(Note: external file assets are content targeters, content groups, profile groups, segments, slots, and scenarios that are created for use with external user profiles.)
It is usually desirable for external file assets that are created through a Business Control Center in one server cluster to be visible to a Business Control Center in another cluster. Consider the following situation: a Commerce Service Center user creates an external segment on an agent server and deploys it to production. However, neither the management user nor the agent user can see the segments each other created. An agent communicating with a customer may therefore not be able to see all the segments to which the customer belongs.
It is possible to configure a multiple application environment so that all external file assets are visible on both the asset management cluster and the agent-facing cluster. To do so, complete the steps below.
Important: For this configuration to work correctly, you must ensure that all external file assets that you want to be visible on both the asset management cluster and the agent-facing cluster are created on the management cluster only and then deployed to the agent-facing cluster using the steps shown in the procedure. File assets that you create on an agent server cannot be deployed to the management cluster and are thus not visible there.
File assets that do not have to be visible in both places can be created on the agent-facing cluster if necessary.
Run the Publishing Agent’s
DeployedConfigsub-module on each agent-facing server. TheDeployedConfigsub-module provides the code necessary to allow the agent server to both initiate its own deployments to the customer-facing cluster and receive deployments from the asset management cluster. (In technical terms, theDeployedConfigsub-module contains an instance of aConfigFileSystemcalledDeployedConfigFileSystem. The standardConfigFileSystemis used to expose versioned file assets for deployment, and theDeployedConfigFileSystemis used as an unversionedJournalingFileSystemfor receiving deployments.)Configure deployment on the asset management cluster. For each server in the agent-facing cluster, add an agent to the deployment site used to deploy assets to production. For each of these deployment agents, map the
ConfigFileSystemto theDeployedConfigFileSystemon the agent cluster. (Do this through the Available File Systems/Include File Systems fields in the Agents tab of the ATG Content Administration deployment UI.) For detailed information on setting up deployment, see the Content Administration Programming Guide.Edit your workflow so that the deployment-related elements contain the production site as the deployment target. (This step is part of the general process you follow when you set up deployment in ATG Content Administration. See the Content Administration Programming Guide for more information.) However, because of the configuration you completed in step 2, when you deploy your file assets to production, they are deployed automatically to the agent-facing cluster as well.
Ensure that all repositories that should be versioned (and thus managed by ATG Content Administration) are versioned on either the asset management cluster or the agent-facing cluster, but not both. This behavior avoids conflicts that could occur if a repository is managed by ATG Content Administration from the wrong cluster. Note that the
ConfigFileSystemis versioned on both clusters, which allows external file assets to be edited in the management cluster and internal file assets specific to agent servers to be edited in the agent-facing cluster.
