Sitecore Azure publish between CA and CD

Question

I am setting up a full PaaS site using the Sitecore Azure 7.2 module.

Its mostly working, I have deployed a simplistic content authoring (CA) server and a separate deployment for the content delivery (CD) server.

I have a single instance for the CA server, and 2 instances for the CD servers to start with.

My problem is that the module seems to setup the CA server to publish to its own Web database and NOT the CD databases.

I can see 2 publishing targets from within the Sitecore instance running the Sitecore Azure module, but this is actually useless as far as content authoring and publishing goes.

Have I set something up incorrectly, or perhaps I am missing something, but how is one supposed to deploy a CA server so that it has a new publish target set to the Web DB of all CD servers?

EDIT

I have tried to re-deploy my site and I can see from the logs that the Sitecore Azure module seems to try to setup a remote publishing target on the editing farm, but it never seems to show up. I have enabled remote desktop on the editing instance, and I can see that the web database is actually the editing Web database, and not the CD Web database.

EDIT 2 (getting warmer)

I have found that the remote publishing targets 'should' be appearing, and I looked into the logs on the CA server to find this:

ERROR Error while instantiating agent. Definition: <agent type="Sitecore.Azure.Managers.PublishTargetRemoteManager, Sitecore.Azure" method="Synchronize" interval="00:05:00" />
Exception: System.Exception
Message: Could not resolve type name: Sitecore.Azure.Managers.PublishTargetRemoteManager, Sitecore.Azure (method: Sitecore.Configuration.Factory.CreateType(XmlNode configNode, String[] parameters, Boolean assert)).
Source: Sitecore.Configuration.Factory.CreateType(XmlNode configNode, String[] parameters, Boolean assert)
   at Sitecore.Diagnostics.Error.Raise(String error, String method)
   at Sitecore.Configuration.Factory.CreateType(XmlNode configNode, String[] parameters, Boolean assert)
   at Sitecore.Configuration.Factory.CreateFromTypeName(XmlNode configNode, String[] parameters, Boolean assert)
   at Sitecore.Configuration.Factory.CreateObject(XmlNode configNode, String[] parameters, Boolean assert, IFactoryHelper helper)
   at Sitecore.Tasks.Scheduler.ReadAgents()

This agent definition looks like this:

But the DLLs all look to be in the right place, how can I debug this further??

I think that after 5 mins, the remote publishing target will show up, but since it is crashing, it doesnt appear...

Answer 1

In your Azure.ServiceRuntime.config file (on the instance with Azure module on), look for the following line;

<agent type="Sitecore.Azure.Managers.PublishTargetRemoteManager, Sitecore.Azure" method="Synchronize" interval="00:05:00" />

and replace it with this one;

<agent type="Sitecore.Azure.Managers.Publishing.PublishTargetRemoteManager, Sitecore.Azure" method="Synchronize" interval="00:05:00" />

Now perform an 'Upgrade Files' operation.

This should then properly synchronise your publishing targets. Sitecore Support provided the above workaround.

Answer 2

Setting up a shared database between editing and delivery farms is a manual process right now.

Sitecore knowledgebase has very nice articles written on various aspects of sitecore azure, for your specific issue i think this article How to share a database between Farms in Sitecore Azure will help.

It clearly states that the steps are manual.

One more thing, i would like to know if you have configured it as a live mode or publishing mode?

Also the solution suggested by PizzaTheHut worked for me. You can find the file at Website\App_Data\AzureOverrideFiles\App_Config\Include\Azure.ServiceRuntime.config. Edit it and push to your Content Delivery server by Upgrade files from sitecore azure.

Answer 3

A known issue related to your version of Sitecore Azure module should cause the behavior you described.

Please refer to the following article on SDN for more information: https://kb.sitecore.net/articles/744394

Best Wishes, Oleg