Sitecore Continuos Deployment: From Zero to Hero (Part 2: Deploy)

This is a second blog post in a Build-Deploy-Test series. Here you'll see how to deploy the package created at the previous step, with some hints specific to CI usage.

This blog post is a part of the series:

• Sitecore Continuos Deployment: From Zero to Hero (Part 1: Build)
• Sitecore Continuos Deployment: From Zero to Hero (Part 2: Deploy)

Deployment script is based on the sample from PowerCore. However, the following changes were added:

1. Use relative path as a deployment package location

	$buildFolder = Resolve-Path ..
	$sourcePath = "$buildFolder\Output\LaunchSitecore.Build.12345.zip"

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2. Cleanup databases before deploying new website, otherwise - database files might be locked

	# Cleanup Databases from previuous installation (if needed)
	foreach ($db in $databases)
	{
	Delete-Database $server "$siteName.$db"
	}

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Here's the complete script: 

	Clear-Host
	# Framework initialization
	$scriptRoot = Split-Path (Resolve-Path $myInvocation.MyCommand.Path)
	$env:PSModulePath = $env:PSModulePath + ";$scriptRoot\Tools\PowerCore\Framework"
	Import-Module WebUtils
	Import-Module ConfigUtils
	Import-Module DBUtils
	Import-Module IISUtils
	Import-Module FileUtils
	# Main variables
	$buildFolder = Resolve-Path ..
	$siteName = "LaunchSitecore"
	$licensePath = "C:\license.xml"
	$sourcePath = "$buildFolder\Output\LaunchSitecore.Build.12345.zip"
	$targetFolder = "E:\inetpub\wwwroot\LaunchSitecore"
	$sqlServerName = "$env:COMPUTERNAME\SQLEXPRESS"
	$server = New-Object ("Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Server") $sqlServerName
	$databases = "core", "master", "web"
	# Cleanup Databases from previuous installation (if needed)
	foreach ($db in $databases)
	{
	Delete-Database $server "$siteName.$db"
	}
	New-Item $targetFolder -type directory -Force -Verbose
	# Additional variables
	$packageFileName = [System.IO.Path]::GetFileNameWithoutExtension($sourcePath)
	$dataFolder = "$targetFolder\Data"
	$websiteFolder = "$targetFolder\Website"
	# Main Script
	Unzip-Archive $sourcePath $targetFolder
	# Attach Databases
	foreach ($db in $databases)
	{
	Attach-Database $server "$siteName.$db" "$targetFolder\Databases\Sitecore.$db.mdf" "$targetFolder\Databases\Sitecore.$db.ldf"
	Set-ConnectionString "$websiteFolder\App_Config\ConnectionStrings.config" "$db" "Trusted_Connection=Yes;Data Source=$sqlServerName;Database=$siteName.$db"
	}
	Set-ConfigAttribute "$websiteFolder\web.config" "sitecore/sc.variable[@name='dataFolder']" "value" $dataFolder
	Copy-Item $licensePath $dataFolder
	Create-AppPool $siteName "v4.0"
	Create-Site $siteName "$siteName.local" "$targetFolder"
	Add-HostFileContent "127.0.0.1" "$siteName.local"
	Get-WebPage "$siteName.local/InstallPackages.aspx"
	Get-WebPage "$siteName.local/Publish.aspx"

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What's interesting, you can now run both build and deployment scripts from your favorite CI server.
My preferred one is TeamCity. It is free for the small teams, and it has such a great amount of useful features. In the area of build artifacts storage and dependencies management TFS is nowhere near. 

I'll add two build configurations: "Build" and "Deploy". Each of them will have just one build step - run PowerShell script. "Deploy" will also depend on "Build" and use its last successful output.

Build:

Deploy:

And here is what we get at the end:

Yes, with TeamCity you can browse contents of zip files online - one of those small usability improvements.

Now how to make "Deploy" configuration use build output from "Build"?

Just add a dependency. Here's how simple it is to configure it:

That's basically all you need to get up and running with Continuous Deployment for Sitecore. All source code and scripts used in this blog post can be found here:

• Sitecore Build Playground

If you still have questions - just leave a comment, or contact me in Twitter / LinkedIn and even %my github username%@gmail.com.