1 Introduction

This concept describes how the synchronization between different environments works. A nearly identical data set on different environments allows for example to run tests under (nearly) production conditions using a lower tier test environment. The sync process can also help to restore the database or sync it from another environment.

After the sync, a pseudonymization process ensures that no sensitive personalized data is stored in local environments.

1.1 References

• Overview - Data Replication
• Intershop Commerce Management Online Help | Data Replication

1.2 Glossary

2 Synchronization Process

In contrast to the replication process, which takes place between live and edit ICM clusters, the synchronization process can take place between the edit or live cluster of two environments, for example from PRD edit cluster to UAT or INT edit cluster. 

The sync always occurs from a "higher" to a "lower" environment. 

Running the sync process is done manually, as this has to be agreed between all parties. An automatic execution (e.g. 1x per week) is also conceivable, but must be individually coordinated for each project.

The synchronization consists of two processes:

• Shared File System Synchronization
  This allows to synchronize the shared file systems of each environment. During this process, shared file system data or files like images and general assets are copied from the PRD file system to the UAT file system. This is considered optional since for example missing images do not break general functionality or change semantic correctness of implemented or newly introduced features.
  However, it may still be useful for testing, as the duration of data replication from EDIT to LIVE may give an indication of behavior and duration of replication for the PRD environment.
  

• Database Synchronization
  This allows to backup and restore the database in the desired environment. The goal is to have the same customer data, products, service configurations etc. on the UAT/INT environment as on the PRD environment.

This can be done by the customer for INT and UAT environments, not for PRD.

3 Configuration

The configuration of the two synchronization processes can be done in Jenkins.

3.1 Shared File System Synchronization

The shared file system synchronization can be done in Jenkins via ICM Shared Filesystem Sync.

Below Build with Parameters, the following parameters are available:

3.2 Database Synchronization

The synchronization of the database can be done in Jenkins using jobs "ICM DB MSSQL Backup" and "ICM DB MSSQL Restore".

3.2.1 Database Backup

The database backup is scheduled to run automatically and regularly on database level, for example to occur every night or during lowest frequented time of day. It can also be triggered manually by clicking Build with Parameters in Jenkins, if available (see above). 

3.2.2 Database Restore

The previously created database backup can be restored in another environment or point-in-time recovery is used to achieve this, see above. For example, a backup from UAT edit database can be restored to INT edit database.

The restoration is done in 5 steps:

1. Monitoring downtime
   This will shut down the monitoring system, so there are no alerts regarding the following shutdown of the application server nodes. 
2. Stop application server nodes
3. GIT project checkout
   A git configuration project including scripts that are used for restoring is checked out. 
4. MSSQL database Restore
   The actual restore happens at this point. When restoring from a PRD database, pseudonymization scripts will be run afterwards. This will disguise all sensitive data. 
5. Startup application server nodes

3.2.3 Responsibilities

The operations team takes care of customer data pseudonymization during the synchronization process.

• The development team must inform the operations team about newly introduced customer data containing database tables and related things, so the operations team can change/adopt/extend the pseudonymization process.
• “not-to-pseudonymize” accounts (e.g. for test/QA) and related data needs to be communicated/agreed with the operations team – allowing a set of specific “whitelisted” accounts to still work on UAT after sync from PRD.
• E-mails, logins etc. from real customers must not be available on UAT.

The operations team also takes care of deactivating automatically running jobs/schedules in order to prevent order exports, etc., for example if the back end target is configured incorrectly (see Limitations below).

Furthermore, the development team is responsible for ensuring that PRD configurations, e.g. regarding Paypal account data, are not identical to those on the UAT environment.

3.2.4 Limitations

PRD configuration data (service, backend, targets etc.) are also synchronized with UAT. This potentially allows UAT to communicate with PRD backends and possibly execute actions that are not intended for UAT.

Solution:

• The development team provides a (declarative) configuration set, automatically injected on application server node startup, e.g. via resource files.
• This configuration set must depend on the environment/cluster (there are property files and other ways to determine exactly whether the application server node belongs to a PRD, UAT or INT environment and also whether it is a LIVE or EDIT cluster)
• This would lead to defined service config, resets of testing accounts and related passwords (e.g. for SMC, SLDSystem access) would also be possible if desired.
• Needs be reviewed constantly and maintained if new channels and/or configs are introduced to match intended config for UAT/INT clusters.

4 Frequency

The decision on how often the synchronization is done is determined by the customer. Intershop recommends at least one synchronization at the end of each PRD deployment.