Configuring Advanced Replication Settings


Prerequisites:


Administrators can use Advanced Settings to minimize network address translation (NAT) and firewall wall issues, exclude or include files for replication, and configure custom commands.

All replication target types contain settings for Exempt Locations, Additional Locations, and Cleanup Exclusions. Use the table to navigate to settings for each replication type.

Impersonation Settings

Only file replication targets have Impersonation Settings. You can use Impersonation Settings to connect to the universal naming convention (UNC) path with a different user account.

Important: Replicating files to a different server requires administrators to configure a user account with access to the server.

To configure impersonation settings to connect to the UNC path with a different user account:

  1. Expand Advanced Settings in the replication target.
  2. Select the Connect to location with a different account checkbox in the Impersonation Settings area.

    Impersonation Settings

  3. Complete the following fields:
    Field Description
    Connecting User The user with access to the UNC path.
    User Domain The domain name (e.g., "Ingeniux").
    Password The user's password (encrypted).
  4. Click Save in the top right corner of the publishing target view when finished with Advanced Settings.

FTP Options

Only FTP, FTP/SSL, and SSH FTP replication targets have FTP Options. You can use FTP options to minimize NAT device and firewall issues and compress data during transfers.

To configure FTP Options:

  1. Expand Advanced Settings in the replication target.

    FTP Options

  2. Select or clear the following checkboxes in the FTP Options area:
    Field Description
    Implicit Mode on TLS/SSL (only applicable to FTP/SSL)

    If selected, enables implicit FTP negotiation of TLS/SSL and changes the Port value to 990.

    Passive Mode (only applicable to FTP and FTP/SSL)

    If selected, enables a passive FTP connection. You can use the passive connection to avoid issues with NAT devices and firewalls, if the FTP server employs these technologies.

    Compressed Transfer If selected, enables on-the-fly data stream compression. Data is then decompressed on the FTP server.

    Additional Info:

    Warning: Compressed transfer can cause a bottleneck. Use this option with caution. Turning on compressed transfer can speed up file transfer in some cases. For example, some text and image files may transfer more quickly. However, for .jpg, .zip, and large movie files, the process won't become noticeably faster.

    Allow Private Certificates (only applicable to FTP/SSL) If selected, allows you to use SSL certificates from a local certifying authority.
  3. Click Save in the top right corner of the publishing target view when finished with Advanced Settings.

Exempt Locations

All replication targets have Exempt Locations settings. Exempt Locations identify folders excluded from replicating to the deployment location. Administrators can use these settings to exclude files by folders and file extensions.

To exclude a folder or specific files from a folder:

  1. Expand Advanced Settings in the replication target.

    Add Exempt Location

  2. Click the Add a New Exempt Location plus (+) button in the Exempt Locations area. Expand the new exempt location.

    Configure Exempt Location

  3. Enter the absolute path to the folder to exclude from replication in the Exempt Location field.
  4. Choose one of the following steps:
    • Select the Exempt all files in this location checkbox to exclude all content in the exempt location.
    • Clear the Exempt all files in this location checkbox to only exclude specific extensions or descendants in the exempt location. Complete the following fields:
      Field Description
      Exempt Search Patterns Excludes files containing the given string pattern(s). By entering wildcards and file extensions, you can exclude specific file types.

      Additional Info:

      For example, entering *.wmv excludes all Windows Media Video files from replication in the exempt location.

      You can also exclude partial matches. For instance, p*.pdf excludes all PDF files starting with the letter p.

      Note: Use the pipe (|) delimiter to separate values.

      Exemption covers descendant directories checkbox If selected, applies the exclusion pattern to all subfolders of the folder specified in the Exempt Location field.

    Exempt Locations

  5. Click Save in the top right corner of the publishing target view when finished with Advanced Settings.

Additional Locations

All replication targets have Additional Locations settings. Additional locations identify folders to be replicated from outside the pub target folder. The folders exist outside the standard CMS directory structure and are only a supplement to replication.

For instance, if the site stores media files outside the standard media folder, you may want to include the external media folder here.

To include content outside the standard CMS directory in replication:

  1. Expand Advanced Settings in the replication target.

    Add Additional Location

  2. Click the Add an Additional Location plus (+) button in the Additional Locations area. Expand the new additional location.

    Configure Additional Location

  3. Complete the following fields:
    Field Description
    Source Location Enter the hard drive path or UNC path.

    Important: This location must exist before you enter it here. The CMS doesn't generate the path.

    Target Location Enter the absolute path to the folder where the additional files will replicate.

    Additional Info:

    The CMS replicates the source location into the target location. It also excludes the folder, which corresponds to the target location in the publishing target, from replication.

    For example, if the source location is c:\media and the target location is /media/, the CMS doesn't replicate media from the publishing target. The CMS replicates c:\media into a new target location called media. No file merging occurs in the process.

  4. Click Save in the top right corner of the publishing target view when finished with Advanced Settings.

Cleanup Exclusions

All replication targets have Cleanup Exclusions settings. During full publishes, replication cleanup deletes all content from the replication target before replicating published content. Cleanup exclusions identify items to exclude from deletion. Commonly excluded files include Web.config and favicon.ico.

Important: Normally, these excluded items exist outside the publishing target folder. Replication overwrites all content, which includes items omitted from cleanup, in the publishing target folder.

To exclude content from cleanup in a replication target:

  1. Expand Advanced Settings in the replication target.

    Add Cleanup Exclusion

  2. Click the Configure Cleanup Exclusion plus (+) button in the Cleanup Exclusions area. Expand the new cleanup exclusion.

    Add Cleanup Exclusion

  3. Enter the absolute path to the file or folder to exclude from replication cleanup in the Location to Exclude field.

    Additional Info:

    Begin excluded files with a forward slash (e.g., /favicon.ico).

    Begin and end excluded folders with a forward slash (e.g., /folder/).

  4. Choose one of the following steps:

    Warning: The CMS automatically excludes any folder that contains excluded items from replication cleanup. Conversely, replication cleanup removes any folder that contains no excluded items and isn't under a folder that excludes all descendants.

    • Select the Exclude all files in this location from cleaning up. checkbox to exclude all content from replication cleanup in the specified location.
    • Clear the Exclude all files in this location from cleaning up. checkbox to only exclude specific search patterns or descendants in the specified location. Complete the following fields:
      Field Description
      Exclude files search patterns Excludes items that fit the search patterns from replication cleanup (i.e., cleanup won't delete the items).

      Additional Info:

      You can use wildcards to create search patterns. For example, k*.* excludes any file starting with the letter k.

      Note: Use the pipe (|) delimiter to separate values.

      Exclusion covers descendant directories checkbox If selected, excludes all subfolders of the folder specified in the Location to Exclude field from replication cleanup.

      Warning: If cleared, cleanup deletes all descendant folders.

     

    Exclude Search Patterns

     

  5. Click Save in the top right corner of the publishing target view when finished with Advanced Settings.

Custom Commands

All replication targets have Custom Commands except for Amazon AWS S3 and Azure Storage replication targets. System administrators can use custom commands to customize the replication process. For example, administrators can use a custom command to send an email pertaining to the replication process.

Custom commands can use any file type executable under Windows Shell (for example, .exe). In most cases, custom commands point to batch files. Enabling this setting opens additional configuration options.

In standard CMS installations, the application pool runs under the Network Service account on the CMS server. As such, executables and scripts configured to run as before- or after-replication commands must be granted access for the Network Service account to execute them. A common scenario for this requirement involves writing a batch script and saving the script in a new folder within the [Drive]:\igxsites folder (e.g., C:\igxsites\scripts\myscript.bat). If the location has the appropriate rights to the Network Service account, system administrators can call scripts from the CMS site's replication custom commands.

System administrators can use the following scenario steps as a general outline for creating test scripts to run as a pre- or post-replication commands. See Publishing Prerequisites: Advanced Settings for details to create a basic test script.

To add a custom command that to runs a basic test script as a pre- or post-replication command:

  1. Expand Advanced Settings in the replication target.
  2. Select the Use Custom Commands checkbox in the Custom Commands area.

    Use Custom Commands

  3. Complete the following fields:

    To follow the scenario outlined in Publishing Prerequisites, add the absolute path to your script (e.g., C:\igxsites\scripts\test.bat) to one of the Custom Command fields.

    Note: For the purposes of this test, it does not matter if the script executes before or after replication.

    Field Description
    Custom command to execute before replication Filepath to the custom command (i.e., script/executable file) that executes prior to performing replication.

    Important This field only accepts the filepath and does not support passing parameters at this time.

    Timeout Time to wait (in seconds) prior to the before-replication command times out. Some replication tasks take a while. If no response initiates after this specified timeout period, the command process terminates.
    Custom command to execute after replication Filepath to the custom command (i.e., script/executable file) that executes post performing replication.

    Important This field only accepts the filepath and does not support passing parameters at this time.

    Timeout Time to wait (in seconds) prior to the after-replication command times out. Some replication tasks take a while. If no response initiates after this specified timeout period, the command process terminates.
  4. Click Save in the top right corner of the publishing target view when finished with Advanced Settings.

    Additional Info:

    You can run a full publish with replication configured to test the custom command. If you run a full publish, ensure that ReplicationCommands.txt contains current date and time values in the Publishing Monitor logs to verify that the script executed properly.