Sandbox Refresh
Happens twice a year - February and August
Good to remind people the week before (when the release occurs)
After the sandbox is copied over, you have to fix a bunch of configuration stuff.
Recommendation - open Alma Sandbox in one browser, and Alma production in another. You’ll likely want to check configurations in production to copy over.
General admin pieces
Go to Configuration > General > Alma Logo and Color Scheme to change the color back to the sandbox yellow/gold so it’s distinct from production
Note - this was needed for refresh Feb 9, 2026
Go to Configuration > General > Allowed SFTP Connections and relist the SFTP server
Note - this was not needed for refresh Feb 9, 2026
Go to Configuration > General > SFTP Definitions and edit Duke SFTP Server to point to the /sandbox directory instead of /production
Note - this was needed for refresh Feb 9, 2026
Go to Configuration > General > Allowed Emails and re-add any emails used for testing / by staff
Note - this was needed for refresh Feb 9, 2026
Integration Profiles
Fix the date format in the courses integration (General > Integration Profiles) - change from MM-dd-yyyy to MM/dd/yyyy
Note - this was needed for refresh Feb 9, 2026
Discovery / Publishing
Check if its publishing to the Summon preview environment - if not, Ex Libris needs to change the configuration back.
Note from Erin Feb 9, 2026 - I wrote this list but I am actually not sure how to check this.
Recreate any publishing profiles used for pipeline publishing and testing
Note that we do not publish from the Sandbox to Primo, and the Summon profile is the same as on production (at least as of July 2025)
ELUNA resource
In August 2025, there was a thread on the ELUNA Alma list discussing the sandbox refresh and a school shared their documentation on the list. I’m attaching it here primarily because there are Primo suggestions that we should look at if/when we get to Primo.