Create the staging server before the production server

Before this situation begins, neither the production nor staging server exist. The staging server may be created either immediately before the production server, for example, a few minutes or hours. The staging server can also be used as a development environment for a longer period of time, for example days or months, before the production server is created. This is the most common and easiest scenario to set up. The following high-level steps describe how to setup the staging server before the production server:

1. Install WebSphere Commerce and create an instance on the staging and production machines. During staging server instance creation, ensure that you select the Use Staging Server check box on the Database panel to configure the instance as your staging server. To avoid complexity and performance issues, it is best to have two physically different machines for your staging and production machines.

2. On the staging server, create your store and its assets. For example, create a catalog and upload product information such as images and create users such as Marketing and Catalog managers.

3. Test your store to ensure it functions as you expect.

4. When the store is ready to run on the production server, propagate the data from the staging server to the production server.

   • Publish database data using the stageprop utility.

   • Publish managed files using a fileprop utility.

   • Publish all other files using the WAS update utility. See the Updating applications topic in the WebSphere Application Server Information Center for instructions.

The stagingcopy command, which copies the production data to the staging server is not required in this scenario, but can be used to synchronize the staging server and the production server if their databases are no long synchronized.

 

Related Concepts

Staging server