Week 3 of 8

Accounts and environments

NetSuite gives you several account types and they behave differently. A sandbox is a copy of production, and each refresh overwrites it. A development account never holds production data and is never refreshed, but it really sends email and creates invoices. Release Preview runs the next version, and it ends on your production upgrade date.

The sandbox is upgraded after production, not before. So the sandbox cannot be your preview of the next release. Release Preview is.

This week: give every account a job and a refresh rule

Write down what each account is for: development account for building, sandbox for SIT, UAT and training, Release Preview for upgrade regression, production for smoke tests only.
Agree when the sandbox is refreshed. A refreshed copy must be activated within 14 days or it is deleted, and activation replaces everything in it.
Never request a refresh close to an upgrade. Oracle says a refresh fails if it does not finish before the upgrade starts, and to wait if the upgrade is 72 hours away.
Set email routing for sandbox and Release Preview (Setup > Company > Email > Email Preferences) so test runs cannot email customers.

Number of the week

7 days

is how long after production your sandbox can wait for its upgrade, so test the new release in Release Preview.

Source: Oracle NetSuite Help Center, Version Upgrade FAQ

Use this week

Test Schedule & Cycle Calendar →
Plan refreshes, test cycles and freezes against the upgrade dates.
Testing Risk Register →
Log environment risks such as a refresh colliding with the upgrade.

Next week: the Release Preview window itself. How to request it, keep it alive and use every day of it.

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