Administering an ISP Installation

Replicating through Content Deployment

The Content Deployment feature (previously known as the Content Replication System) of Site Server 3.0 allows an installation to deploy content between Web servers quickly, securely, and reliably. (This content can include files, directories, DACLs, and metadata.) The servers can be local, on a corporate intranet, or on the Internet. Typically, you would initially deploy content on a testing site or staging server, where you can test and refine content and components before publishing them. Once testing is complete, you can then move the content to a production Web server (also known as an end-point server) connected to an intranet or the Internet.

Content Deployment simplifies the staging and deploying of Web pages and other filebased information, including applications. With this feature, it is easy to deploy content between directories, among local servers, as well as across geographically remote, secure networks, to multiple end-point servers.

Content Deployment Servers

Although a single server can deploy content between directories, most Content Deployment installations are more complex, involving multiple servers that perform different functions. The following list briefly describes the functions of two types of content deployment server:

Staging Server Receives and deploys content from content authors or from other staging servers, and can also receive content from an HTTP or FTP server during an Internet retrieval. On this server you test, or stage, the content before deploying it to end-point servers. Testing allows you to review the content and make sure that all the links are functioning properly. Once testing is complete, the staging server deploys the content, either to other staging servers at remote sites or to end-point servers.
Each staging server can contain multiple project directories for storing Content Deployment projects. When replicating content, Content Deployment searches the project directories for all relevant content files, directories, and subdirectories, based on filters that have been applied. The feature then deploys those files to the next server.
Staging servers operate in the Windows 2000 Server environment and should have a network or Internet connection to the other Content Deployment servers.
End-Point Server Receives deployed content from the staging server. This server is not capable of deploying content, but it is able to respond to user requests for Web pages. The end-point server contains a destination directory, which receives deployed content. The publishing administrator identifies the destination directory when creating a project.
End-point servers can be Windows- or UNIX-based.
Note UNIX-based end-point servers can only receive content that has been deployed from Windows-based servers. In addition, UNIX-based end-point servers cannot perform Internet retrievals.