Prepare a Sitecore 9.0-9.1 on-premise environment for Managed Cloud xDB

Current version: 10.0

If you have a self-managed Sitecore 9.0-9.1 environment and have purchased a Sitecore Managed Cloud xDB agreement, then you must prepare, request, and configure your environment.

Use this topic to prepare to configure Sitecore 9.0-9.1 for xDB on Azure, request the Managed Cloud xDB customer set, configure on-premise Sitecore roles, and to turn off CMS-only mode.

Prepare to configure Sitecore 9.0-9.1 for xDB on Azure

Before you configure Sitecore 9.0-9.1 for xDB Cloud, you must:

  • Deploy the XM Sitecore on-premise setup (that is the, Content Management and Content Delivery) according to the Sitecore Experience Platform installation guide.

  • Create and install a Client Authentication Certificate. (Follow the steps in the Sitecore Experience Platform installation guideProduction Environment Setup, Setting up Client Certificates).

  • Decide on a topology that suits you best. Choose either the xDB Single or xDB scaled topology for Azure.

To ensure your Sitecore instance(s) have access to the Client Authentication Certificate:

  1. In the Control panel, click Administrative ToolsCertificate Manager.

  2. Right-click the certificate file, then click: All TasksManage private keys, and then click Add.

  3. In the pop-up dialog box, in the From this location field, select your local computer.

  4. Enter the type object names in the following format:

    • If you are running Sitecore as App Pool: IIS AppPool\<Instance name>

    • If you are running Sitecore as a Network Service: provide read access to Network Service.

  5. On the Security tab, select your group or user name and select the Allow check box for read-access.

Request the Managed Cloud xDB customer set

To request a Managed Cloud xDB customer set, you must:

  1. Register a support ticket through the Sitecore Support portal.

  2. Work through the Request a Managed Cloud Standard environment topic.

Note

If you do not have a valid Sitecore certificate, contact your Sitecore Implementation Partner to register a support ticket for you, or contact your Sitecore representative to access the Sitecore Support portal.

Sitecore Support provides you with the following information, which you must save because you need it when configuring xDB on your Sitecore instances:

  • The Processing service address.

  • The Reporting service URL and settings, including the API key.

  • The XConnect Collection service URL and certificate thumbprint.

  • The XConnect Collection Search URL and certificate thumbprint

  • The XConnect Reference URL and data settings, including the database connection string and certificate thumbprint.

  • The Marketing Automation Operations service URL and certificate thumbprint.

  • The Marketing Automation Reporting service URL and certificate thumbprint.

Configure on-premise Sitecore roles

To configure the on-premise Sitecore roles, you must set up the connection strings and patch config files.

Note

Do not make changes directly to the configuration files. Instead, you must create a patch file that performs the required changes during run time.

The XM Content Management role

  1. Append xDB connections to the ConnectionStrings.config file, for example:

    RequestResponse
    <add name="xconnect.collection" connectionString="https://CollectionSearchURL"/>
    <add name="xconnect.collection.certificate" connectionString="StoreName=My;StoreLocation=LocalMachine;FindType=FindByThumbprint; FindValue=CertificateThumbprint" />
    <add name="xdb.referencedata" connectionString="<XdbRefDataDBConnectionString>"/>
    <add name="xdb.referencedata.client" connectionString="https://XConnectRefDataUrl" />
    <add name="xdb.referencedata.client.certificate" connectionString="StoreName=My;StoreLocation=LocalMachine;FindType=FindByThumbprint; FindValue= CertificateThumbprint" />
    <add name="reporting.apikey" connectionString="XdbReportingAPIKey" />
    <add name="reporting" connectionString="<XdbReportingDBConnectionString>" />
    <add name="xdb.marketingautomation.reporting.client" connectionString="https://XConnectAutomationReporting"/>
    <add name="xdb.marketingautomation.reporting.client.certificate" connectionString="StoreName=My;StoreLocation=LocalMachine;FindType=FindByThumbprint; FindValue= CertificateThumbprint" />
    <add name="xdb.marketingautomation.operations.client" connectionString="https://XConnectAutomationOperations" />
    <add name="xdb.marketingautomation.operations.client.certificate" connectionString="StoreName=My;StoreLocation=LocalMachine;FindType=FindByThumbprint; FindValue=CertificateThumbprint " />
  2. To set up a connection to the Processing and Reporting servers, open the \App_Config\Sitecore\Marketing.xDB\Sitecore.Xdb.Remote.Client.config file, and set the serviceUrl parameter for the Reporting and Processing nodes to point to the URLs of the Reporting and Processing services that are deployed as a part of xDB respectively.

The XM Content Delivery role

  1. Append the xDB connections to the ConnectionStrings.config file, for example:

    RequestResponse
    <add name="xconnect.collection" connectionString="https://XConnectCollection" />
    <add name="xconnect.collection.certificate" connectionString="StoreName=My;StoreLocation=LocalMachine;FindType=FindByThumbprint; FindValue=CertificateThumbprint" />
    <add name="xdb.referencedata.client" connectionString="https://XConnectRefDataUrl" />
    <add name="xdb.referencedata.client.certificate" connectionString="StoreName=My;StoreLocation=LocalMachine;FindType=FindByThumbprint; FindValue= CertificateThumbprint" />
    <add name="xdb.marketingautomation.reporting.client" connectionString="https://XConnectAutomationReporting"/>
    <add name="xdb.marketingautomation.reporting.client.certificate" connectionString="StoreName=My;StoreLocation=LocalMachine;FindType=FindByThumbprint; FindValue= CertificateThumbprint" />
    <add name="xdb.marketingautomation.operations.client" connectionString="https://XConnectAutomationOperations" />
    <add name="xdb.marketingautomation.operations.client.certificate" connectionString="StoreName=My;StoreLocation=LocalMachine;FindType=FindByThumbprint; FindValue=CertificateThumbprint " />
    Note

    The Reporting API Key has a unique value, for example, a GUID, that is used for authentication when communicating from the Content Management role to the Reporting Web App. This is known as a Certificate Thumbprint value. You must use the same value for xDB deployment and the Content Management connection string.

Turn off CMS-only mode

To turn off CMS-only mode for both the Content Management and Content Delivery roles:

  1. Open the \App_Config\Sitecore\Marketing.xDB\Sitecore.Xdb.config file and set the Xdb.Enabledand Xdb.Tracking.Enabled settings to "true". For example:

    RequestResponse
    <setting name="Xdb.Enabled" value="true" />      
    <setting name="Xdb.Tracking.Enabled" value="true" />

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