What are the Staging Concepts?

Commerce Server Staging (CSS) lets you transfer and update your business data and Web site content from your development or staging environment to your production environment. For information about the types of data that you can stage, the functions CSS supports, and the terms and concepts that you use in staging, see the following sections:

• Types of Data CSS Can Stage

• Staging Functions

• Staging Terms and Concepts

Types of Data CSS Can Stage

You can use CSS to stage the following types of content and data:

• Web content:

  • Static content (HTML, images, digital media, and so on).

  • Dynamic content (such as Active Server Pages (ASP), Visual Basic scripts, and other scripts).

  • Files of all types (including Microsoft Word documents, Portable Document Format (PDF) files, compressed file archives, graphics, etc).

  • Commerce Server Pipelines (.PCF) files.

• Business data:

  • Catalogs and catalog schema changes.

  • Marketing data such as advertising, discounts, and promotion codes.

  • Site terms.

  • Order configuration (payment methods and shipping terms).

  • Refresh cache with each business data type supported by staging.

• IIS metabase.

CSS does not support staging of the following data:

• Inventory data or inventory schema changes.

• Profiles or profile schema changes.

• Direct mailer jobs, lists, or configuration.

• Profile encryption keys.

• SSL certificates.

Staging Functions

CSS supports the following functions:

• Deploy content or data over WAN links and through firewalls on TCP port 507.

• Administer staging servers and projects remotely.

• Replicate the IIS metabase.

• Deploy content or data manually or on a predefined schedule.

• Execute scripts before or after you send and receive content or data.

Staging Options

CSS supports the following staging options:

• For Web content:

  • Automatic updates based on directory change notification (Deploy automatically as content changes).

  • Scheduled content deployments (Deploy Content based on a schedule).

  • Full update (Forced deployment of all content).

  • Incremental updates based on time stamp, only updated content is staged (Check time stamp only).

  • Timed release of content to support synchronous availability of content across time zones (Enable timed release). Content is held in temporary storage folder until an Apply command is received.

  • Transaction-based processing with user-defined and user-initiated manual rollback (Rollback and transactions).

  • Project-level filters to include or exclude specific content.

  • IIS virtual directory creation at the destination.

  • Keep destination files even if source files are deleted (Preserve content at destination when source content has been deleted).

• For business data:

  • Full staging of Orders configuration.

  • Full staging of Site Terms.

  • Full staging of Marketing data.

  • Full or incremental staging of promotion codes.

  • Full, incremental, or expressional staging of Catalog data.

  • Refresh cache for any Commerce Server business data staging project.

Staging Management and Monitoring

You can manage projects, routes, and servers through the CSS console administration or through command line–based administration. You can manage and monitor CSS using the following functions:

• Start, stop, and pause CSS service that is running on a CSS server.

• Start, stop, delete, view and change properties, view reports, or refresh the console status for a staging project.

• Send e-mail notifications as staging events occur. You can configure e-mail notification per project or server.

• Configure rollback and transactions settings for the CSS service.

• Configure event logging. You can configure which events are logged locally or to the NT event log.

• View reports:

  • Project Report. These reports list all events that were logged for a particular project.

  • Replication Report. These reports list all events that were logged for a particular replication of a particular project.

  • Full Report. These reports list all events that were logged on the CSS server.

  • Custom Report. These reports list all events returned based on the SQL query you define.

Staging Terms and Concepts

Before you use CSS, you should understand the terms and concepts that are summarized in the following table.

Term	Description
Automatic replication	The ability to replicate Web content that is based on directory change notifications. Automatically stages changes to Web content as they occur. This feature is available from the project properties Schedule tab, Deploy automatically as content changes.
Business data	A type of content that CSS stages by exporting from and importing to an SQL database. CSS supports staging of the following business data: Catalog data and catalog schema data. Marketing data advertisements, discounts, and promotion codes. Orders configurations. Site terms. Each type of business data is transferred within its own XML file.
CSS administration server	The server that accesses the Commerce Server Staging console or executes CSS commands. Frequently this server is the same as the source staging server.
CSS authentication account	An account that you create to authenticate staging projects across CSS servers. This can be a destination-level account that you specify for a destination when you define an endpoint in a project, a project-level account that you specify for the project, or a default authentication account that you specify for a CSS server.
CSS security group	A Windows group that is created when you configure CSS on a server. CSS security groups limit user access to CSS functions. When you install CSS, the CSS Administrators, CSS Operators, and CSS_SG security groups are created.
Endpoint	A server that receives data. An endpoint is a destination server that is defined in either a route or project.
Expressional staging	Only that data which meets the predefined expression(s) is staged. This staging mode is supported only for staging catalog data.
Filtering	An ordered list of files or directories to include or exclude when staging Web content.
Full staging	All data of the specified type is transferred. Full staging is valid only for staging Commerce Server business data.
IIS metabase	A type of content that CSS stages by replicating the IIS metabase. The metabase contains information about the files, virtual directory, and the settings for the server that is running IIS. By staging metabase information, you can stage specific metabase information from one Web server to another.
Incremental staging	Only changed data is transferred. This staging mode is valid only for staging catalog data and promotion codes.
One-way transfer	Content is transferred from the source staging server to a single or multiple destinations in one direction. All staging projects are one-way transfers. To support bi-directional transfer, you create a separate project that traverses a route in the opposite direction.
Project	A set of properties of a staging deployment. When you create a project with the New Project Wizard, CSS automatically creates the project on all the destination servers specified in the deployment. If you manually create a project by using the project dialog box, you must also manually create the project on all the destination servers.
Project destination	A waypoint, endpoint, route, or a local directory. Projects can define multiple destinations.
Refresh cache	An option that is provided when staging business data to update the site cache of the destination Web server(s).
Rollback	The ability to “reverse” a replication of Web content and restore the previous contents. This feature is useful for restoring previous data when the content staged was staged in error. That is, the wrong content was staged, or a mistake was made in the content that needs immediate correction. You manually perform rollback on the destination server(s) that you want to revert to the previous content. CSS supports rollbacks of Web content projects only. It does not support rollbacks of business data projects.
Route	Defines one or more destination servers to which data will be transmitted. Destination servers can be waypoints or endpoints. A project, when it is associated with a route, will transfer data to be staged to each destination server that is defined for the route. Routes are useful when you have multiple projects that transmit data along the same routes or to multiple destination servers. When you create a route, you must manually create it on every server that is specified in the route.
Scheduling	CSS supports scheduling of projects. You can select to stage a project at a set time, on a repeating basis, or when content has changed. Windows Task Scheduler defines and executes the schedules.
Server role	The CSS server role depends on where the project is created and how it is configured. The roles are source staging, waypoint, or endpoint. A project can have multiple roles. In most cases, it will be one of the three, but in point-to-point transfers, the server acts both as a source staging and an endpoint.
Source staging server	The CSS server that has content, IIS metabase, or Commerce Server data being staged.
Staging reports	ASP pages that read the Commerce Server Staging internal Access database for events. For CSS Reports to function, IIS must be present during the configuration.
Staging scripts	Scripts that you can run before or after any content is sent or received.
Transactional staging	Content replicates to an intermediate directory. Then, a rename in and rename out operation is performed to complete the staging.
Virtual directory	A directory or folder that is mapped to a physical directory that is typically not in the C:\Inetpub\wwwroot folder. A virtual directory appears to client browsers as though it were contained in a Web server's root directory, even though it can physically reside somewhere else. An IIS Virtual Directory can be created when Web content is staged.
Waypoint	A CSS server in between a source staging server and endpoint in a route. No Commerce Server business data is imported at the waypoint. A waypoint server receives the data to be staged, stores it in the folder that is specified by the project definition on the waypoint server, and transmits it to the other waypoint or endpoint server(s) that are specified as its destination(s).
Web content	A type of content that CSS stages by transferring files that are contained in a local directory to one or more endpoints. You can filter the content to select only those files that you want to stage. Note: CSS can stage any set of content files. These files do not have to be associated with a Web site.

See Also

Other Resources

How Does Staging Work?

Why Use Commerce Server Staging?

What Network Topologies does Staging Support?

Where is Staging Content Stored?

What are the Staging Project Options?

What is Commerce Server Staging?