This page covers the recommended approach to deploy a project from a source Graphic Hub to an unsynchronized and unstructured target Graphic Hub.

The real-time deploy and standard deploy mode tasks cannot be used if the data self-contained in a project cannot be organized with matching UUIDs between Graphic Hubs:

  • With no folder links outside of the project.

  • With no references outside of the project.

  • On source and one or more unsynchronized target Graphic Hubs.

  • With matching UUIDs of the source and target folder and names on folders with the same UUID.

These deploy modes pause due to detected conflicts (links outside the target, conflicting UUIDs and names).

The basic idea is to simulate a manual deploy operation in GH Manager with the Deploy Agent and a scheduled DDC task to overcome this challenge.

Configure the Deploy Agent

The Deploy Agent needs to be setup to use the Direct Deploy Copy Mode (DDC) mode.

Note: This is a global setting and affects all tasks running on this Deploy Agent.

  • Install a GH Manager on the machine where the Deploy Agent is running.

  • Start GH Manager.

  • Open the Tools > Administer tasks > Running deploy tasks to show the Running deploy tasks tab.

  • Right click on the local Deploy Agent > Properties of deploy agent to open the configuration settings of the Deploy Agent.

  • Under Expert settings set Use original DDC behavior for non real-time tasks.

  • For more details see Deploy Agent Properties.

Prepare the Source Graphic Hub

To avoid renaming during deployment:

  • Start GH Manager 5.9.3 or newer.

  • Log in to the source Graphic Hub.

  • Open Server > Check… to open the Check server dialog.

  • Ensure that Check file integrity and Check folders are ticked to validate file link names in project/folders (more checks can be seletced).

  • Press Check.

  • Conflicting folder links are shown in the Files tab as result and can be reviewed and fixed.

  • Fixing can be done manually by renaming one by one manually (right click and open in explorer for renaming) or by using an automatic approach by pressing Fix all , which appends (N) to the link name, where N is an increasing number to make the link name unique in the project/folder for this file type.

    • This ensures that the UUID returned by a path resolution by default is not reported as conflicted and the fix functionality ensures this link is not changed to avoid that suddenly a different file is returned when resolving the UUID of a path.

  • When all links are unique in a project/folder there is no risk anymore that the names change during deployment.

Prepare the Destination/Target Graphic Hub

To avoid conflicts of diverging UUIDs and folder structure issues:

  • Start GH Manager.

  • Log in to the destination/target Graphic Hub.

  • Rename the destination project/folder with the name of the source project/folder to have a different name as on the source Graphic Hub (for example, by appending _BACKUP to the name).

    • This ensures that there are no structural conflicts and that there are no files with differing UUIDs and the same name.

Example: Project SHOW should be renamed on the destination/target Graphic Hub to SHOW_BACKUP prior to deployment.

Note: Files with the same destination UUID on the source are overwritten with the content of the source on deployment. To preserve manual changes done to content on destination, that has a matching files on the source, they must be contributed back to the source Graphic Hub. Graphic Hub Manager server differences view can be utilized to find those differences.

Setup a Deploy Task

To copy over the desired project from source to destination/target Graphic Hub:

  • Start GH Manager.

  • Log in to the source and all desired destination Graphic Hubs.

  • Right click on the project (for example, SHOW project > Create Deploy task...).

  • Options:

    • Destination GH selection.

    • Rebuild original structure.

    • Overwrite creation date (makes diffing easier).

    • Overwrite modification date (makes diffing easier).

    • Deploy all files to the first server, then to the second, and so on.

  • Schedule:

    • Select deploy agent: Local one with DDC enabled on source Graphic Hub (it is recommended that the Deploy Agent is local to the source GH).

    • Set a name.

    • Mode: Recurring forever.

    • Each: specify in which interval this should run (for example, every hour or once a day).

Notable Points with This Approach

  • When the task starts, it does the same operation as if a user manually selects the project (for example, SHOW) and deploys it with right click and > Deploy.

  • This overwrites files on the destination GH and makes the same as the file on the source GH.

  • Only files UUIDs are matched and made equal.

  • Project/Folder UUIDs differ between source and destination, only the project/folder name is kept equal for folder links.

  • Nothing is deleted on the destination GHs. If files are removed on the source, they are not removed on the destination.

  • Files may have different original file names between source and destination, as the destination can have more folder links than the source. This is not really an issue as the folder links are made equal but show as difference when doing a Server difference with GH Manager.

  • The synchronization is not real-time and is triggered at the configured interval. 

For completeness the differences between standard mode and DDC mode:

  • Standard Mode: Creates only folders on the destination server which contain files that have to be copied by the task. This mode ensures that the folders on the source and destination servers have the same UUID if possible (folders outside of the original structure which contain references and/or folder links of files inside the structure have new UUIDs assigned if their original UUIDs are present on the destination server). If a folder is already existing with differing UUID the task may pause. 

  • Direct Deploy Copy Mode: Also creates only folders on the destination server which contain files that have to be copied by the task. This mode ignores the UUID of folders and makes sure that all folders have the correct name in the structure

    • This option is set globally for the Deploy Agent and affects all tasks. The major difference to the normal mode is that the “deploy under target folder” restriction of having no folder on source and destination that has the same UUID but an incompatible path does not apply. If the Deploy Agent discovers a folder with the same UUID but different path, a new folder with a new UUID is created in the expected path. This feature has a significant impact on the performance of the Deploy Agent, and should be chosen wisely as it affects all non-real-time tasks that are executed by the agent