We’ll describe today a quick way to create a test environment of your production site.

Here are all the necessary steps:

create a sub-directory such as test on your server (e.g. http://www.your-site.com/test)

copy your production site under this new directory (excluding var directory)

duplicate your database and link your it to test store (you need to edit app/etc/local.xml and modify connection details)

use the following query: UPDATE core_config_data SET value = ‘http://www.your-site.com/test’ WHERE path = ‘web/unsecure/base_url’ OR path = ‘web/unsecure/base_url’

Now you can log into your test admin store through http://www.your-site.com/test/admin (admin can be replace by your real admin front name).

Make sure that you replace http://www.your-site.com/test by a real url.