AEM Content Synchronization

Quite often, we need to synchronize the content from Production environment back to Test/Staging environment or to the development and vice-versa.

And there are more than 1 ways to achieve this.

Below is a small list of schemes one could follow to perform AEM content synchronization. The table also highlights the pros and cons of each of the schemes which may help you make your use-case specific decisions properly.

Sync. Option	Description	Pros	Cons
Backup and restore – Offline	1. File system snapshot of storage 2. Restore (or synchronization) is similar to file system restore operation but on the different AEM server	1. Can be both manual and automated	1. Requires AEM downtime 2. Typical usage is on the same server
Backup and restore – Online	1. Backup creates an image (or snapshot) of the repository 2. Systems backup agent should take care to actually transfer this image to a dedicated backup system 3. Restore backup using command line scripts	1. The backup includes content, version history, configuration, software, hotfixes, custom applications, log files, search indexes 2. Requires no downtime 3. Backups can be automated using the wget or curl HTTP clients 4. Restores can also be automated	1. Slower than Offline backup and restore 2. Typical usage is on the same server
Package Backup/ Build/ Install (Restore)	1. Uses Content Package format to back up and restore content 2. Typical method to transfer content between instances	1. Authors can perform package build and installation steps	1. AEM version history is lost 2. Typical when transfer data is small 3. Extremely space inefficient (.zip)
vlt rcp	1. Mechanism -> WebDAV using XML, doing an HTTP call	1. VLT is an Adobe product maintained by Adobe 2. Both manual and automatted 3. Revision history is maintained	1. HTTP req/res on every node and hence latency on the network hurts performance enormously
recap	1. Exactly a “vlt rcp” tool but with a browser interface	same as above	same as above
Grabbit	1. Like “vlt rcp” with better data streaming algorithm resulting in 2 to 10 times faster sync. with respect to vlt	1. Less CPU/ Memory demand 2. Continuous stream to avoid latency issues	Requires installed Protocol Buffers Compile 1. Multiple dependencies on different open projects 2. Not supported by Adobe

References:

https://docs.adobe.com/docs/en/aem/6-1/administer/content/backup-and-restore.html
https://docs.adobe.com/docs/en/aem/6-1/administer/content/package-manager.html
https://docs.adobe.com/docs/en/aem/6-1/develop/dev-tools/ht-vlttool.html
http://adamcin.net/net.adamcin.recap/https://github.com/TWCable/grabbit

Adobe announces Livefyre acquisition

Adobe on 03 May 2016 announced another acquisition to strengthen its industry leading portfolio of Marketing Cloud solutions with Livefyre, the service popularly known for its online commenting system

+

According to Adobe’s press release –

The Livefyre platform gives brands and publishers instant access to billions of pieces of user generated content that can be streamed in real-time right to their sites, ads, emails, TV, digital billboards, and apps

A natural integration of Livefyre with Adobe Experience Manager would mean businesses will be able to collect, curate and publish user generated content from multiple social networks into digital experiences across their marketing channels.

Moreover, Livefyre will be integrated across Adobe Marketing Cloud to make user generated content available across all eight Adobe’s digital marketing solutions.

You can read the whole press release at http://www.adobe.com/news-room/pressreleases/201605/050316AdobeAcquiresLivefyre.html