Commerce Server Staging Quirks

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Commerce Server Staging Quirks

Commerce Server Staging (CSS) stages web sites and commerce server data across servers (read more here).

I encountered a couple quirks that weren't really documented; I'd be interested to hear any comments.
  • CSS can be configured to replicate a web directory.
  • CSS can be configured to migrate Commerce Server Data. However; it was a surprise to discover that this also replicates the web directory. Any comments as to why this implementation was chosen
  • CSS does not migrate the profile data when migrating Commerce Server Data - this kind of makes sense, as you wouldn't want to overwrite profiles when migrating profiles from the development to production environment. Again any comments and background on this decision would be appreciated.



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Commerce Server Staging Quirks

  • Andrei Kuzmenkov

    The project will load its file under "Project Local Directory", for example you are moving Product Catalog data when the project is executed it will start an export process and the export files are stored in this location until moved to the destination server(s).

    The rollback only works for content you may also want to do a quick search on our KBs as we have some hotfixes for CSS.

    Good luck,
    -Max



  • shivali.sadavarte

    Hi Adam,

    • An eCommerce Site needs to stage data as well as content like images, pdfs and code therefore we support this feature but only with the Enterprise SKU.
    • Not only does Commerce Server support replication Web Directories (Virtual Directories) it can move IIS Metabase. We saw the need for our customers to move more than just data therefore we implemented the features in CSS.
    • Profiles, Inventory and other System are not supported the reason for this is simple you normally would use an CRM system to synch your Profiles data and we have BizTalk adapters for that.

    I am confused as to what you think is a quirk

    -Max



  • aaks

    Update:

    One of my colleagues experienced the same quirk. Commerce Server Staging (CSS) overwrites the Web Content and Business Data (not the IIS specific properties, metadata, etc...) when the "Project Local Directory" (Business Data Staging) is identical across Staging Servers.

    It was also a surprise to discover that the CSS Rollback function displays an error message (doesn't work) in this case.

    The questions revolving around the "Project Local Directory" in my previous post are still outstanding.


  • Leandro Rodrigues

    Thanks Max,

    Evidently these aren't quirks - you've cleared things up quite nicely.

    I apologize I should have been clearer in my previous post.

    More clarification on the following would be nice:

    In the CSS GUI: we can choose between Web Content Staging and Business Data Staging. I assumed that Web Content Staging and Business Data Staging were completely disparate. I was surprised to discover that Business Data Staging also migrated the Web Content.

    Perhaps I didn't configure Staging properly, but is Business Data Staging supposed to migrate the Web Content as well as the Business Data

    I couldn't find any documentation on this behavior, and assumed it may be a quirk.

    I'm interested in reading a more comprehensive overview of CSS, which outlines what is migrated and the logic behind these decisions.

    Kudos to the CS team,
    Thanks for your time,


  • Stricken618

    So basically the "Project Local Directory" is the temporary holding directory

    My problem: I was assuming that the "Source Site" and "Project Local Directory" were related since they are next to each other in the UI.
    In my case I specified the Source Site (StarterSite) and then set the respective Project Local Directory to the StarterSite project's local directory. I setup the destination server similarly, ran staging and overwrote everything.

    Another question; How do you suggest testing CSS


  • kennm

    Max,

    Thanks for your speedy response.

  • Rigz

    Create a test site move your data into that and if all is well then move your data into the production environment. Normally you would not test Staging data as you are testing it on your Staging environment.

    -Max



  • GROTH

    We have updated our documentation and added some more text around CSS check it out and see if you notice anything new :).

    The IIS tab in the Project Properties is to synchronize Web Content and move data into a Virtual Directory (VDir). Just be careful that by moving a VDir data the CSS will create a VDir on the System where the project is executed.

    I will try and blog about CSS when I get a chance in the mean time I have some sample code under my blog http://blogs.msdn.com/maxakbar/pages/commerce-server-staging-api-samples.aspx that is not in the documentation.


  • Commerce Server Staging Quirks
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