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More than one environment and SiteSync

Current setup

Environments: You have one of the following set of environments:

  • Development and one or more Test
  • Development and Staging
  • Development, one or more Test, and Staging
  • Development, one or more Test, and Live
  • Development, Staging, and Live
  • Development, one or more Test, Staging, and Live

SiteSync: You have a system with or without SiteSync.

IMPORTANT: This version of Sitefinity CMS is out of support and the respective product documentation is no longer maintained and can be outdated. Use the version selector to view a supported product version.

Desired setup

Environments: You want to setup in Continuous integration the following environments:

  • Development environment
  • One or more Test environments and one SiteSync Test environment
  • Staging and a Live environments.

SiteSync: You want to use SiteSync to synchronize content between the Staging and the Live environments.
PREREQUISITES: Before you setup the Continuous delivery process, perform the following:
  • Obtain a license that supports the SiteSync module 
  • Make sure that the project code is the same both on your Live and Development environments:
    If you have any development in progress on your Development environment, make sure you complete it and release it to Live, before you continue with setting up the Continuous delivery process.
  • Upgrade your project on all environments to Sitefinity CMS 9.2 or above.
    For more information, see Upgrade.

Migrate the configurations

Before you setup Continuous delivery, you must determine the storage mode of your configuration files.
For more information, see Determine the storage mode of configurations.

If your configurations are stored in the database, you must first migrate them.
For more information, see Migrate configurations.

Setup the Development environment

In your Development environment, open your project and perform the following:

  1. Download your latest database and restore it to your Development environment.
    • If you already have Development and Live environments, download the database from Live.
    • If you already have Development and Staging environments, download the database from Staging.
    • If you have Development and Test environments, download the database from Test.
  2. Change the connection string in the DataConfig.config to point to the restored database.
  3. Make sure Read-only mode of configurations is turned off.
  4. Make sure the Staging & Syncing module is activated.
    For more information, see Activate and deactivate modules.
  5. Configure SiteSync for Continuous delivery.
  6. Set Deployment mode to Source.
  7. Turn on Auto-storage of configurations.
  8. Restart the application.

RESULT: Your Development environment is setup for Continuous delivery and you can deploy your project to Test environments.

Setup the Test environments
  1. Deploy your project without the database from your Development environment to your Test environment.
    For more information on deployment options and procedures, see Deployment.
  2. Download your latest database and restore it to your Test environment.
    • If you already have Development and Live environments, download the database from Live.
    • If you already have Development and Staging environments, download the database from Staging.
    • If you have Development and Test environments, then the latest database is already on Test.
  3. Change the connection string in the DataConfig.config to point to the restored database.
  4. Open your deployed project and make the following settings:
  5. Set Deployment mode to Target.
  6. Turn on Read-only mode of configurations.
  7. Verify that the project is working correctly.
  8. Perform this procedure for every Test environment that you want to have.

RESULT: Your Test environment is setup for Continuous delivery. You have a project where you can setup SiteSync and test it.

Setup the Test environment that is used as target for the SiteSync

  1. Deploy your project and its database from your Test environment to your SiteSync Test environment.
    For more information on deployment options and procedures, see Deployment.
  2. Change the connection string in the DataConfig.config to point to the restored database.
  3. Setup SiteSync between the Test environment and the SiteSync Test environments.
    Set the Test environment as the source server for synchronization and the SiteSync Test environment as the target server for synchronization.
    For more information, see Configure the servers for synchronization.
  4. Verify that SiteSync is working correctly.
    For more information, see SiteSync procedure.

RESULT: You have a Test environment that is stable and ready to be deployed to your Staging and Live environment and a SiteSyncTest environment where SiteSync works correctly.

Setup the Staging and the Live environments
  1. Deploy your project without the database from your Test environment to your Staging environment and to your Live environment.
    For more information on deployment options and procedures, see Deployment.
  2. Download your latest database and restore it to your Staging environment.
    • If you already have a Staging environment, then the latest database is already on Staging.
    • If you already have Development and Live environments, but no Staging, download the database from Live.
    • If you have Development and Test environments, download the database from Test.
  3. Download your latest database and restore it to your Live environment.
    • If you already have a Live environment, then the latest database is already on Live.
    • If you already have Development and Staging environments, but no Live, download the database from Staging.
    • If you only have Development and Test environments, download the database from Test.
  4. Change the connection strings of both environment to point to their restored databases.
    The connection string is located in the DataConfig.config.
  5. Setup SiteSync between the Staging environment and the Live environments.
    Set the Staging environment as the source server for synchronization and the Live environment as the target server for synchronization.
    For more information, see Configure the servers for synchronization.
  6. Restart both environments.

RESULT: Your project is Live. Your environments are continuously integrated and ready for Continuous delivery.

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