Deploy the Project in the Blue Environment

Info: This guide applies to Bloomreach Content versions 14, 15, and 16. If you use an earlier version, some steps may differ.

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This guide describes how to use Mission Control to upload your distribution file, create the blue environment, deploy the distribution, and complete the required configuration.

Upload the Distribution

1. Log in to Mission Control.
2. Go to the Files screen and select the Distributions tab.
3. Upload the distribution file you created in the previous step with version number 1.0.0.

Create the Blue Environment

1. In Mission Control, navigate to the environments overview.
2. Click the red + icon in the bottom right corner to create a new environment.
3. Enter blue as the environment name and click Save.

Deploy the Distribution in the Blue Environment

1. Select the blue environment.
2. Click Deploy an Application.
3. Choose myproject-1.0.0-distribution.tar.gz and start the deployment.

4. In the confirmation dialog, click Deploy.

Deployment may take several minutes to complete.

Configure the Application for the Blue Environment

After deployment, the CMS and Site applications are running. You must complete initial configuration before using them. For details, see Required Configuration After First Deployment.

Change Default User Passwords

1. In the blue environment's Details tab, click the CMS button to open the CMS application.
2. Log in as admin using the default password.
3. Open the Admin perspective and select Users.
4. Change the passwords for all default users (admin, editor, author).

Hint: Configure login page security features and password safety validation and expiration rules to enhance security.

Configure Virtual Hosts

You must configure virtual hosts for the blue environment before the website is accessible.

1. In the blue environment's Details tab, click the Console button to open the Console application in a new browser tab.
2. Log in as admin.
3. Navigate to /hst:myproject/hst:hosts.
4. Add an hst:virtualhostgroup node named blue and create the following structure. Replace blue-mycloud.bloomreach.cloud with your actual blue environment domain:

/hst:myproject/hst:hosts:
  /dev-localhost:
    jcr:primaryType: hst:virtualhostgroup
  /blue:
    jcr:primaryType: hst:virtualhostgroup
    /cloud:
      jcr:primaryType: hst:virtualhost
      /bloomreach:
        jcr:primaryType: hst:virtualhost
        /blue-mycloud:
          jcr:primaryType: hst:virtualhost
          /hst:root:
            jcr:primaryType: hst:mount
            hst:mountpoint: /hst:myproject/hst:sites/myhippoproject
            hst:scheme: https
            hst:showport: false
            hst:showcontextpath: true
copy

5. Navigate to /hst:platform/hst:hosts.
6. Add an hst:virtualhostgroup node named blue and create the following structure, again replacing blue-mycloud.bloomreach.cloud as needed:

/hst:platform/hst:hosts:
  /dev-localhost:
    jcr:primaryType: hst:virtualhostgroup
  /blue:
    jcr:primaryType: hst:virtualhostgroup
    /cloud:
      jcr:primaryType: hst:virtualhost
      hst:scheme: https
      hst:showcontextpath: true
      hst:showport: false
      /bloomreach:
        jcr:primaryType: hst:virtualhost
        /blue-mycloud:
          jcr:primaryType: hst:virtualhost
          /hst:root:
            jcr:primaryType: hst:mount
            hst:ismapped: false
            hst:namedpipeline: WebApplicationInvokingPipeline
copy

7. Click Write changes to the repository to save.

Hint: Create a backup of the /hst:myproject/hst:hosts/blue node using the XML Export option in the top menu. You can later use XML Import and replace 'blue' with 'green' when configuring the green environment.

Verify the Release in the Blue Environment

Verify that the deployment is successful and the application works as expected.

• Perform only basic verification at this stage to avoid contaminating the repository and databases.
• Run more extensive acceptance testing in a separate acceptance environment before proceeding with blue-green deployment.

If verification is successful, you can begin routing production traffic to the blue environment.

Configure the Domain Name

To use a custom domain (for example, yourcompany.com) instead of the default environment URL, follow these steps:

1. Ensure the SSL certificate for your domain is installed in your stack. Contact Bloomreach Cloud support to request installation.
2. In Mission Control, go to the Domains screen.
3. Click the red + icon to add a new domain.
4. Enter www.yourcompany.com as the domain, select the "blue" environment, and leave Source context path and Target context path at their default values.

5. Repeat the process for cms.yourcompany.com, setting Target context path to /cms. This domain will be used to access the CMS application.

6. In the Console application, configure a virtual host for your domain:

/hst:myproject/hst:hosts:
  /dev-localhost:
    jcr:primaryType: hst:virtualhostgroup
  /blue:
    jcr:primaryType: hst:virtualhostgroup
  /yourcompany:
    jcr:primaryType: hst:virtualhostgroup
    /com:
      jcr:primaryType: hst:virtualhost
      /yourcompany:
        jcr:primaryType: hst:virtualhost
        /www:
          jcr:primaryType: hst:virtualhost
          /hst:root:
            jcr:primaryType: hst:mount
            hst:mountpoint: /hst:myproject/hst:sites/myproject
            hst:scheme: https
            hst:showport: false
            hst:showcontextpath: false
copy

7. Click Write changes to the repository to apply the configuration.

Verify Routing Before Updating DNS

Before updating DNS records for www.yourcompany.com and cms.yourcompany.com, verify routing by sending a request to your stack's API gateway (for example, api-mycloud.bloomreach.cloud) with the Host header set to your domain. For example:

curl --verbose -H 'Host: www.yourcompany.com' https://api-mycloud.bloomreach.cloud

A successful response should return the HTML for your website's homepage.

Once routing is verified, update the DNS CNAME records for www.yourcompany.com and cms.yourcompany.com to point to the Bloomreach Cloud stack gateway.

Mark the Blue Environment as Production

1. In Mission Control, at the top of the environments overview, you will see a message indicating that no production environment has been specified:

2. Click Set Production Environment and select the blue environment:

3. Click Set and confirm in the dialog.

This action marks the blue environment as the production environment and allocates additional resources to ensure optimal performance and availability.

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