Prerequisites and restrictions

Before you can use site synchronization, there are the following prerequisites:

• To access Staging & Syncing, your user must have permissions to access the Staging & Syncing module. For more information, see Administration: Security and authentication.
• The Sitefinity CMS version must be the same, you cannot synchronize between two different builds.
• You must use the same license on both target and source servers.
• All sites must be deployed on IIS.
  For more information, see Run projects on IIS.
• The target and the source databases must be the same. Sitefinity CMS synchronizes only the content, not the database itself. Before you setup synchronization, copy the database, so that it is the same on both locations.
• Except for the connection string and the SiteSyncConfig.config file, the configuration of the sites you want to sync must be the same (the content of all .config files in folder ~\App_Data\Sitefinity\Configuration\.) These does not include your web.config file.
• All sites must have the same backend languages.
  Front end languages are synced by automatically.
  For more information, see Administration: Language settings.
• You must have activated the Feeds & Notifications module on both environments.
  For more information, see  Activate and deactivate modules.
• You must have activated the Staging & Syncing module on both environments.
  For more information, see  Activate and deactivate modules.
• If you are using claims-based authentication, make sure only Anonymous authentication is enabled and all other authentications are disabled on both the source and the target servers. For more information, see Authentication and Single Sign-On (SSO).
• Make sure that all inactive modules on the source server are also inactivated on the target server.

Staging & Syncing feature has the following limitations:

• You can synchronize one server at a time.
• Synchronization of deactivated modules is not supported.
  
• If a module is deactivated on the source server, you must deactivate it on the target server.
• Product types are not synced
  The products of a certain product type that exists before you duplicate the database and setup site synchronization are synchronized, but if you edit the properties or the fields of a product type, they are not synchronized. We recommend that you create all required product types prior to synchronization. If you need to change a product type after synchronization, change it on the source server and then replicate the source database on the target server.
• If after synchronization of multilingual custom product type fields, you delete one or more of the language translations of the custom product type field, they are not deleted on the target server. You must do this manually.
  For more information, see Product types » Translating product type and its custom fields.

The Staging & Syncing feature of Sitefinity CMS can synchronize dynamic modules and dynamic content types.

If you have a dynamic module on both target and source server and then you upgrade to Sitefinity CMS 6.0, even if you already have the same module on both environments, it has different ID in the different databases. Before you want to synchronize dynamic modules, you must duplicate the database from the source to the target server.

You can choose to synchronize the structure of the module or both the structure and its data. The structure of the module includes creating any new fields and dynamic module types, editing them or changing the hierarchy.

IMPORTANT: When you change the structure of a module, you must do this only on the source server. Sitefinity CMS will synchronize the target with the source.

IMPORTANT: If you have multisite license, when you create a new module, you must also manually synchronize the dynamicModuleConfig.config files on the source and the destination servers, prior to the synchronization.