The content copy tool content-copy
The Cloud Manager content copy tool lets users copy mutable content on-demand from AMS-hosted AEM 6.x production environments to lower environments for testing.
Introduction introduction
Current, real data is valuable for testing, validation, and user-acceptance purposes. The content copy tool lets you copy content from your production AMS-hosted AEM 6.x environment to staging or development environments. This workflow supports various testing scenarios.
A content set defines the content to copy. A content set includes a list of JCR paths with the mutable content to be copied. The content moves from a source environment to a target environment. All done within the same Cloud Manager program.
The following paths are permitted in a content set:
/content/**
/conf/**
/etc/**
/var/workflow/models/**
/var/commerce/**
When copying content, the source environment is the source of truth.
- If you edit content in the destination environment, the source content overwrites it if the paths match.
- If the paths are different, content from the source is merged with the content in the destination.
Permissions permissions
To use the content copy tool, the user must be assigned to the Deployment Manager role in the source and target environments.
Creating a content set create-content-set
Before any content can be copied, a content set must be defined. Once defined, content sets can be reused to copy content. Follow these steps to create a content set.
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Log into Cloud Manager at my.cloudmanager.adobe.com and select the appropriate organization and program.
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From the Overview page, navigate to the Environments screen.
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From the Environments screen, navigate to the Content Sets page.
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Near the top-right of the screen, click Add Content Set.
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On the Details tab of the wizard, provide a name and description for the content set and click Continue.
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On the Content Paths tab of the wizard, specify the paths of the mutable content to be included in the content set.
- Enter the path in the Add Include Path field.
- Click Add Path to add the path to the content set.
- Click Add Path again as necessary.
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If you need to refine or restrict your content set, sub-paths can be excluded.
- In the list of included paths, click the Add exclude sub-paths icon next to the path you need to restrict.
- Enter the sub-path to exclude from the selected path.
- Click Exclude Path.
- Again, click Add exclude sub-paths to add additional paths to exclude as necessary.
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You can modify the specified paths if required.
- Click the
Xnext to the excluded sub-paths to delete them. - Click the ellipsis button next to the paths to reveal the Edit and Delete options.
- Click the
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Click Create to create the content set.
The content set can now be used to copy content between environments.
There is no limitation on excluded paths.
Editing a content set edit-content-set
Follow similar steps as when creating a content step. Instead of clicking Add Content Set, select an existing set from the console and select Edit from the ellipsis menu.
When editing your content set, you may need to expand the configured paths to reveal the excluded sub-paths.
Copy content copy-content
Once a content set has been created, you can use it to copy content. Follow these steps to copy content.
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Log into Cloud Manager at my.cloudmanager.adobe.com and select the appropriate organization and program.
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From the Overview page, navigate to the Environments screen.
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From the Environments screen, navigate to the Content Sets page.
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Select a content set from the console and select Copy Content from the ellipsis menu.
note note NOTE An environment may not be selectable if: - The user does not have the appropriate permissions.
- The environment has a running pipeline or a copy content operation in progress.
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In the Copy content dialog box, specify the source and destination environments for your content copy action.
- The regions of the target environment must be the same as or a subset of the source environment’s regions.
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You can choose to delete or retain the exclude paths in the destination environment. Select the checkbox
Do not delete exclude paths from destinationto retainexclude pathsthat are specified in the content set. If the checkbox is unchecked, then exclude paths are deleted in the target environment. -
You can choose to copy the version history of paths being copied from source to destination environment. Select checkbox
Copy Versionsif you want to copy all version histories.
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Click Copy.
The copy process starts. The status of the copy process is reflected in the console for the selected content set.
Content copy activity copy-activity
You can monitor the status of your copy processes in the Copy Content Activity page.
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Log into Cloud Manager at my.cloudmanager.adobe.com, then select the appropriate organization and program.
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From the Overview page, navigate to the Environments screen.
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From the Environments screen, navigate to the Copy Content Activity page.
Content copy statuses statuses
Once you start copying content, the process can have one of the following statuses.
Limitations limitations
The content copy tool has the following limitations.
- A content copy cannot be performed from a lower environment to a higher environment.
- Content copy can only be performed within the same tier. That is, author-author or publish-publish.
- Cross-program and cross-region content copy is not possible.
- Content copy for cloud data store based topology can only be performed when the source and destination environment are on the same cloud provider and in the same region.
- Running concurrent content copy operations in the same environment is not possible.
- Content copy cannot be performed if there is any active operation running on either the destination or source environment such as a CI/CD pipeline.
- Up to fifty paths can be specified per content set. There is no limitation on excluded paths.
- The content copy tool should not be used as a cloning or mirroring tool because it cannot track moved or deleted content on the source.
- A content copy cannot be paused or canceled once it is initiated.
- The content copy tool copies assets and Dynamic Media metadata from the higher environment to the selected lower environment. Copied assets then need to be reprocessed using the DAM process assets workflow on the lower environment to use the respective Dynamic Media configuration.
- The content copy process is substantially faster when version history is not copied.
- Dynamic Media configurations with assets sizes greater than 2 GB enabled are not supported.
- When version history is not copied, the content copy process is substantially faster.
- The regions of the target environment must be the same as or a subset of the source environment’s regions.
Known issues known-issues
When using the content copy functionality, if a resource in the source environment is renamed, it can cause the content copy operation to fail due to conflicting UUIDs in the target environment.
To avoid this error, instead of renaming resources, first delete them and then recreate with the desired, new resource name.