Install a Sitecore XP pre-release using SIF

Current version: 10.1

This topic describes how to install an XP pre-release using the Sitecore Installation Framework (SIF). It's also possible to install a pre-release using Docker. Sitecore distributes pre-releases of the next update release to provide customers with fixes for their hotfix requests. The pre-releases are cumulative, and each pre-release contains all the changes that were implemented in the earlier pre-releases in that series. These pre-releases are then all rolled into the next update release, for example, Sitecore XP 10.1 Update 2.

Every pre-release is based on the latest Sitecore XP release. For example, if a customer is on Sitecore XP 10.1.0 and we have already released Sitecore XP 10.1.1, when the customer requests a hotfix, it is delivered in a pre-release for Sitecore XP 10.1.2. To get this hotfix, the customer must update to Sitecore XP 10.1.1 and then apply the Sitecore XP 10.1.2 pre-release that contains the hotfix.

The pre-releases are available on request from Sitecore Customer Support.

You can use the Sitecore Installation Framework (SIF) to deploy Web Deployment Packages provided for the pre-releases (delta WDPs). SIF is an extensible PowerShell module that supports local and remote installations of Sitecore. To Download SIF:

  1. Go to the Downloads Center and find your Sitecore version.

  2. Scroll down to the Download options section, and click on the link for Sitecore Installation Framework.

    Note

    Information about how to use SIF is available in the Release information section.

To deploy the delta WDPs, you need to use the same SIF templates that you used to deploy your Sitecore XP solution. If you no longer have these, you need to download them again and populate them with parameters correspondent to your environment. To download the templates:

  1. Go to the Downloads Center and find your Sitecore version.

  2. Scroll down to the Download options for On Premises deployment section.

  3. Find the relevant package for your environment and click on the link to download it.

Note

The delta WDP package must only be installed on top of an existing Sitecore solution.

Deploy a pre-release locally

To deploy a pre-release locally with the <Your topology>-SingleDeveloper.json file:

  1. Download the pre-release and store the WDPs in the same folder as your SIF templates.

  2. Edit the <Your topology>-SingleDeveloper.json file and set the Update parameter to true.

  3. Launch PowerShell as an administrator and in the folder that contains your configuration run the following cmdlet:

    RequestResponse
    Install-SitecoreConfiguration -Path .\<Your topology>-SingleDeveloper.json

To deploy a pre-release locally with the <Your topology>-SingleDeveloper.ps1 deployment script:

  1. Download the pre-release and store the WDPs in the same folder as your SIF templates and the deployment script.

  2. Edit the <Your topology>-SingleDeveloper.ps1 deployment script and set the Update parameter to true.

  3. Launch PowerShell as an administrator and in the folder that contains your configuration run the following cmdlet:

    RequestResponse
    .\<Your topology>-SingleDeveloper.ps1

Deploy a pre-release remotely

To deploy the WDPs remotely with the <Your topology>-Distributed.json file:

  1. Download the pre-release and store the WDPs in the same folder as your SIF templates.

  2. Edit the <Your topology>-Distributed.json file and set the Update parameter to true.

  3. Launch PowerShell as an administrator and in the folder that contains your configuration run the following cmdlet:

    RequestResponse
    Install-SitecoreConfiguration -Path .\<Your topology>-Distributed.json

To deploy the WDPs remotely with the Install-<Your topology>-Distributed.ps1 deployment script:

  1. Download the pre-release and store the WDPs in the same folder as your SIF templates and the deployment script.

  2. Edit the Install-<Your topology>-Distributed.ps1 deployment script and set the Update parameter to true.

  3. Launch PowerShell as an administrator and in the folder that contains your configuration run the following cmdlet:

    RequestResponse
    .\Install-<Your topology>-Distributed.ps1

Deploy a Sitecore XP pre-release WDP for an individual server role

You can use individual templates to deploy the WDPs for each server role separately. You can deploy the WDPs from the pre-release to deploy all the server roles.

To deploy the WDPs to the CM server role:

  1. Edit the template for the CM role - Sitecore-xp1-cm.json, and set the Update parameter to true.

  2. Open PowerShell as an administrator and in the folder that contains your configuration run the following cmdlet:

    RequestResponse
    Install-SitecoreConfiguration -Path .\Sitecore-<Your topology>-cm.json

Troubleshooting WDP deployment

During the installation of delta WDP packages, the app pool may fail to stop and show one of these two errors:

RequestResponse
 Install-SitecoreConfiguration : App Pool 'xxx' has stuck in Stopping state.
RequestResponse
Install-SitecoreConfiguration : App Pool 'xxx' can't be stopped within given timeout of 60 seconds.

To correct this problem, you can do one of the following:

  • Stop the app pool manually.

  • Run the process installation delta WDPs again.

Do you have some feedback for us?

If you have suggestions for improving this article,