Scaling and configuring Content Delivery

Current version: 9.0

Content Delivery (CD) roles delivers your content to your visitors. You can configure multiple CD instances to meet your scaling requirements.

Installation

Use the Sitecore Installation Framework (SIF) or the Sitecore Azure Toolkit (SAT) to install the Content Delivery (CD) role. Refer to the installation guide for your version of the platform for more information.

Scaling the Content Delivery role

The following table describes your options for scaling the Content Delivery (CD) role:

Scaling option

Supported

Notes

Combined instance

No

The Content Delivery role must not be combined with any other role in production. The CD role can only be combined with other roles in the following circumstances:

  • Combined Content Delivery, Content Management, Processing, Reporting - this topology is known as XP Single.

  • Combined Content Delivery and Content Management in an “Experience Manager only” environment. This assumes that analytics is disabled, and that your topology does not include the Processing and Reporting roles.

Note

In a developer environment, all core roles can be combined into a single instance. This includes Content Management, Content Delivery, xDB Processing, xDB Reporting, and EXM Dispatch. This setup is not recommended in production.

Standalone instance

Yes

  • You can deploy Content Delivery as a standalone role.

High availability and failover

Yes

You can fail over to a passive instance or set up multiple active instances behind a load balancer.

Horizontal scaling for load distribution

Yes

The CD role can be scaled horizontally into a load balanced content delivery cluster or across multiple data center to provide geographic scaling or data center level fail-over.

In a scenario with multiple CD clusters, be aware of the following:

Clustering

Yes

You can set up multiple clusters of Content Delivery servers. Each cluster can have its own Web database. In 9.1 and later, Content Delivery does not require a connection to the Core database.

Note

If you want to use Sitecore's default user management to support extranet users, all Content Delivery instances must connect to a centrally located Security database.

Performance tuning tasks

To improve the performance of your CD role, consider the following performance tuning options:

Security configuration tasks

Redacting contact IP addresses

The CD role stores all incoming contact IP addresses in the InteractionFacets table in the xDB Collection database. You can choose to have the CD role redact these IP addresses by changing the value attribute of the Analytics.RedactIpAddress setting in the <wwwroot>\App_Config\Sitecore\Marketing.Tracking\Sitecore.Analytics.Tracking.config file.

RequestResponse
<configuration>
  <sitecore>
    <settings>
      <setting name="Analytics.RedactIpAddress" value="false" />
    </settings>
  </sitecore>
</configuration>

The following table shows the results of setting the value attribute to either true or false:

Value

Result

false (default)

All incoming contact IP addresses are stored in plain text.

true

All incoming contact IP addresses are redacted, and empty IP addresses (0.0.0.0) are stored instead.

Important

You lose the ability to determine contact IP addresses if you configure this setting to true.

Encrypting contact IP addresses

The CD role stores all incoming contact IP addresses in the xDB Reference Data database. The IP addresses are encrypted by the Sitecore.Analytics.Lookups.IpHashProvider provider using the MD5 algorithm and a random security string (a salt) which you can specify in the <wwwroot>\App_Config\Sitecore\Marketing.Tracking\Sitecore.Analytics.Tracking.config file.

RequestResponse
<configuration>
  <sitecore>
    <geoIpManager defaultProvider="default">
      <providers>
        <add
          name="default"
          salt="<SALT STRING>"
          type="Sitecore.Analytics.Lookups.IpHashProvider, Sitecore.Analytics" />
      </providers>
    </geoIpManager>
  </sitecore>
</configuration>
Important

We recommend that you always enter a salt string of at least six random characters. You must never change the salt string after deployment. If you do, future incoming contact IP addresses are encrypted differently, and you lose data integrity.

Note

Sitecore provides a tool called Hash Stored IPs. You use this tool when you upgrade from a Sitecore version earlier than 8.1, where IP addresses were not hashed.

Default topologies and packages

The following tables list the topologies that include the Content Delivery role and how the role is packaged by default.

Sitecore Installation Framework

The Content Delivery role is available in the following default topologies for the Sitecore Installation Framework:

Topology

Web Deploy Packages

Description

XP Single

Sitecore 9.X.X rev. XXXXXX (OnPrem)_single.scwdp.zip

Content Delivery is bundled with all other Core roles.

Not recommended in a production environment.

XP Scaled

Sitecore 9.X.X rev. XXXXXX (OnPrem)_cd.scwdp.zip

Standalone instance of Content Delivery.

XM Scaled

Sitecore 9.X.X rev. XXXXXX (XM) (OnPrem)_cd.scwdp.zip

Standalone instance of Content Delivery.

Sitecore Azure Toolkit

The Content Delivery role is available in the following default topologies for the Sitecore Azure Toolkit:

Topology

Web Deploy Packages

Description

XP Single

Sitecore 9.X.X rev. XXXXXX (Cloud)_single.scwdp.zip

Content Delivery is bundled with all other Core roles.

Not recommended in a production environment.

XP Scaled

Sitecore 9.X.X rev. XXXXXX (Cloud)_cd.scwdp.zip

Standalone instance of Content Delivery.

XM Scaled

Sitecore 9.X.X rev. 002893 (XM) (Cloud)_cd.scwdp.zip

Standalone instance of Content Delivery.

XM Single

Sitecore 9.2.0 rev. 002893 (XM) (Cloud)_single.scwdp.zip

Content Delivery is bundled with Content Management.

Not recommended in a production environment.

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