Static content deployment options to reduce deployment downtime on Cloud

This article lists the Static Content Deployment (SCD) options that help to speed up the deployment process and decrease the maintenance downtime on Magento Commerce (Cloud).

ECE-Tools are scripts and commands used to automatically perform (and configure) the build and deploy actions of the codebase in your Magento Commerce (Cloud) environments.

Prerequisite - upgrade ECE-Tools to latest version

We highly recommend that you upgrade to the latest ECE-Tools version on a regular basis: every version brings the new features that allow you to deploy Magento Cloud faster and with less downtime.

• ECE-Tools 2002.0.10 or later
• Starting from version 2002.0.9, ECE-Tools support all Magento Commerce versions used on Cloud: from 2.1.4 to the latest one.

Two of the SCD options, recommended in this article, require ECE-Tools version 2002.0.10.

Upgrade ECE-Tools on Magento Commerce (Cloud) 2.1.x

1. Update the metapackage
2. Upgrade to ece-tools

Upgrade ECE-Tools on Magento Commerce (Cloud) 2.2.x

• Update the metapackage (no other steps required)

Related documentation on DevDocs

• Patch Cloud tools: the ECE-Tools homepage, includes the detailed release notes for every version

Static Content Deployment options for faster deployment

SCD is one of the longest and resource-consuming processes in deploying the store. By default, static content is deployed during the deploy phase, when your site is down—but there are options to improve this.

SCD on build phase is the functionality that moves static content deployment to the build phase, decreasing downtime and moving heavy processes to a separate build server.

Below are the steps that contribute to decreasing the deployment downtime. By enabling all of the configuration options below, you get the best achievable results to keep your site up as long as possible.

1. Move SCD to build phase
   
   Requires Magento Core 2.1.4+
   DevDocs: Configuration management for store settings
   Knowledge Base: Reduce deployment downtime on Magento Cloud with Configuration Management

2. Enable HTML minification on the fly
   
   Requires ECE-Tools 2002.0.10+
   DevDocs: SKIP_HTML_MINIFICATION (section about the environment variable)

3. Enable compact SCD strategy (Magento Commerce (Cloud) 2.2.x only)
   
   Requires ECE-Tools 2002.0.9+
   DevDocs: SCD_STRATEGY (section about the build variable)

4. Enable post_deploy hook (optional)
   
   Requires: ECE-Tools 2002.0.10+; Pro or Starter Architecture (Pro Legacy is not supported)
   DevDocs: Deploy hooks