Advanced Setup: Deployment options

Learn how to use the deployment options available with the version 2 endpoints for CI/CD.

This provides control over the CI/CD deployment process within the isolated instance before your code is pushed to the Cloud environment.

Skip preserving umbraco-cloud.json

The Umbraco Cloud platform controls the umbraco-cloud.json file. It holds a description of the environment relationships used for content deployments. The configuration needed to be able to log in to the backoffice locally with Umbraco ID is also part of this file.

The CI/CD deployment system ensures that the current JSON file in the cloud environment is preserved.

In edge cases, users might need to supply their own umbraco-cloud.json to the system and overwrite the one on the cloud.

Enabling the skipPreserveUmbracoCloudJson option allows users to overwrite the umbraco-cloud.json through CI/CD Flow.

It is not recommended to edit or add values to the umbraco-cloud.json file. Use the appropriate appSettings.*.json file instead, or add secrets through the Secrets Management page in the Cloud Portal. The cloud platform uses umbraco-cloud.json to update environment relationships when adding or removing environments.

Skip version checks

During deployment, the system automatically checks for downgrades of Cloud dependencies. This prevents accidental downgrades of packages that may have been automatically upgraded on Umbraco Cloud.

Enabling the skipVersionCheck option will allow deployments that include downgraded packages.

This option increases risk and is not recommended for normal workflows. Do not skip the version checks unless you understand the package differences and accept the potential consequences.

Skip build and restore steps

The Umbraco CI/CD flow runs the deployment in an isolated instance and performs dotnet restore and dotnet build to catch obvious build issues before deploying to the Cloud.

Enabling the noBuildAndRestore option skips the restore and build steps in that isolated instance, which can shorten deployment time by a few minutes.

Keep in mind that the final Kudu deployment on the Cloud environment will still run restore, build, and publish; those steps cannot be skipped.

Disable schema extraction

When deploying schema changes to environments beyond "left-most", the CI/CD Flow deployment system will automatically run a schema extraction.

Setting runSchemaExtraction to false, will result in the system not automatically running the schema extraction on the environment. You can still run schema extractions manually.

This setting doesn't have any effect on the left-most environment.

How to enable the options

While pipeline scripts follow the same structure, there are a few small details to be aware of.

Azure DevOps Bash

Locate the main entry pipeline file. It will usually be this one: azure-release-pipeline.yaml.

  # Deploy to Umbraco Cloud
  # ####
  # you can edit the variables noBuildAndRestore, skipVersionCheck, skipPreserveUmbracoCloudJson,
  # and runSchemaExtraction
  # use booleans but as strings
  - stage: CloudDeploymentStage
    displayName: Deploy To Cloud
    dependsOn: cloudPrepareArtifact
    condition: in(dependencies.cloudPrepareArtifact.result, 'Succeeded')
    variables:
      artifactId: $[ stageDependencies.cloudPrepareArtifact.PrepareAndUploadArtifact.outputs['uploadArtifact.artifactId'] ]
    jobs: 
      - template: cloud-deployment.yml
        parameters:
          artifactId: $(artifactId)
          skipPreserveUmbracoCloudJson: 'false'
          noBuildAndRestore: 'false'
          skipVersionCheck: 'false'
          runSchemaExtraction: 'true'

The skipPreserveUmbracoCloudJson, noBuildAndRestore and skipVersionCheck options can be enabled by changing the value to 'true'. The runSchemaExtraction can be disabled by changing the value to 'false'.

Azure DevOps PowerShell

GitHub Actions Bash

GitHub Actions PowerShell

Use the latest scripts

The sample scripts are updated to include these extra options. If you need to update, you do not have to update everything; only the following scripts have been updated:

PowerShell files	Bash files
Start-Deployment.ps1	start_deployment.sh

The following pipeline files are also updated. Remember to get the right files from either V2/bash or V2/powershell depending on what you are currently using.

GitHub	Azure DevOps
cloud-deployment.yml	cloud-deployment.yml
main.yml	azure-release-pipeline.yaml
main-more-targets.yml	azure-release-pipeline-more-targets.yaml