Deployment process

In Optimizely DXP, manage deployments using the DXP Management Portal.

Optimizely's deployment automation engine performs the following steps when deploying.

1. Package code from the source environment.

   This step creates a deployment package of the code in the source environment.

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   Note

   • Files with the .log extension are not included.
   • If a .txt file cannot be read, (for example, it is locked by another process), it is skipped.
   • Locked files under wwwroot\App_Data\ are ignored.
   • Everything under wwwroot\App_Data\Blobs is excluded (should not be used in Azure).

2. Create a slot in the target environment.

   This slot has the same configuration as the current production slot. Other settings, such as logging to BLOB storage, are also configured according to DXP standards. At this stage, the slot is in a stopped state.

3. Deploy code to the slot.

   The code package created in step one is deployed to the slot.

4. Prepare monitoring and extensions.

   Extensions for application performance monitoring are installed on the slot and configured according to DXP standards.

5. Apply configuration transforms.

   Any configuration transforms in the code package matching the target environment are applied to the target. See Environment configurations.

6. Configure warmup for the target slot.

   The deployment engine checks for an applicationInitialization section in web.config; if none exists, it is created. See Warm up sites.

7. Start the slot and prepare for "Go Live."

   The slot is started and initiates a "swap with preview." The deployment engine monitors the site until it completely starts, and warm up finishes for its instances.

   The slot scales to the same level as the current production site to handle the production traffic load after the swap.

8. Validate the site.

   A manual "smoke test" is performed to verify that the site works as expected. For this to work, configure your Optimizely site to respond to the slot address. See Before going live step 1 in the Going live section.

9. Go Live/Reset.

   If the site works as expected, it is swapped into the site's production slot of the current target environment (Preproduction or Production), and the old slot is stopped. If the site in the slot does not behave as expected, the swap is aborted, and the slot site stops. The files are saved for troubleshooting or until a new deployment is attempted.