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Cloud customer launch checklist

Provides a checklist for customers preparing for their initial launch of Commerce (SaaS).

Context and goal

The following checklist of events, notes, and owning groups:

  • is meant to provide a general outline and checklist for initial Site Launches of Optimizely Commerce (SaaS) to Production
  • should be adequately vetted against the specific additional considerations and/or projects needs by the implementation Partner to account for any unique considerations due to a given Site Implementation
  • is meant to be universal but should be broadly applicable to any Cloud Site Launch
  • should continue to be updated and reviewed over the course of Platform updates.
  • is not a reflective list for a Site Upgrade

Pre-launch events

EventOwningEstimated Lead TimeDependenciesNotes, Needs, Considerations
Request Production Site SetupPartner2 weeks Go-Live with Commerce (SaaS)

This is done via a Zendesk ticket, minimum 2 weeks before launch date

Request for Production Site Setup should include the following:
  • Production URL
  • Expected Date of Launch
  • Key Points of Contact at Customer DNS and SSL certificate approval.
  • Verify customer DNS TTLs are small.
Create Production SiteOptimizely Hosting2 week
  • Partner request for production site
  • Customer/Partner to provide SSL cert postal address
  • Add DNS records for Mail Gun, Support/Partner to communicate back to Customer 
  • Hosting to make sure that Customer's site domain is verified in Mailgun
  • Purchase SSL Certificate for domain - We require the postal address that was registered with the SSL certificate in order to acquire it on behalf of the customer.
  • S3 Bucket:  Mirror Sandbox bucket to Production bucket
  • Configure Whitelists - copy whitelist entries from Sandbox (note: any real time API calls need to be whitelisted)
  • Provide /etc/hosts entries and IP addresses for customer testing
  • Clear sandbox transactional and history data from production DB. (This step is part of the process when copying over Sandbox to Production. Additional scripts can be created by the partner if testing was done on Production after the creation of the production site.)
  • Code Deploy Sandbox version to Production
Approve SSL Certificate for DomainCustomer1-2 daysOptimizely to provide DNS/TXT records from CloudflareCustomer will insert DNS/TXT records provided by Optimizely team. Cloudflare can then automatically confirm the domain and generate the SSL certificates.
Add DNS Records for MailgunCustomer1-2 daysOptimizely provides info for DNS record changes.Customer must add DNS records that Hosting provides to enable emails.
Review TTL Setting LengthCustomer1 day Customer should review the current configuration of their Time To Live settings and adjust it down for launch to allow the DNS records to point to production in a reasonable amount of time. The recommended value is 300 secs.
Install/Configure WISPartner/Customer1-5 days Adjust connection for live ERP via Integration Endpoint. Note WIS server name for the Computers Allowed for Integration setting.
Determine Launch Communication StrategyPartner1-2 weeks Optimizely recommends that you start this task early in the implementation phase. This may include scheduling launch planning meetings, setting up communication channels or dial in lines, obtaining additional whitelist URLs, and so on.
Determine Range & Load Up Order/Invoice History Partner/Customer1-2 day 
  • Need to determine with Customer how far back you want to pull order & invoice history records
  • Adjust jobs to load history in batches
Configure and run IntegrationsPartnerEstimate by partner 
  • TSA/Developer to set up Integration jobs to run nightly or as appropriate for job type
  • Make sure Rebuild Site Map and Delete Data Set Jobs are set up
  • Determine if the integration server should be recycled at a static time so it doesn't interfere with integration jobs. By default the app pool is recycled every 29 hours. Submit a support ticket to request a preferred static time.
  • We no longer recycle app pools in containerized environments. There is no need to request a specific time for the app pool recycle because it is no longer automated.
Production Settings AuditPartner1 week 
  • Review of Sandbox/Production Site Settings and determine proper values during staging and at go-live
  • Configure and set up Integrations
  • Adjust email subject lines in Sandbox so they clearly state 'Sandbox' to avoid confusion on which environments emails are coming from
  • Confirm and Make sure Order Submit Order Number Prefixes are different between Sandbox and Production to avoid confusion on where emails are coming from
  • Emails for Site Account Activation and Console Account Activation should be updated to says the Customer's site name.com rather then Insite.com
  • Production performance tuning described in Monitor and improve website performance
Clear Sandbox Transactional and History Data from Production DBPartner1 day Partners can provide a script to Optimizely to clear out transactional data and history from any testing that was done on production.
Make sure Theme and latest .Extensions .DLL have been pushed to the sitePartner1 day 
  • Latest .Extenstions .DLL available and deployed should be sequenced during Site Creation.
  • Make sure all Theme updates have been made.
Configure Robots.txt filePartner1 day Robots.txt is created automatically on prod site creation, but the implementation team must determine if the site will be crawled or not and if any specific pages should not be. Add these pages to the file needed via CMS. If the site should be crawled, delete the /. See Edit the Robots.txt File and Improve search with the Robots.txt and the sitemap for more information.
Determine Google Analytics NeedsPartner/Customer1 day See if there is an existing Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager account that should be linked.
Determine URL Redirect Strategy and Load in Desired RedirectsCustomer1-2 weeks Optimizely recommends that you start this task early in the implementation phase. Load in any necessary URL redirects.
Code LockPartner/Customer2 weeks This activity should take place two weeks before launch. Final testing should be done here.
Performance ReviewOptimizely Engineering2 weeksPartner/Customer must be in code lockThe Site Reliability team runs a performance review on sandbox during code lock. CMS changes can be made; however, Optimziely recommends limiting the size and amount of changes during this time as this may negatively impact the results. The CSD or Partner initiates a ticket for this activity. See Go-live performance spot check for guidelines.

Settings to review in production site after it is created

Field NameValueNotes
Computers Allowed for IntegrationSee NotesDetermined when the Production WIS is installed
Computers Allowed for Integration

paws-prm2-int1Replaces aws-stg-int1
Website Domain Nameslocalhost and prod domainsThe localhost value is needed for Identity Server. Any production domains will need to be included as well.
Test EmailSee NotesOnce the site is officially launched (ie: fully live and prod testing is finished) this should be blank

The Implementation team and Customer need to coordinate on when the appropriate time for this setting to change is so emails don't inadvertently go out to Live Customer's during Production testing
Automatically Apply ThemeNoThis value needs to be changed to No from Yes for Production Sites

Launch team events and hand-off sequence

EventOwning GroupTimingNotes, Needs, Considerations
Configure Production Specific Site SettingsPartnerOnce Code is deployedAdjust any settings that may need to be different from Production to Sandbox
Request Default Domain DeploymentPartnerBefore DNS cutoverSometime before the DNS Cutover, make a request with Optimizely support to change the default domain on the production environment to the preferred production domain.
Change DNS Entries to Production SiteCustomerUpon Testing CompletionOnce site has been tested and confirmed Customer is free to change their DNS Records for Production; Remove /etc/hosts entries; DNS info will be provided in the Project Initiation ticket.
Naked Domain SSL PreparationPartner/CustomerAfter DNS Records CreatedIf you are specifically using our redirect server for the naked domain, SSL certificates are not created ahead of time. Please submit a support ticket to have the job run manually, or the job runs every night at midnight CT automatically. This step is not necessary if you are not using the naked domain.
Run Sitemap Integration JobPartner/CustomerAfter launchRun this job and verify the robots.txt file is correct in order for crawlers to reach the sitemap.
Production Health CheckPartnerAfter launchPartners should submit a support ticket to notify Optimizely once the DNS has been switched over in order to add the site to be monitored by Optimizely.