WCM Deploying to a Test Server

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The official documentation is at: http://docs.alfresco.com

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1. Set up a test server pool.
   
2. Obtain a test server from the pool against which to deploy your instance.
   
3. From your sandbox, deploy to the test server.
   
4. Preview the content.
   
5. Complete tests on the test server to validate your deployment.
   
6. Release the test server to back to the pool.
   
7. Promote your content to the staging sandbox.
   
8. Deploy to the Live Server.
   

Table of Contents

• 1 1. Setting up a Test Server Pool


• 2 2. Obtaining a Test Server for Deployment


• 3 3. Deploying to the Test Server


• 4 4. Previewing the Content


• 5 5. Complete Validation Tests


• 6 6. Releasing the Test Server

1. Setting up a Test Server Pool

To use the Test Server deployment, you must create a sufficiently sized pool of 'test' web application instances to support the expected amount of concurrent in-context preview activity. 

IMPORTANT: This pool must be large enough to prevent a bottleneck in the content production process, as contributors would be forced to wait for a test server to become available before being able to conduct their preview activities. 

2. Obtaining a Test Server for Deployment

Once the test server pool has been created, you can complete the following process in either the user sandbox or review sandbox. The process is the same for both.

1. From the user sandbox, open the More Actions menu and click the Deploy icon.
   

Deploy-icon.jpg

From the review sandbox click the Deploy icon in the Resources panel header.

1. Click the Deploy icon to open the following Deploy Website window. This displays all the unallocated test servers.
   

Deploy-test-server-first.jpg

1. Choose a test server to use (only one test server can be allocated to a sandbox at a time) and click OK. This allocates the test server to the current sandbox and deploy the contents of the sandbox. The Monitor Deployment window opens. This window shows the progress of each deployment currently executing in the server.
   

Note: An AJAX callback is used to poll the server for progress. The frequency of this polling request can be set in the web-client-config-wcm.xml configuration file.

Once the deployment completes the state is updated as shown below. When a URL has been configured, this displays under the Deployment Successful message to allow instant previewing of the deployed site. If an error occurs, the reason for the error is shown under the Deployment Failed message.

Deploy-success.jpg

You can close the window at any time during the deployment. However, you cannot return to the window (this will be rectified in a future release). To monitor progress if the Monitor Deployment window is closed, open the snapshot list in the staging area and monitor the status column, an IN PROGRESS message will be shown if one or more deployment processes are executing.

If there are no unallocated test servers available the window will show the following message:

No-test-servers-left.jpg

3. Deploying to the Test Server

Once a test server has been obtained,

1. Click the Deploy icon. The Deploy Changes window displays as follows. This is confirms which server is allocated to the sandbox before deployment.
   

Deploy-test-server-changes.jpg

4. Previewing the Content

5. Complete Validation Tests

6. Releasing the Test Server

1. Promote your content to the staging sandbox.
   
2. Deploy to the Live Server.
   

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