Plan content deployment

Applies To: Office SharePoint Server 2007

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Topic Last Modified: 2016-11-14

In this article:

• What is content deployment?

• About deployment jobs and paths

• Content deployment security

• Configuring content deployment

• Record content deployment plans

What is content deployment?

Content deployment copies content from a source Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 site collection to a destination site collection. The entire source site collection can be copied (full), or a subset of sites can be copied (incremental). In either case, content deployment is incremental by default, deploying only changed pages and related assets (such as images). You can also do a full deployment of all content; however, you should only run a full deployment job on an empty site collection. Also, a Quick Deploy feature supports deployment of a single page by authors.

In most content deployment scenarios, the source site collection, from which content is being deployed, is in a separate server farm from the destination site collection. Typically, the destination server farm (the "production" farm) will have tightened security to minimize the actions that can be done in the production environment, and it is not expected that authoring will be done in the production environment (changes to the production environment might be overwritten by the content deployment feature). In most content deployment scenarios, the source farm and the production farm are in independent Active Directory® directory service domains. For a full discussion of content deployment topologies, see Design content deployment topology.

In content deployment, the base URL of the source site collection can be different from the base URL of the destination site collection. The Content Deployment feature will fix links in the source content to work correctly in the destination location.

Content deployment only copies content — Web pages and resources used by the copied pages. It does not deploy programs, assemblies, features, configuration information such as web.config files. When a Web page is deployed, any items in the content database that the page depends on — such as images, style sheets, or layout pages — will also be deployed.

Content deployment deploys the most recent major and minor versions of a content item. For example, if version 2.7 of a Web page is being deployed, the most recent major version (2.0) of the page, along with the most recent minor version (2.7), will be copied to the destination site.

If an item has an associated publishing schedule (see Plan content approval and scheduling), the scheduling information is deployed along with the item so that the schedule is followed in the destination site collection. For example, if an item that is scheduled to be published at 6:00 A.M. is deployed at 3:00 A.M., site users on the destination site will not be able to view the content until 6:00 A.M.

About deployment jobs and paths

In content deployment, a content deployment job copies specified content on a specified schedule by using a specified path.

A content deployment path defines a source site collection from which content deployment can initiate, along with a destination site collection, and it also provides the following:

• Authentication information that gives content deployment jobs permissions to the destination site collection. To deploy content to the destination site collection, deployment jobs must have SharePoint Central Administration credentials on the destination server. Jobs can connect by using the source farm's Central Administration application pool account, Integrated Windows authentication, or basic authentication.

• Information about whether or not to deploy user names associated with the content (such as authors' names).

• Information about how to deploy permissions on the content. See Content deployment security for details.

After a path is defined, one or more content deployment jobs can be defined, which deploy content by using the path. A deployment job specifies:

• The sites within the source site collection to deploy.

• The frequency at which to run the job and deploy the content.

• Whether to deploy all content, or just content that has been changed or added since the last time the job ran.

• Whether to send e-mail when a job succeeds or fails, and the e-mail address or addresses to use.

The only time you should perform a full deployment is the first time you deploy a site or site collection. Use an incremental deployment when you deploy the site or site collection subsequent times.

Each time a path is defined in a site that has the Office SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure feature enabled, a Quick Deploy job is created for use on that path. A Quick Deploy job is a deployment job that runs on a specified schedule (every 15 minutes by default) and deploys all Web pages in the site's Pages library that have been marked for deployment since the last time the Quick Deploy job ran. Any member of the Quick Deploy users group (which is created in sites that have the Office SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure feature enabled) can mark a Web page for deployment by using the Quick Deploy command.

Content deployment security

Permissions to content on the destination server farm will usually be different from permissions to content on the source farm. In many publishing solutions, the destination farm authenticates users by using a different Active Directory domain than the one used in an authoring or staging environment, and there may not be a trust relationship between the two domains.

When configuring a content deployment path, you can choose from the following security options:

• All   Deploys all security-related information with content, including role definitions, access control lists (which map users and roles to the content they have permissions to view or edit), and users. This option is useful if the same set of users has the same permissions on the source and destination farms. For example, when deploying from an authoring farm to a staging farm, this option might be best because the same users need access to both sets of content.

• Role Definitions Only   Deploys role definitions and access control lists that map the roles to the content, but does not deploy users. In this option, the same roles apply in the source and destination server farms, but different users are assigned to those roles in each farm.

• None   Deploys no security information. Security on the destination farm must be managed by the administrators of that farm by assigning users and roles to the farm's sites and content. For example, when deploying from a staging farm to a corporate Internet presence site, this option helps ensure that the security of the two farms is managed separately.

For more information about Office SharePoint Server 2007 roles and security, see Plan for security roles (Office SharePoint Server).

Configuring content deployment

Configure content deployment between two server farms by using the following steps:

1. On the destination server farm, create an empty site collection based on the Blank Site template to receive the initial deployment job.

2. On the destination farm, on the Content Deployment Settings page in Office SharePoint Server 2007 Central Administration, configure the farm to accept incoming deployment jobs, assign a front-end server as the import server to manage incoming deployment jobs, and specify whether or not to require encryption on the connection between the source and destination farms.

3. On the source farm, on the Content Deployment Settings page, assign a front-end server as the export server to manage outgoing deployment jobs.

4. On the source farm, on the Manage Content Deployment Paths and Jobs page in Office SharePoint Server 2007 Central Administration, create one or more deployment paths.

5. On the source farm, on the Manage Content Deployment Paths and Jobs page, create one or more deployment jobs for each path.

6. Run the initial deployment job to initiate the content on the destination farm.

7. If the path does not deploy all security information, then on the destination farm, create the initial set of users, roles, and permissions on content and sites.

Record content deployment plans

Use the Plan content deployment worksheet (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=77804&clcid=0x409) to record your content deployment plans:

• In the first section of the worksheet, record each server farm in your content deployment topology and note its purpose. For each farm, provide the URLs of the export server, the import server, or both. Also record the Active Directory domain used by the farm.

• In the next section of the worksheet, record each path to create. For each path, supply the source and destination Web applications and site collections. Also record how much security information to deploy along the path: all, roles only, or none.

Worksheet

Plan content deployment worksheet (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=77804&clcid=0x409)

Download this book

This topic is included in the following downloadable book for easier reading and printing:

• Plan Sites and Features, Part 1

See the full list of available books at Downloadable content for Office SharePoint Server 2007.

See Also

Concepts

Design content deployment topology