Split stage-only and production-only pipelines stage-prod-only
You can split staging and production deployments using dedicated pipelines.
Overview overview
Staging and production environments are tightly coupled. By default, deployments to them are linked to a singular pipeline. A deployment pipeline deploys to both the staging and production environments in that program. While this coupling is normally suitable, there are certain use cases where disadvantages arise:
- If you want to deploy to staging, you reject the Promote to Prod step in the pipeline. However, the execution is marked as canceled.
- If you want to deploy the latest code in a staging environment to production, you need to redeploy the entire pipeline including the staging deployment even though no code was changed there.
- Environments cannot be updated during deployments. If you wait to test in the staging environment for several days before promoting to production, the production environment remains unavailable and cannot be updated. This scenario prevents non-dependent tasks such as updating environment variables.
Stage-only and prod-only pipelines offer solutions to these use cases by providing dedicated deployment options.
- Stage-Only Deployment Pipelines: Deploys only to a staging environment with the execution finishing once the deployment and tests are done. A stage-only pipeline behaves identically to the standard coupled full stack prod pipeline but without the production deployment steps (approval, schedule, deploy).
- Prod-Only Deployment Pipelines: Deploys only to production by selecting the most recent successful stage execution. It then deploys its artifacts to production. Prod-only pipelines reuse stage deployment artifacts, omitting the build phase.
Stage-only and prod-only pipelines are not executed while a full-stack production pipeline is in progress, and vice versa. If both the stage-only and the full-stack production pipeline have the On Git Changes trigger configured and are pointing to the same branch and repository, only the stage-only pipeline is automatically started. Prod-only pipelines do not trigger On Git Changes because they are not directly linked to a repository.
Prod-only pipelines are triggered manually, as they are not directly linked to a repository for On Git Changes triggers.
These dedicated pipelines offer more flexibility, but note the following details of operation and recommendations.
- This scenario leads to unintended code rollbacks.
- Adobe recommends stopping the use of the standard coupled production pipeline once you start using the prod-only and stage-only pipelines.
- If you still decide to run both the standard coupled pipelines and stage/prod-only pipelines, keep in mind the reuse of artifacts to avoid code rollbacks.
Pipeline creation pipeline-creation
Prod-only and stage-only pipelines are created similarly to the standard coupled production pipelines and non-production pipelines. See those documents for details.
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In the Pipelines window, click Add Pipeline.
- Select Add Non-Production Pipeline to create a stage-only pipeline.
- Select Add Production Only Pipeline to create a prod-only pipeline.
- Add Production Only Pipeline is unavailable if a stage-only pipeline does not yet exist.
- Add Production Pipeline is unavailable if a standard coupled pipeline already exists.
- Only one prod-only and one stage-only pipeline are allowed per program.
Create a stage-only pipeline stage-only
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In the Add Non-Production Pipeline dialog box, on the Configuration tab, select the Deployment Pipeline field for your pipeline.
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In the Non-Production Pipeline Name field, enter a free-text name.
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Select the desired deployment options, then click Continue.
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On the Source Code tab, select Full Stack Code. This option builds and deploys the entire AEM application (back-end, Dispatcher/web tier config, and any front-end modules in the repo).
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In the Eligible Deployment Environments drop-down list, select the stage environment as the deployment environment for your pipeline. Selecting stage creates a pipeline dedicated to the stage environment (production promotion happens through a separate pipeline).
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Select your Repository and Git Branch in the respective drop-down lists, then click Continue.
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On the Experience Audit tab, the specified Site URL is the published URL that Cloud Manager audits for page quality.
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In the Page Path field, specify which pages you want to audit, then click
The Experience Audit analyzes each path that you add for performance, accessibility, progressive web apps, best practices, SEO, and other quality checks. You can add multiple paths and remove any by clicking
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Click Save.
Create a prod-only pipeline prod-only
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In the Add Production Only Pipeline dialog box, in the Pipeline Name text field, enter the free-text name of the pipeline.
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In the Pipeline Name field, type the name you want.
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Under Production Deployment Options, select Pause before deploying to Production.
This option inserts a manual approval gate right before the production step. The pipeline stops and waits for an approver (such as a Deployment Manager or a Business Owner) to approve or cancel the production deploy.
Use for change control or last-minute checks.
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Click Save to create the production-only pipeline with these options.
Run stage-only and prod-only pipelines running
You can start the new pipelines like any other pipeline. You can also trigger a production-only pipeline directly from a stage-only pipeline’s execution details.
Run stage-only pipelines stage-only-run
In the execution details, a Promote Build button appears after the testing steps. Click it to trigger a production-only pipeline that deploys this run’s stage artifacts to production. The button shows only on the latest successful stage-only run.
When you click Promote Build, a dialog box opens for you to confirm the run of the related production-only pipeline. To start it, click Run.
If none exists, a setup dialog box prompts you to create one.
Run prod-only pipelines prod-only-run
For a production-only pipeline, Cloud Manager displays the source artifacts that are deployed to production. Check the Artifact Preparation step for the source execution, then open it to view details and logs.
