EnvironmentName setting in config.json

Question

I noticed that the EnvironmentName settings is always (for each process) set to HabitatMinions. What is the purpose of this setting? (I could not find any official documentation about it)

Shouldn't it e.g. be set to HabitatAuthoring for the Authoring process in order to prevent triggering a minion task?

Answer 1

The EnvironmentName setting is used to identify which environment should be StartedUp on application startup.

The OOTB example wrongly has the HabitatMinions set as EnvironmentName for all roles. If you have this setting for all roles each will start a Minion task, which is bad for performance.

This is registered by Sitecore Support as bug with public reference number 41553.

Answer 2

Update from Sitecore Support this has been fixed in SIF: SIF.Sitecore.Commerce.1.2.14.zip\Modules\DeployCommerceContent\DeployCommerceContent.psm1

...
                # Set the proper environment name
                $pathToJson  = $(Join-Path -Path $PhysicalPath -ChildPath "wwwroot\config.json")
                $originalJson = Get-Content $pathToJson -Raw | ConvertFrom-Json

                $environment = "HabitatShops"
                if ($Name -match "CommerceAuthoring"){
                    $environment = "HabitatAuthoring"
                }elseif ($Name -match "CommerceMinions"){
                    $environment = "HabitatMinions"
                }        

                $originalJson.AppSettings.EnvironmentName = $environment
                $originalJson | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 100 -Compress | set-content $pathToJson
            }