How to deploy Sitecore to a new deployment slot on an existing environment?

Question

I have DTAP environments up and running for this client I'm working for and want to improve the deployment of releases by reducing the downtime / first loadtime.

I have read up on blue/green deployments using Azure deployment slots and application warm up before swapping, but am left with a question about how I should approach installing Sitecore 9.0.2 to a new deployment slot.

Do I just create an ARM template for only deploying Sitecore to the deployment slot? Is this even a possibility?

I would greatly appreciate some pointers into the right direction on this.

My reading sources:

• http://onelittlespark.bartverdonck.be/part-5-deployment-slots/
• https://www.robhabraken.nl/index.php/2740/blue-green-sitecore-deployments-on-azure/
• https://www.robhabraken.nl/index.php/2929/hot-swappin/

Answer 1

There are a few approaches. At our company we have an ARM template just to create the staging slot (one time) and we use azure app service deploy tasks to deploy the web deployment packages to the staging slot. Afterwards, the swap can be executed. ALL is configured in Azure DevOps pipelines.

More info can be found here: https://blog.baslijten.com/how-to-deploy-sitecore-web-deploy-packages-using-the-vsts-azure-app-service-task/