CM1 Environment Configuration Best Practices

Overview

Applies To
CM1

Server Requirements
CM1 can be installed in either a Windows or Linux environment. While the hardware specifications are the same for both operating systems (OS), some special considerations might need to be made based upon the version of the OS being used.




Special Notes:
Installation of the CM1 daemon requires gawk and sysv_rc_conf, which are not always included with Ubuntu. To install gawk and sysv_rc_conf, run the following commands as root:


Attempting to install without gawk and sysv_rc_conf, will fail with an error that these commands are required. Root privileges are required for installation which requires using the sudo command in Ubuntu.

Configurations

Basic Configuration
Many typical web server configurations involve a 3-tier publishing architecture comprised of a Development, Staging or QA, and Production environment. This type of configuration isolates changes to pages and content from the live server and provides an environment for testing before publishing pages to a live website.

Many content management system (CMS) platforms leverage this server configuration and require separate servers and special configurations based on your approach. This is primarily because most CMS platforms require configuration and management of separate websites dedicated to Development, Staging and QA, and Production. Many times this requires separate hardware for additional web and database servers.


Recommended Configuration

CM1 can provide the same functionality as a 3-tier publishing architecture without the additional overhead of 3 separate servers due to the nature of the product. As a product, the CM1 is already the editing environment. CM1 provides a “Preview” feature while working with assets and pages, providing a real-time view of updates and changes to content, pages, and navigation.
To create a Staging or QA site, CM1 provides a local publishing option. When a site is published locally, it is published to the same server as the CM1 site. The files are pushed to a local deployment folder and the delivery service database is updated with any changes. This provides a local site separated from the editing environment where all styles and approved content can be previewed as well as where all dynamic scripts and functionality can be tested.


Once the locally published site is approved through all workflow processes, the site can then be published to a live server by switching the Publish configuration for “Live Site” to “FTP” from “Local.”


Additional Considerations

CM1 does not currently support configuration of publishing to multiple live servers.

The traditional Development, Staging or QA, and Production server configuration can be achieved by publishing to a live server and using a 3rd party application to promote the files to additional servers manually or scheduled (depends on 3rd party tool).

Load balancing configurations are independent of the CM1. Using a 3rd party tool, files can be synchronized between multiple live servers or promoted from a Staging server to multiple load balanced Production servers.

Helpful Resources
Setting up your servers:
http://help.percussion.com/cm1/Setting+Up+Web+Servers

Publish Administration:
http://help.percussion.com/cm1/Publishing+Administration

Publishing a website:
http://help.percussion.com/cm1/Publishing+Websites