KB-1831 Cloning Appian Cloud Sites FAQ

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to answer common questions involved with cloning an Appian Cloud site for troubleshooting purposes.

What is a clone?
A clone is a replica of an existing Appian Cloud site. A new AWS instance is started, and a snapshot from an existing (host) Appian Cloud site is used to populate data on the new instance(s) creating a new separate site. All Appian Cloud clones are hosted in the same secure infrastructure as other Appian Cloud sites and are subject to the same security compliance protocols and controls.

Why does Appian Support request to create a clone?
Appian Support requests to clone a site for troubleshooting purposes. When investigating certain issues, it is sometimes necessary to test and debug directly to better understand the nature and scope of the behavior. In order to eliminate the risk of impact to an actual Appian Cloud site, it is necessary to run these tests on a clone of the environment.

What data will be cloned?
As a clone is created from a snapshot of a host site, all data as it exists at the time of the snapshot on the host site will be copied and present on the clone. For example, all Appian objects will be included, but not data hosted externally in customer databases.

Who has access to the code/data hosted in the clone?
Access to the code/data hosted in the clone is restricted to the following groups and is never shared with any third parties to ensure data integrity:

Those who have access to the original Appian Cloud site.
Team members from Appian Support and/or Appian's Product team that are involved in diagnosing and troubleshooting the issue(s) reported by the customer.

Do clones have any impact on the host Appian Cloud site or other existing environments?
No, clone sites exist separately outside of the host site and other existing Appian Cloud environments. Furthermore, outbound activity (emails, traffic, etc.) will be disabled as to not interfere with external systems.

How long is the clone and its data persisted?
The clone is persisted as long as the investigation into the current issue persists. Once the investigation is complete or no longer requires access to the clone, Appian will shut down the clone and delete its corresponding data. The clone can also be shut down at any time at the customer's discretion.

Affected Versions

This article applies to all versions of Appian Cloud.

Last Reviewed: April 2026

KB-1831 Cloning Appian Cloud Sites FAQ

Purpose

Table of Contents:

Affected Versions