Building a Content Management (CM) server

A Content Management (CM) server shows the master database, so that content authors can create and preview site changes before publishing the content to the web database.

For example, the CM server has the processing, reporting, and indexing roles disabled. These steps assume that a SQL Server instance has already been set up on a separate machine from the CM server.

To set up the CM server, use the following steps:

  1. Create the accounts to be used as app pools. For more information, go to What are the required accounts and groups to create?

  2. Setup a Sitecore site.

  3. Secure Sitecore databases.

  4. Install Commerce Server.

  5. Install and configure SCpbCS in the same way as a single server setup.

  6. If you are creating a Microsoft Dynamics AX solution, install and configure SCpbMD in the same way as a single server setup.

  7. Set up Solr. For more information, go to Setting up Solr.

  8. Configure the Profile System Encryption. For more information, go to Configure the Profile System Encryption. This only applies to SCpbCS.

  9. Build the Content Delivery server. For more information, go to, Building a Content Delivery (CD) server.

  10. Once the CD server has been set up:

    1. Publish all content from the CM Web database to the CD Web database.

    2. Index all content in the CD Web database, or copy the search indexes from the CM to CD environment.

For more information on setting up a Sitecore instance as a CM server, go to Configure a content management server.