Prerequisites and restrictions

Before you use site synchronization, the following prerequisites must be met:

• 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.
• 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\.), the only exception being for the connection string and the SiteSyncConfig.config file. These does not include your web.config file.
• All sites must have the same backend languages.
  Front end languages are synced automatically.
  For more information, see Administration: Language settings.
• The Staging & Syncing module on both environments must be activated.
  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).
• Ensure that all inactive modules on the source server are also inactivate on the target server.

Staging & Syncing feature has the following limitations:

• Synchronization of deactivated modules is not supported.
  
• If a module is deactivate 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 typically synchronized, but if you edit the properties or the fields of a product type, they do not get synchronized automatically. Sitefinity recommends 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 you delete one or more of the language translations of the custom product type field after synchronization of multilingual custom product type fields, , the language translations 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 synchronizes 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 IDs in the different databases. Before you 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 synchronizes the target with the source.