Installing SPE to managed cloud

Question

We are upgrading to 10.2 and are using Sitecore Managed cloud (aks) as our production host.

We would like to use the SPE module and have got this working fine locally in docker, however in aks our setup is slightly different. Instead of using a containerized version of SQL Server we are using azure SQL. Part of the SPE install creates a new role and account in the core database. This works fine locally as our SQL is containerized but we are confused as to how we can get this SQL update applied to our core database hosted in azure SQL.

Has anyone managed to install SPE into aks when the core DB is hosted in azure SQL?

Answer 1

I assume you already found how to add SPE to the images - that part is documented (https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/102/developer-tools/add-sitecore-modules.html) and you mentioned it is working locally.

If your sql is not in a container, you don't have a sql-init setup so that is no option. I think what should be possible is:

1. install SPE with the Sitecore package in your running CM environment once to have it create the items in the database
2. make sure your cm container has the necessary files (what should be the case as you have that locally)

Answer 2

To add the SPE module, you must create specific Docker images and push them to the MCC Azure Container Registry (ACR) i.e {infrastructureid}acr and then change them in the Application repository. You will need to follow below steps:

1. Prepare these below docker images in your local machine, Refer to the Add Sitecore modules to see how to add SPE module.

• cm-spe
• cd-spe
• mssql-init-spe

2. Push all these images to the pre-provisioned ACR: {infrastructure_id}acr
3. Now you can add the SPE-specific naming to the Application repository. To change the images in the Application repository:
   • Navigate to the Application repository config/docker-images and edit docker-images.json as follows:

{
  "sitecore":  {
                   "cm":  "infraidacr.azurecr.io/cm-spe:tag",
                   "cd":  "infraidacr.azurecr.io/cd-spe:tag",
                   "id":  "infraidacr.azurecr.io/docker-id:tag",
                   "Mssql_init_spe":  "infraidacr.azurecr.io/mssql-init-spe:tag"
               },
}

• Create and complete a pull request. Because the pull request is completed into the main branch, the Application pipeline is triggered automatically and all changes are deployed to your environment.