An environment in Dataverse is the container that stores the data, apps, processes, reports and other components within a Dataverse solution. A common use case for creating added Dataverse environments is to keep “production”, “test”, and “development” activities separated. In this blog post, we will walk through the steps of creating a new Dataverse environment and learn about the environment types and scenarios where you would use them along the way.

There are six environment types available for Dataverse and each is intended for a specific use. For example, the Production type is used for the long-term work of the organization, while the Trial type is used for short-term testing. Knowing the environment’s purpose will guide you in what type you will create. Here are the six environment types and example use cases: 

Type	Description	Use case
Production	Intended for long-term storage and work.	A production app running the business of an organization.
Default	Auto-created with the tenant.	A user created Flow that saves email attachments to OneDrive.
Sandbox	Intended for non-production use.	A development area for an app.
Trial	Intended for short-term testing.	Feature testing in Dataverse.
Developer	Intended for single user development.	Learn and lab environment for Dataverse.
Microsoft Dataverse for Teams	Auto-created when Power Apps is added to Microsoft Teams.	A custom app built for Teams.

For a more detailed explanation of the different environment types see the Microsoft Environment Overview page. 

In our demo, we will create a new Sandbox environment that can be used for Dataverse development. Start by connecting to the Power Platform admin center at: https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com. 

• Click Environments

• Click New 

• Supply an environment Name, select your target Region, set Create a database for this environment to Yes and then click Next   

• Review the available options, update as needed and then click Save 

• The provisioning process can be viewed in the State column  

You can access the newly created environment through the Power Platform Admin Center for administrative actions like performing backups, applying updates and granting access. 

To start creating and building solutions in your new Dataverse environment go to https://make.powerapps.com/ and then selecting your target environment. 

Despite being a relatively simple exercise, creating a new Dataverse environment does require the correct permissions and Microsoft licensing. See the Microsoft Who can create environments article for a detailed breakdown of requirements. If you plan on developing and deploying Dataverse solutions, do so in the right environment and the right environment is rarely the Default. For more information on planning your environments check out this post on the Power Apps blog Establishing an Environment Strategy for Microsoft Power Platform. 

Thanks for reading! 

NY 

• Dataverse