Sandbox datasets and the promotion process

BMC CMDB automatically creates a personal Sandbox for every user, so that multiple users can edit configuration items (CIs) from the production dataset without interfering with each other. By using a Sandbox dataset to edit configuration items (CIs), you take advantage of a safety mechanism that prevents unintended changes to your production data. 

The Sandbox acts as a temporary staging area before promoting your changes to the production BMC Asset dataset. Because users have their own Sandbox, this safety mechanism prevents them from editing instances directly used in the production. The Sandbox dataset is an overlay dataset for the BMC Asset dataset and allows you to make changes in a separate partition without changing the production data and without duplicating the entire dataset.

Only new or edited CIs are present in the Sandbox view — all other CIs exist in the production dataset. You cannot directly edit data in the production dataset. You must use the Sandbox. This makes sure that your edits are reconciled and the production dataset continues to accurately represent your environment.

You must work in the Sandbox view instead of the BMC Asset view when you are making changes to CIs. When you click an instance in the display pane and select Edit,  you are prompted to convert the BMC Asset view into a Sandbox view.

Promotion process

After you finish editing instances in your Sandbox, you promote your changes to the production dataset. The Reconciliation Engine includes out-of-the-box rules to promote your changes from the Sandbox to the production dataset. Only the Reconciliation Engine can update the production BMC Asset dataset. For more information, see  Promotion of changes from a Sandbox dataset to production.

For example, the Sandbox (and the instances contained in it) that belongs to Allen Allbrook at Calbro Services is different from the Sandbox that belongs to Mary Mann. Allen cannot directly create, edit, or delete CIs in the BMC Asset dataset, which is reserved for production use. Instead, he would query for a CI, drag it to his Sandbox, edit the CI, and then promote his changes back to the BMC Asset dataset.

All changes you make in a Sandbox dataset are saved in the Sandbox dataset until you decide to promote those changes to the BMC Asset dataset by clicking Promote Sandbox Changes in the toolbar.

When you click Review Sandbox on the CMDB Explorer and then Promote, all of your CI changes are promoted. A reconciliation job reconciles your changes with the production instances in the BMC Asset dataset. Your edits in the Sandbox dataset are immediate. If you make a change that conflicts with an earlier change, your new change overwrites it.

While the promotion is running, all instances in Sandbox views are unavailable. Only one promotion can be running at any time for all the Sandbox users in BMC CMDB. If another user has started a promotion, CMDB Explorer notifies you that a promotion is already running.

After the promotion has completed, any views with Sandbox instances that have been promoted now contain the production instances from the BMC Asset dataset.