yes
Zuora for Salesforce	Zuora requires a 1-to-1 relationship with Salesforce for each Zuora environment.
Zuora 360	Manual, on-demand and scheduled	Yes
Zuora 360+	Real-Time Sync	Yes
Z-Suite	Yes	Yes
Avalara Connector	Yes	Yes
Payment Gateways	Yes Includes any gateway that is supported in production	Yes
Insights	No	No
Collections	Yes	Yes

Performance guidelines

Zuora provides the following guidelines and recommends you to contact Zuora Global Support if you plan to test over the guideline volumes within a 24 hour period. Note that these guidelines are not the System's limits. Zuora draws up these guidelines to anticipate the increased load of the testing environments.

	Zuora Central Sandbox **	Zuora Developer Sandbox	API Sandbox
API Testing	Yes	Yes	Yes
	> 500,000 API calls	> 50,000 API calls	> 10,000 API calls
Total Data Store	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Similar to Production (Production copy)	250,000 records (Total accounts and subscriptions)	5,000 records (upto 2,500 accounts + 2,500 subscriptions)
Data Load Testing	Yes		Yes
	> 500,000 records**		>5,000 records
**The guidelines for Zuora Central Sandbox should be followed for your Production environment.

Limits Policy

	API Sandbox	Zuora Developer Sandbox	Zuora Central Sandbox
Concurrent Request Limits	Bounded by Policy	Bounded by Policy	Bounded by Policy

For additional limits on API Sandbox and Developer Sandbox environments, see Limits policy for API Sandbox and Developer Sandbox environments.

If Customer’s use of the Service exceeds the usage limits in the applicable contracts or as described in this Knowledge Center article for any products provided, Customer must either purchase additional usage, if applicable, or move to the next edition of the Service. If Customer does not choose either of the options, Customer shall be considered out of compliance with such Service.

Security

	API Sandbox	Zuora Central Sandbox
PCI-compliant	Yes	No
SOC 1 and SOC 2-compliant	Yes	Yes
HIPAA-compliant	Yes	Yes
IP Whitelist	Yes	Yes
Two-factor Authentication	Yes	Yes

Zuora is committed to safeguarding the security, confidentiality, integrity, and availability of all physical and electronic information assets of the Company to ensure that regulatory, operational, and contractual requirements are fulfilled. Zuora's internal controls are benchmarked against industry standards such as ISO27001, ISO27018, PCI DSS Level 1, SOC 1, SOC 2 and HIPAA. Zuora Central Sandbox will be included in future ISO27001, ISO27018, PCI DSS Level 1, SOC 1, SOC 2 and HIPAA assessments starting in the fall of 2020.

Provisioning and Refreshing Your Data

Zuora provides the following guidelines for provisioning and data refresh turnaround times for Test Environments. We continuously strive to optimize performance and provide the best possible turnaround times for you.

When a Zuora Central Sandbox is provisioned, it will execute a data copy process that brings over a snapshot of your production data, with sensitive and PII data scrubbed. Subsequently, every data refresh request will take a new snapshot of your scrubbed production data. In both cases, the complete snapshot of your production data are as of the date and time when the request is submitted, as the data copy process will be triggered at a time after your request is made. Note that the scheduled runs, including Bill Run and Payment Run, are not copied from your production environment to Zuora Central Sandbox during the provisioning or refreshing process.

While the data copy for most tenants can be completed within less than 3 business days, it can take longer time to complete the data copy for large tenants. In addition, the process may also take longer during the first week of a month, a peak time of data refresh requests to get a full data snapshot of the previous month.

	API Sandbox	Zuora Central Sandbox
Provisioning Turnaround	Immediate with logins	2-3 business days Includes a copy of production data. Turn around is the best effort, and it may be longer for large size tenants.
Snapshot of Production Configuration Data	None	Included
Snapshot of Production Transactional Data	None	Included
Snapshot Refresh Frequency	None	Once every 28 Days
Refresh Snapshot Requests	None	Refresh Central Sandbox in Production Refresh turn around time can approximately take 1-3 days, managed as best effort with larger tenants taking longer.