No You Don’t! I will explain why in a moment… and why you might want to. Sitecore 9.1 includes two new roles supporting Cortex, Sitecore’s Artificial Intelligence Engine focused to Machine Learning. These are the Cortex Processing and Cortex Reporting Roles. Better known as the Sitecore Cortex Processing Engine and Sitecore Cortex Reporting Foundation. Sitecore …
Sitecore Installation Framework 2.1.0 has been released. This version is required if you want to deploy Sitecore 9.1 Update 1.
You can obtain this version at https://sitecore.myget.org/feed/sc-powershell/package/nuget/SitecoreInstallFramework/2.1.0
If you are using PowerShell to get the package you would use a call akin to the following. Note, its a good practice to still download Sitecore Fundamentals for standard operations:
Register-PSRepository -Name sc-powershell -SourceLocation https://sitecore.myget.org/F/sc-powershell/api/v2
# Install Sitecore Fundamentals (Required for Standard Operations)
Install-Module -Name "SitecoreFundamentals" -RequiredVersion "1.1.0" -Repository "sc-powershell" -Force
# Install Sitecore Install Framework
Install-Module -Name "SitecoreInstallFramework" -RequiredVersion "2.1.0" -Repository "sc-powershell" -ForceUsually the Sitecore Reporting database needs to be rebuilt for various reasons (corruption, upgraded Sitecore version, missing Experience Analytics data, etc. ) as it does not contain correct data. How you prepare for the rebuild, what happens during rebuild, and afterwards matter. Prepare for a Reporting Database Rebuild Before you click the button to start …
If you use the Prerequisites.json for your Sitecore 9.1 Deployment, be forewarned that this file is intended for a Single Server 9.1 XP1 deployment and not a scaled build (ex. XP1 on separate servers). What’s Missing? If you have a scaled Sitecore 9.1 deployment, you need to execute WebDeploy to communicate and deploy databases to …
A best practice for Production environments is to encrypt your connectionStrings to protect data in case the web.config file is accessed “without authorization”. My colleague Grant Killian wrote an excellent article in 2017 on the topic of encryption, the Microsoft ASP.NET IIS Registration Tool (aspnet_regiis.exe) is the focus in the updated Security Hardening guidelines of …
For those excited to run a Sitecore 9.1 SIF Distributed Installation, beyond what was detailed in the “Sitecore 9.1 SIF: Distributed Installation 101… and 1 Gotcha” and “WinRM over HTTPS for a Sitecore 9.1 SIF Distributed Installation” articles, there is another key aspect to consider… and its a big one. Sitecore 9.1 SIF Distributed Installations …
If you want to perform a Sitecore 9.1 SIF Distributed Installation you will need to ensure that WinRM operates over HTTPS. This is because Sitecore 9.1 contains SSL based endpoints (ex. Solr, Sitecore Roles, etc.). This can be achieved via the following steps: Ensure that Port 5986 is open on your network and in between …
If you plan on leveraging Sitecore 9.1 SIF to perform a distributed installation, there are few keys things to consider. What is a Distributed SIF Installation In a Distributed SIF Installation, which is a feature available starting with Sitecore 9.1, you can select the desired implementation level such as XM1 or XP1 and deploy “all …
Horizontal scaling of xConnect, behind Load Balancers, is an approved architecture in Sitecore 9. Beyond the details stated in the “Multiple XP Service Instances” section of Sitecore’s documentation (https://doc.sitecore.com/developers/90/platform-administration-and-architecture/en/scale-horizontally.html) there are few key steps to implement this capability. Horizontal xConnect Scaling Steps As xConnect roles are essentially RESTful endpoints, they are prime targets for load …
Sitecore 9.1 expands on the re-architecture of Sitecore achieved with Version 9.0… adding several new features from identity management to machine learning (AI). Looking beyond Sitecore 9.1, the acquisition of Stylelabs is at the forefront bringing Digital Asset Management (DAM) capabilities to the platform as an plugin first (announced January 9, 2019) with an eventual …