A systems administrator is installing a new software package on a server. The software has many dependencies. Which of the following would be the BEST solution for the systems administrator to take…

Deploying directly to production exposes live systems and users to potential downtime if the software or its dependencies cause conflicts or failures.

A sandbox is an isolated environment that mirrors production, allowing the administrator to install and test the software and its dependencies without affecting live systems. If the installation causes conflicts or failures, only the sandbox is impacted. This ensures production uptime is preserved until the deployment is verified as stable.

Uninstalling the application software is unrelated to safely installing a new package with dependencies and does nothing to prevent downtime.

Uninstalling software updates does not address the risk of installing a complex new package and could introduce security vulnerabilities on the server.