Creating a staging server on a migrated environment

You can create a staging server after migrating your WebSphere Commerce environment.

Procedure

  1. Run stagingprop to ensure that all your latest changes are available on the production server.
  2. Back up your staging trigger definition of your custom tables as well as their corresponding records in the following tables: STGMERTAB, STGSITETAB, and STGMRSTTAB.
    If you are not sure about your staging triggers, check the WC_installdir/schema/db_type/wcs.stage.trigger.sql file, where db_type is either db2 or oracle.
  3. Migrate your production server.
  4. Create a WebSphere Commerce instance as a staging server:
    1. Install the same maintenance, including feature pack, as your production server.
    2. Start the WebSphere Commerce Instance Creation wizard.
    3. Complete the pages of the wizard.
    4. On the Staging page of the wizard, ensure that you select Use staging server. If you do not select this check box, the resulting WebSphere Commerce instance is a production WebSphere Commerce instance.
    5. Ensure that caching is not enabled in the Cache page.
    When the instance creation process completes, you have created a staging instance.
  5. Redefine your custom tables in the staging database schema.
  6. Place the backed up records into the STGMERTAB, STGSITETAB, and STGMRSTTAB table, depending on the scope of the table.
  7. Redefine your staging triggers for the custom tables in the wcs.stage.trigger.sql file.
    Note: Do not run the wcs.stage.trigger.sql file or change the wcs.droptrigger.sql file.
  8. Run stagingcopy to synchronize the staging database with the production database.
  9. Modify the wcs.droptrigger.sql file to include all the custom tables after running the stagingcopy utility.
  10. Publish a sample store on the staging server that is the same store type as the store on your production store.
  11. Copy the nondatabase assets such as JSP files, JavaScript files, and image files, from the production server to the staging server. For more information, see the following topics: Copying files to the staging server, and Deploying customized assets.