What is a Staging Environment?
A staging environment is a complete copy of your live website. It is created from the current state of your Box and provides a safe development and testing environment.
You can use it to:
Update plugins
Test themes
Try out design changes
Develop new features
Troubleshoot issues
Once you're happy with your changes, you can deploy them back to your live website.
Features and Limitations of the Staging Environment
✅ Dedicated WordPress installation
✅ Dedicated database
✅ Dedicated file system
✅ Dedicated log files
✅ Dedicated SFTP access
✅ Dedicated, system-generated staging URL (cannot be changed)
✅ Separate server resources from your live website
⚠️ No backups are created for your staging environment.
💡Need backups for your staging environment?
With the optional Staging Add-on, every staging environment includes its own dedicated backup system.
⚠️ Password protection is always enabled and cannot be disabled.
⚠️ The staging URL is automatically generated and cannot be changed.
⚠️ No server-side cache is available for staging environments.
⚠️ WordPress and PHP versions cannot be tested independently.
💡Tip
If you need to test a different WordPress or PHP version, clone a Box instead.
Creating a Staging Environment
You can create a staging environment directly from your Box.
Step 1: Open the Staging tab.
Step 2: Click the blue + Create New Staging Environment button.
Step 3: Optionally enter a name for your staging environment.
Step 4: Confirm the creation.
Raidboxes will now create a complete copy of your current live website.
ℹ️ Depending on the size of your website and current system activity, the creation process may take a few minutes.
Managing Your Staging Environment
Once created, your Staging Environment appears in the Staging tab.
Click the following icon to open the details of your staging environment.
From here, you can access:
Website Access (password protection)
SFTP connection details
MySQL database access
Log files for debugging
WordPress Admin login
WordPress Admin Login
Your staging environment uses the same WordPress login credentials as your Live Box.
You can access the WordPress Admin area in three different ways:
1️⃣ Click the WP Login link inside your staging environment.
2️⃣ Click WP-Login from within the staging overview.
3️⃣ Open your staging URL in your browser and append /wp-admin
Example:
https://stagingurl.myrdbx.io/wp-admin
SFTP Access
Your Staging Environment uses the same SFTP credentials as your Live Box.
These credentials are also displayed in the staging details page for convenience.
Once connected via SFTP, you'll find additional directories for your staging environment within your Box.
The directories for your Live Box remain unchanged. Matching directories for your staging environment are created with an additional suffix.
Example:
wordpress => wordpress_f
logs => logs_f
Only make changes inside the directories with the corresponding suffix when working on your staging environment.
Changes made in directories without the suffix affect your Live Box.
Website Access (Password Protection)
Every staging environment is automatically protected by the website access (password protection).
This protection:
is always enabled
cannot be disabled
This ensures that your staging environment is not publicly accessible and cannot be indexed by search engines.
Staging URL
Every staging environment receives its own URL.
The URL:
is automatically generated
cannot be changed
Deploying Changes to Your Live Website
⚠️ Backups
Before deploying, we strongly recommend creating a backup of your Live Box.
This allows you to restore your live website if the deployment doesn't produce the expected results.
Once you've finished testing your changes, you can deploy them to your live website.
Click Deploy from within your staging environment.
The deployment always works as follows:
Source: Your Staging Environment
Target: Your Live Website
Your staging environment is identified by the [ENV] label.
Standard Deployment
A standard deployment transfers the complete contents of your Staging Environment to your live website.
This includes, for example:
Files
Database
Your current live website will be overwritten.
Expert Mode
For advanced use cases, Expert Mode allows you to choose exactly which data should be transferred.
For example, you can deploy:
selected database tables only
files without the database
all database tables except specific ones
selected directories only
Deleting a Staging Environment
⚠️ Important
Deleting a staging environment permanently removes it.
A deleted staging environment cannot be restored.
Our support team is also unable to recover deleted staging environments.
Syncing Changes from Your Live Website to an Existing Staging Environment
Once a staging environment has been created, it is not automatically synchronized with changes made to your live website.
If you want your staging environment to reflect the latest version of your live website, you have two options:
You no longer need the changes in your current staging environment: Delete the existing staging environment and create a new one. A fresh copy of your current Live Box will be created.
You want to keep the changes made in your staging environment: First, deploy those changes to your Live Box. Afterward, delete the existing staging environment and create a new one.
Need Multiple Staging Environments or Backups?
The free Staging feature includes:
One Staging Environment
No backups
If you need multiple development environments or want to create and restore backups for your Staging Environments, you can purchase the Staging Add-on.
The Add-on includes:
A second staging environment
Automatic and manual backups
Backup restore functionality
More flexible deployments between environments
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