Test the new version in a sandbox

Updating Business Central is less risky if you have tried it first on a copy of your own data. Microsoft itself recommends testing critical business scenarios before production is updated. The article shows how to create a sandbox as a copy of production, update it to the new version and test the things that matter most to you. Use it as a template for your own test plan.

Create a sandbox as a copy

In the admin center you choose Environments, open the environment you want to copy and choose Copy. You specify that the new type is Sandbox, give it a name and create it. The status is first Preparing and then Active.

The copy gets the same application version as the source and contains the same per-tenant extensions and apps from AppSource. Remember that your quota of environments and storage must have room for the copy.

Update the sandbox to the new version

When a new major version is available, you can schedule an update of the sandbox. Choose the target version and date in the update settings. To start straight away, choose today's date and allow the update to run outside the update window if you need it done quickly.

About a month before a major release there is a preview version. It can only be created as a new sandbox with demo data, so you cannot test your own copy on it. Use it to check extensions and to learn what is new.

Precautions in the copy, and a test plan

Microsoft Learn describes precautions in the copy. Job queue entries are stopped so that none run by mistake. Outbound HTTP calls from extensions are blocked until you allow them per extension. Several setups are switched off, including webhooks, currency exchange rate updates, the Dataverse connection and email accounts of the types Microsoft 365 and Current User.

This means you have to set up email and integrations again if the test needs them. Do it deliberately and with test data, so that nothing is sent to real customers.

Build a test plan from your own processes, not from feature lists.

Sales: order, delivery, invoicing and credit memo.
Purchasing: order, receipt and posting the invoice.
Finance: journals, bank reconciliation, payment proposals and VAT.
Warehouse: counting, moving and inventory value.
Your own reports, layouts and integrations.
Per-tenant extensions and apps: open their pages and run their functions.
Permissions: sign in as an ordinary user in each role.

Document and decide

Write down findings with a screenshot, steps and expected result. Distinguish between errors in your setup, errors in an extension and changes in the standard product. If an extension has to be fixed, the new version must be uploaded with the install time set to the next major update.

When the test is clean, you schedule the update of production in a window where you can tolerate downtime.

Who tests

Let the people who use the system every day do the testing, not only IT. They know which figures have to match and where things usually go wrong. Give them a defined task and time in the calendar.

Agree who collects findings and who decides whether an update can go ahead.

When the sandbox is updated, Microsoft monitors the update, and the notification recipients get an email if there are errors. Use the Operations page in the admin center to see the status. If the update fails in the sandbox, you have learned that without affecting production.

Delete after use

Delete the sandbox when the test is finished, so that it does not use up your data capacity. Addverk is a new Business Central partner. See our upgrade service if you want help with the test process.