Instances
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A B2C Commerce instance contains the tools and resources for customizing storefronts. You can access an instance through your browser, or you can use Business Manager.
Instance Types
There are four instance types: Sandbox, Staging, Development, and Production. Depending on
the type, the instance is either in the realm's primary instance group (PIG) or a secondary
instance group (SIG).
| | Sandboxes | Staging | Development | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Usage | Used by customer developers to create and update storefront code. Note: Sandboxes without login activity for 150 days might be deleted. We will notify you before a sandbox and its data are scheduled to be deleted.
|
Merchandising work is done here. | Simulates the production environment. Used as the final step in testing the intersection of content and code. Goes through the CDN provided by B2C Commerce, but doesn't cache. | Live instance used for storefront transactions. Connected to the CDN provided by B2C Commerce. If active merchandising is enabled, collects active data. Storefront toolkit is disabled. |
| Location | SIG | PIG | PIG | PIG |
| Data I/O | Most system jobs are disabled for sandboxes. | Data and code are uploaded to Staging and then replicated to Production or Development. | Data and code are replicated from Staging. Data can be exported from the instance. | Data and code are replicated from Staging. Active data is gathered from Production and imported into other instance types. Data can be exported from the instance and imported into Staging. |
| Global Release |
Updated for:
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| Caching | Caching is disabled. Full file system checks are performed. | Not connected to the CDN provided by B2C Commerce. Caching is disabled. Full file system checks are performed. | Caching is disabled. No file system checks are performed. | Caching is enabled all the way through to the browser. |
Who Uses Which Instance Type?
Depending on the size of your team, one person can play more than one role.
| Role | Instance Type | Responsibilities |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | Sandbox, Staging | A developer creates or modifies templates, pipelines, and scripts on a local
machine and uploads them to a Sandbox instance to test. Ultimately, the developer
is responsible for uploading code to the Staging instance. The developer can also
export data added by merchandisers on the Staging instance to use as test data for
the sandboxes. Note: Developers never use the Development instance unless they are
involved in the testing process for the production site.
|
| Merchandiser | Staging | A merchandiser or online marketer is typically responsible for creating campaigns and promotions, managing product information, and configuring search behavior. |
| Administrator | All instances | An admin is responsible for granting access to instances and functionality on instances. The admin restarts instances, manages data feeds, and uploads certificates. |
| Quality Assurance Engineer | Development | This role is responsible for testing the site in conditions as close to production as possible. No code development is done on the Development instance. |