MOSS 2007 Content Deployment (4 of 4)

Introduction

This article is the last in the series of four articles on Content Deployment. We looked at some best practices and considerations in planning for and setting up content deployment. We’ve gone ahead and configured content deployment under on server farm with two separate web applications.

This article will close out the series by providing some guidance on what should happen right after content deployment is setup, list some known issues and additional recommendations.

Post Content Deployment

Now that you have configured and executed your first deployment job, it’s time to look at some additional tasks that can come handy post your deployment.

·         Now it’s probably a good time to go back to the Manage the Content Deployment Paths and Jobs page found here: _admin/Deployment.aspx and edit your Job to include only changed content.

·         Don’t forget about Version control and setting that up on the destination site collection to limit the size of your content database as well as for general performance reasons.

o   Sign In to your destination site collection: http://destinationbeagle and access the Manage Content and Structure administration page from the Site Actions menu. This page will give us a good overview of our site collection and gives us the ability to access its settings and content easily and in one place. You may even consider this administration page as one you can use to “deploy” content from one place to another in the same site collection.

o   From there locate your Pages library and access its settings

o   Click on Versioning Setting and configure version control. This will help to keep things light on your production site collection. You may do the same for all your other libraries, such as the Master Page Gallery, or Site Collection Images, or Style Library

·         For an Internet facing web site, an additional step will be required to disable the viewing of application Forms pages such as AllItems.aspx or DispForm.aspx. To do so, you will need to execute a stsadm operation to activate the lock down feature on the destination site collection.

o   Open the command prompt and change directory to: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\bin and execute the following command: stsadm –o activatefeature –url http://destinationbeagle –filename ViewFormPagesLockdown\feature.xml

To show how this works, I have went ahead and create a Task List, added the List to the homepage on the Source Beagle site collection, and executed the deployment job, then I ran the command stated above.

You may need to Disable Anonymous Access then Enable it back on. Anonymous Access is configure via this URL: /_layouts/setanon.aspx

Now Anonymous users are not able to access those List and Library Forms pages. They will be prompted if doing so. This feature removes the following permissions from the Limited Access permission level: View Application Pages permission, and the Use Remote Interfaces permission

·         After deploying your site collection or site, make sure to go back and review your customizations and ensure that they are set. There is a known issue with custom Master Pages and Style sheets. Access the Site Settings and ensure that your Master Page and Style sheet are configured as they are on the source farm.

The following URL gets you right into where you can modify settings for your site’s Master Pages: /_Layouts/ChangeSiteMasterPage.aspx

·         Ensure that features activated on source site collection and its sub sites are also activated on destination site collection and its sub sites

Known Errors and Fixes

The following table lists some of the known issues with Content Deployment.

Table 12 - Known Issues and Fixes

Additional Recommendations

·         Do not include User Security when deploying to an Internet facing site collection. This is set on the Path editing page

·         Set anonymous access after the site collection has been deployed for an Internet facing site collection

·         Do not enable or disable features prior to deploying your site collection for the first time. It is recommended to keep that task for the deployment job

·         Plan on reviewing custom master pages and their settings after deploying your site. Content Deployment will deploy custom master pages, but may fail in setting them up and associate them with your site. Access the /_layouts/Settings.aspx page for each site and reset those Master Page settings

·         Destination site collection will need to be created with the Blank Template

·         Deploy entire site collection first and in full, then configure incremental deployment thereafter

·         Deploy parent sites then children sites

·         Mixing content deployment approaches is not recommended. For example, deploying a site collection to a new web application using database backup and restore is not recommended as a first option if you are planning on using out-of-the-box content deployment through Central Administration pages.

·         Configure version control on all Pages, Styles, and Master Page libraries on destination farm

·         Remember to configure Version control, preferably on the source site collection to limit the number of allowed versions

·         It’s recommended to schedule your content deployment jobs to run on a daily basis. These jobs can then run alongside with any development and content authoring effort.  This will allow you to find out ahead of time if a certain issue exists or deployment fails under a certain circumstance

Conclusion

Well, as you may have noticed, there was a lot to talk about in regards to content deployment. It’s great if you set it up right, and it can be a pain otherwise. Try to remember to follow and consider the recommendations presented in this series and feel free to write back to us and share your thoughts on the subject.

Till next time, happy deployments!