Your full copy sandbox is an important asset, occupying a pivotal point in the development lifecycle. We understand that it is important that refreshing and masking records is completed with the least disruption to your development team. Gearset In-place masking, provides the quickest and most robust tool to mask your data. This framework provides the best practice, ensuring the process goes as smoothly as possible. Of course, each business is different, and the model is designed to provide flexibility for teams to customise to suit their specific needs.
Make a plan before you start
The first step is to decide what you will be masking. Think about:
What objects need masking?
How many records are there of each object?
How many fields for each object need masking?
Masking unnecessary data will extend the timeframe, therefore it is important to choose just the fields needed. The runtime is directly proportional to the number of fields. It is helpful at this stage to establish what your goal is, for masking data. Is it to prevent test emails being accidentally sent out? Is it a compliance requirement?
If you are masking tens of millions of records, please reach out to Gearset customer support. We are happy to provide additional support and advice to ensure the process goes smoothly.
You also need to establish when masking can be performed. You will encounter less errors, if other users and processes are not running on your sandbox.
Test your process and create templates
It is best practice to test your process on a separate sandbox, before the main event. This sandbox can be seeded using the Gearset Sandbox Seeding tool. This will help you estimate how long the process will take and iron out any permission or validation issues. Use our guide to running your first in-place masking for more details on the tool.
You can also create masking templates from these test runs. These masking templates can be used when masking your full copy sandbox, reducing the risk of human error.
Communicate with your team
While refreshing and masking your sandbox, it is best that other team members are not using it. This may slow down development. Therefore it is important to discuss the process with your team beforehand and set expectations. Find a time when it will be least disruptive.
Any in progress development work that has not promoted to production, will be lost when Salesforce refreshes the sandbox.
Refreshing and Masking
The process starts with refreshing your full copy sandbox in Salesforce. When the refresh has completed, you may need to re-authenticate your connection in Gearset. Once this is done, you are ready to start running in-place masking. You can use the templates created earlier to speed up the process.
If other users and processes are not running on your sandbox, you will encounter less errors. If you do get errors, Gearset customer support is available to help. You can also use the table below, to trouble shoot.
Error | Probable Cause | Remedy |
CANNOT_UPDATE CONVERTED_LEAD | Permission missing | Assign the permission for editing converted leads to the user |
UNABLE_TO_LOCK ROW | A user or process has locked the record we are trying to mask | Run in-place masking when other users aren't accessing the sandbox. Alternatively, try using the SOAP API through the Gearset settings |
Timeout | The Salesforce Org is under heavy load | Run in-place masking when other users and processes aren't accessing the sandbox |